M. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE.583 



thirty-six per cent, die of those who have not been vacci- 

 nated. This same proportion was observed in the London 

 Small-pox Hospital from 1836 to 1851, from which it is in- 

 ferred that there has been no change in the malignity of the 

 disease. 



As to the question whether vaccination ever loses its pro- 

 tective power, it is stated, as the result of many observations, 

 that when the operation has been properly performed the im- 

 munity from liability is almost entire, but that it is sometimes 

 difficult to determine the perfection of the preventive, and 

 that revaccination, while doing no harm, may do much good. 

 It is urged also that, in addition to vaccination, every small- 

 pox patient should at once be removed to a hospital, or sub- 

 jected to complete isolation, and that disinfection of clothing 

 and all objects contaminated should be carried on by heating 

 the articles, by free use of carbolic acid and other disinfect- 

 ants, and by destroying the rags, beds of straw or shavings, 

 etc., with which the patients may have come in contact. 12 

 A, March 2,341. 



IMPROVED METHOD OP VACCINATION. 



In view of the great spread of the small-pox at the present 

 day in America and Europe, and the importance of successful 

 vaccination, the suggestion of an English physician, Mr. Ellis, 

 may be of some importance. This gentleman remarks that 

 ordinary vaccination is performed by scraping off the epider- 

 mis and thrusting the vaccine virus into a puncture made by 

 the lancet. A greatly improved method, however, consists in 

 first raising a small blister by a drop of cantharides applied 

 to the skin. This is to be pricked, and the drop of fluid let 

 out, and then a line vaccine point put into this place, and 

 withdrawn after a moment of delay; the epidermis falls back 

 and quite excludes the air, shutting out any germs that may 

 be floating in the atmosphere. This method has been prac- 

 ticed by Mr. Ellis for twenty years, and out of hundreds of 

 cases of vaccination which he has performed he has never 

 had an instance of blood poisoning or abscess, while by the 

 ordinary method the occurrence of secondary abscess is by 

 no means uncommon, and that of pyaemia is often observed. 

 The comparative safety of this method is believed to be due, 

 first, to the exclusion of the air; and, second, to the lesser size 



