VACCINATION. 



725 



fixed by statute in each State ; if there be no statute 



there can be no usury in a legal sense. 



See Vol. XXIV. Jf t| )ere b e a ] oan ; n contemplation of 



fee 1 i ) tne l )art i es ' no matter how it may 



be disguised, the contract is usurious 

 if it be so in other respects. The bona-fide sale of a 

 note, bond, or other security at a greater discount than 

 would amount to legal interest has been held not to be 

 necessarily a loan, though, if the note was made with 

 a view to evade the law against usury, the transaction 

 would be construed a loan. Both parties must be 

 cognizant of the facts which make the contract 

 usurious. It has been held that a mistake in re- 

 gard to the law will not protect the parties, though 

 a miscalculation will. A mortgagor may, however, 

 agree to pay a tax on the mortgage in addition 

 to the full legal rate of interest. The ordinary com- 

 missions in the course of trade may be charged 

 without making a contract usurious, though not 

 so if they are charged as a means of evading the 

 law. A commission charged in addition to interest for 

 advancing money is usurious. A gratuity given to 

 influence the making of a loan has been considered to 

 be usurious. The reserving of interest on negotiable 

 paper at the time of making the loan does not make 

 the contract usurious, though the borrower is thereby 

 made to pay more than the legal rate. The borrower 

 must be obliged to return the principal together with 

 more than lawful interest. Parties may contract for 

 interest according to the place of the contract or the 

 place of performance. In the absence of such agree- 

 ment the transaction will be governed by the law of 

 the place of the contract. When a dispute about in- 

 terest is taken before a court the burden of proof is 

 on the person pleading usury. 



Usury maybe set up as a defence by the person who 

 has contracted to pay usurious interest, or by his sure- 

 ties. A usurer, however, cannot take advantage of 

 his usury to avoid his contract. 



It is generally provided by the statutes of the Str.tcs 

 that the excess over the legal rate of interest is not 

 recoverable. 



The act of Congress of June 3, 1864, provided with 

 reference to the national banks that they might take 

 interest at the legal rate of the State, Territory, or 

 District where the bank was located, except that in a 

 State where the State banks were "permitted to take a 

 higher rate, the national banks might do the same. 

 If no rate was fixed by the law of the State, Territory, 

 or District, the banks might not exceed 7 per cent. 

 It was further provided that the penalty for taking a 

 greater amount of interest than that allowed by the 

 act should be deemed a forfeiture of the entire interest 

 carried by the note, bill, or other evidence of debt ; 

 also that where such interest had been paid, twice the 

 amount thereof might be recovered back by the per- 

 son who 'had paid it, provided the action was begun 

 within two years. Under this act it has been held 

 that as Congress is the sole judge of the necessity for 

 national banks, and has created them, the States can- 

 not exercise control over them or in anywise affect 

 their operation, except so far as Congress may permit ; 

 consequently the penalty prescribed by the Act of 

 1864 tor the exaction of usurious interest is superior 

 to and exclusive of any State penalty. It has also 

 been held that a national bank is not justified in 

 charging usurious interest because the statute of the 

 State permits specified banks to do so. (T. K.) 



UTAH. See MORMONS. 



UTILITARIANISM. See CONSCIENCE. 



V. 



VACCINATION. This operation consists in the 

 inoculation of the human subject with 

 lyuiph of cow-pox or kine-pox (vac- 



' * * 



__ T 



oX < oa 



I ' . - ' ' \'t <} \ 1' 1 * 1 f* 



Am Rep ) ctnin), tor the special purpose of pre- 



venting un attack of sniall-pox (variola), 

 and it is believed to be almost as sure protection against 

 that loathsome disease, when properly performed with 

 pure virus, as is small-pox itself a protection against a 

 second attack. Furthermore, it modifies the severity 

 of small-pox and greatly reduces the death-rate from 

 that disease in its modified form, variolnid. To Ed- 

 ward Jenncr, an obscure apprentice and country physi- 

 cian at Sodbury, near Bristol, Eng., is due the credit 

 of discovering the prophylactic properties of vaccinia, 

 his attention being first called to the immunity from 

 small-pox of persons connected with the care or milk- 

 ing of cows, and whose hands became sore from com- 

 ing in contact with the udders and teats of cattle suf- 

 fering with a peculiar eruption about those parts. He 

 first published to the world his great discovery in 1798, 

 after a series of observations and experiments extend- 

 ing over a period of twenty years, and although bit- 

 terly opposed at first, his name has become immortal 

 among all civilized nations as one of the greatest bene- 

 factors of the race. 



The phenomena resulting from vaccination are : A 

 slight papular elevation is observed at the point of in- 

 oculation (usually about midway between the elbow and 

 shoulder) on the evening of the second or morning of 

 the third day after the operation, becoming more dis- 

 tinct and reddened on the fourth day, and presenting a 

 bluish-white vesicle about the fifth or sixth day, with 

 raised, firm edges and marked central depression (um- 

 bilkaUedl on the seventh day. The pock attains its 

 growth by the eighth day, and appears as a plump 



round, pearl-colored vesicle, distended with clear lymph 

 elevated two or three lines, and measuring about one- 

 third inch in diameter. At this time a circular ring of in- 

 flammation or areola forms about the base of the pock, 

 increasing for a day or two in redness, and measuring 

 from one to three inches in diameter ; considerable 

 hardness and swelling may occur in the adjacent tis- 

 sues, with pyrexia and some local pain and pruritus ; 

 occasionally there is inflammation and swelling of the 

 lymphatics of the arm and glands of the axilla. About 

 the tenth day the areola begins to fade, the pyrexia to 

 subside, and a dark spot is seen on the centre of the 

 vesicle, which gradually concretes and becomes opaque, 

 forming a hard scab by the fifteenth day, and falling 

 off about the twenty-fifth day from the date of vac- 

 cination, leaving a circular, depressed and somewhat 

 foveated cicatrix, which usually remains visible through 

 life. 



Vaccination should be performed in early life, as the 

 susceptibility to small-pox exists at all ages. An in- 

 fant, if healthy, may be vaccinated after the second 

 month, or even earlier, if exposed to the contagion, 

 care being taken to use only pure vaccine, and it is 

 better perhaps at so tender an age to use humanized 

 lymph (not too far removed) instead of bovine. The 

 length of time during which the protection afforded 

 by vaccination exists has been variously stated the 

 "seven-year" theory having many advocates. No 

 rule can be laid down on this point, and the safest plan 

 is to revaccinnte whenever an- epidemic of small-pox 

 occurs in the vicinity or an exposure to the disease has 

 happened. Even if no epidemic or exposure occurs it 

 is good practice to revaccinate those who have indis- 

 tinct scars or who have not been vaccinated since in- 

 fancy. Flint recommends rcvaccination every five years. 



