THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. 7-9 



stop here. Again, lie says : " In order to ascertain wlietlier the 

 boy was secure from the contagion of the smallpox, he was inocu- 

 lated the 1st of July following with variolous matter immediately 

 taken from a pustule. Several punctures were made in both 

 arms, and the matter was carefully inserted, but no disease 

 followed." 



Some might have called the discovery complete at this point, 

 but Jenner realized that one case is not every case, and that he 

 must repeat the experiment, which he did scores of times, even 

 going so far as to endanger human life in order to establish the 

 truth of his discovery. For he goes on to say (page 41) : " To con- 

 vince myself that the variolous matter made use of was in a perfect 

 state, I [at the same time that he inoculated a patient previously 

 inoculated with cowpox] inoculated a patient with some of it 

 who had never gone through the cowpox, and it produced the 

 smallpox in the usual regular manner." 



Previous to the introduction of vaccination in London the 

 average annual death-rate X)er million from smallpox was (News- 

 holme, table, page 192) : 



l'728-'5'7 4,260 



IVTl-'SO 5,020 



1801-10 2,040 beginning of Jenner's work. 



1872-'82 262 



1885 1,419 



1886 24 



1887 9 



Germany now has the most efficient laws of probably any 

 country for making not only vaccination but repetition at stated 

 intervals obligatory. As a result smallpox is rapidly disappear- 

 ing. In 1888 the deaths from smallpox in the entire empire 

 amounted to one hundred and ten, less than 2"5 per million, and 

 the majority of these occurred on or near the boundaries of other 

 countries. We can easily appreciate the usefulness of this. Still, 

 during this work Jenner was persecuted and abused. 



Jenner's experiments belong to the class of investigations 

 which since 1850 Thiersch has made for cholera. Lister for in- 

 flammation of wounds, Pasteur for rabies, Koch and Pasteur for 

 splenic fever, M. Freire for yellow fever, Koch later for cholera, 

 and has now begun to make for consumption. 



Thiersch's experiments on cholera, which caused the death of 

 fourteen mice and proved that cholera is communicated by swal- 

 lowing particles of cholera discharge, have been an important 

 factor in the sanitary legislation of every civilized country. 



Two of the London water companies experimented with 

 cholera-polluted water upon 500,000 people, causing the death of 

 3,476 human beings in 1853-'54. This is the popular accidental 



