442 Biology in America 



mentioned provinces more than a year ago, not a single death 

 from smallpox has been reported." 1 



From 1901 to 1904 smallpox was epidemic in Philadelphia. 

 During that time the Municipal Hospital received 3,500 cases, 

 about 80% of all cases in a city with a population of 1,293,000 

 and of these not one had been recently successfully vaccinated. 

 Compare this record with that of Boston in the epidemic of 

 1752. In this same hospital " during a period of thirty- 

 four years, in which time almost 10,000 cases of small- 

 pox were treated, there was no instance of a physician, 

 nurse or attendant, who had been successfully vaccinated 

 or revacciiiated prior to going on duty contracting the dis- 

 ease. ' ' 2 



The earlier method of protection against smallpox by inocu- 

 lation from a person who already had the disease met with 

 strenuous opposition in many quarters. During an outbreak 

 of smallpox in Boston in 1821-3 this practise, which was 

 advocated by Cotton Mather and others, aroused such intense 

 feeling that an attempt was made to assassinate the worthy 

 divine by the time-honored method of throwing. a bomb into 

 his house, which fortunately however failed to explode. It 

 was accompanied by a message couched in these affectionate 

 terms: "Cotton Mather, you dog, Damn you: I'll inoculate 

 you with this, with a Pox to you." 



When Jenner introduced his method of vaccination with 

 cowpox, it was supposed by the ignorant that children when 

 vaccinated "developed horns, hoofs and tails and bellowed 

 like cattle." 



Such primitive prejudices may be pardoned, but what 

 shall we say of those who, in supposedly educated and civilized 

 communities, oppose a remedy which has done so much in 

 the relief of human misery and the prevention of death. 



In a recent examination given by the writer to a class in 

 elementary hygiene, one of the questions was "State the 

 most important information gained by you in this course." 

 In reply to which he was surprised to receive from several 

 students answers which summarized ran about as follows: 

 * * The most important information I gained in the course 

 was that regarding vaccination and similar remedies. I had 

 always been rather afraid of, or at least skeptical about it, 

 but now that I have learned its results, and the care taken 

 in its use, I believe in it, and have no further fear of it. ' ' 



A mysterious remedy such as vaccination might be expected 

 to frighten or repel the primitive and the uneducated. An 



1 Sehamberg, ' ' Vaccination and Its Relation to Animal Experimenta- 

 tion," Defense of Research Pamphlet, 1, p. 34. 

 Locus citatus, pp. 35-9. 



