78 



POPULAR SCIETTCE I^EWS. 



[May, 18S9. 



"crank," or some superficial empiric, will set up a 

 theory, and recount the evils of the vaccine disease, 

 that works wonders in the minds of many, and we 

 find in every neighborhood children who are kept 

 out of school, because of the unwillingness of parents 

 to subject them to the dangerous process. 



Again, some physician of acknowledged repute 

 comes out with a manifesto so bold and radical 

 against the whole theory of the prophylaxis, as to 

 have a large following, both by the secular press and 

 by those who would gladly escape from complying 

 with the legal requisitions concerning the operation. 

 Just now a flutter of excitement has been produced 

 in Albany, by the appearance of a New York physi- 

 cian before the Assembly Public Health Committee, 

 who has vigorously protested against the compul- 

 sory vaccination bill. He boldly asserted his oppo- 

 sition to vaccination, chiefly on account of its failure 

 as a preventive of small-pox, stating that in a prac- 

 tice of the last seventeen years, he had examined 

 every case of the disease that had occurred in New 

 York City, and that in nearly every fatal case the 

 victim had been vaccinated. He discarded the 

 whole thing, in toto, and advised a commission of 

 investigation before any bill should be framed. Of 

 course this was promptly met with the rebutting 

 testimony of able experts, including Dr. Cyrus 

 Edson, of the New York Board of Health, and the 

 committee decided to report favorably to the Assem- 

 bly, recommending the passage of a compulsory bill. 



The objections urged against vaccination are 

 mainly as follows : 



ist. Vaccination does not protect against small- 

 pox. Persons who have been vaccinated have the 

 disease, and many fatal cases are recorded. 



2d. The decrease of small-pox is not owing to 

 vaccination, but to sanitary reform. It is a filth 

 disease, and, as great cities become cleaner, under 

 the supervision of scientific inspection, it will be 

 finally stamped out of existence. 



3d. Vaccination is a dangerous process. It in- 

 troduces syphilitic, and other specific poisons, into 

 the system, and sets up conditions far more serious 

 than is the disease it attempts to prevent. 



4th. It often produces ugly sores, which are 

 obstinate in healing, leaving great scars, which dis- 

 figure the person. 



In reply to these objections, it must be admitted 

 that vaccination has been disappointing in the ex- 

 tent of its prophylactic powers. Jenner, in the en- 

 thusiasm of his great discovery, claimed that he 

 had found an absolute preventive of small-pox, but 

 it was .soon discovered that vaccinated persons were 

 liable to a modified form of the disease, and that re- 

 vaccination was necessary to ensure protection. 

 But that vaccination does modify and prevent, we 

 have such abundant evidence from statistics that it 

 seems superfluous to recapitulate. The results of 

 carefully prepared data from all parts of the world, 

 both in the great cities and rural districts, show 

 that the death rate from small-pox among the un- 

 vaccinated is about 49.68 per cent., while among the 

 vaccinated it hardly reaches 6 per cent. Some of 

 the most satisfactory results of vaccination are 

 found in army experience. In the Prussian army, 

 since the enactment of the laws regulating the 

 treatment of the epidemic, not a single death has 

 occurred from small-pox since 1S74. In Germany 

 the results are quite as remarkable. 



In great cities, like London, where the scourge of 

 small-pox was formerly so dreadful, the results are 

 remarkable. According to the death rate in this 

 great city, before the discovery of vaccination, there 

 would have died from small-pox last year more than 

 six thousand children. But statistics show that 



among the vaccinated children only twenty-three 

 deaths occurred, out of the million of children under 

 ten years of age in that vast metropolis. 



The objection that the reduction in the mortality 

 from small-pox is due to sanitary regulations, is not 

 tenable, for the reduction in the death rate from this 

 disease is far greater than in any other class of dis- 

 eases which are affected by sanitary reform, the de- 

 cline being as 2 to i, in favor of small-pox. These 

 results are equally as favorable in the statistics of 

 the great cities of the United States as in London. 



As to the dangers incurred by the transmission of 

 syphilitic poison, there has been much specious 

 reasoning, and a vast amount of assertion not sus- 

 tained by facts. Careful examinations from scien- 

 tific experts go to show that but few well-authenti- 

 cated cases have ever occurred. Dr. Laton, after 

 carefully reviewing the different cases on record, 

 remarks of them : "None of these alleged cases, 

 then, have established, in my opinion, that syphilis 

 has ever been imparted in the due and proper per- 

 formance of vaccination, i. e., with the unmixed 

 lymph of a genuine vaccine vesicle. * * * gyj 

 whether from admixture of blood, or from admix- 

 ture of the inoculable secretions or products of 

 syphilis, or through foul lancets, or in any other 

 way, the real risks are, I believe, entirely risks of 

 carelessness — risks which, with due regard to the 

 rules which have been laid down for the proper 

 performance of vaccination, would not occur." 

 Therefore, all the risks and dangers attending the 

 process of vaccination, whether from the inoculation 

 of syphilitic poison, or the use of a foul lancet, or 

 from any other cause, can all be avoided by a due 

 regard to plain rules and specifications on the part 

 of the operator. By the use of pure lymph from a 

 healthy heifer, by the care taken to always use a 

 perfectly clean lancet, and by the ob,servance of all 

 sanitary precautions on the part of the person vacci- 

 nated, the operation is practically harmless. 



We know that thousands of vaccinations are 

 yearly made without the occurrence of any accident, 

 and hundreds of physicians pass through years of 

 active practice, during which time they make re- 

 peated vaccinations, without meeting with a single 

 case in question. The great weight of experience, 

 as well as of scientific statement, is largely in favor 

 of vaccination. It should be done in early child- 

 hood, nothing but pure animal lymph should be 

 used, and the instrument should be absolutely 

 clean. 



It is interesting to notice the legal regulations in 

 different countries. 



In England, the present law compels the parent 

 to protect his child, at the public expense. In 

 Italy, no child can attend school without a certifi- 

 cate of vaccination. The same is true in Norway, 

 Sweden, and Denmark. In P^rance, the law is not 

 explicit, although scientific men are attempting to 

 insure more stringent regulations. Vaccination of 

 all raw recruits in the French army is obligatory, 

 and to this regulation is due the immunity of the 

 army from small-pox. In Germany, every child 

 must be vaccinated by a physician on the September 

 following its birth. In Japan, wliere small-pox was 

 formerly an endemic disease of great virulence. Prof. 

 E. S. Morse informs us that the dreadful scourge is 

 coming under control, b^the active measures taken 

 by the government to insure vaccination. 



In our own country, there is no general law gov- 

 erning vaccination, and the restrictions vary consid- 

 erably in the several states. In many states there 

 are no general laws, but boards of health and city 

 ordinances regulate vaccination. The following 

 states have no vaccination laws: Arkansas, Cali- 

 fornia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North 

 Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, West 



Virginia, Wisconsin. In Alabama, the county 

 health officer is required to vaccinate, without 

 charge, all who require it. In Connecticut, town 

 boards of health may adopt measures regulating 

 vaccination. In Delaware, the school authorities of 

 any town may regulate the matter. In Illinois and 

 Indiana, the state board of health has the control. 

 Kentucky requires vaccination of all persons over 

 twenty years of age, at their own expense. All 

 school children must be vaccinated under the direc- 

 tion of the state board of health. In Maine, Mary- 

 land, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Michigan, 

 New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Ten- 

 nessee, and Virginia, there are laws of more or less 

 stringency. In Massachusetts, there is a penalty of 

 five dollars for neglect to comply with the provisions 

 for vaccination, and the laws and regulations are 

 more stringent and explicit than in any other por- 

 tion of the country. 



From all the evidence, from experience, and from 

 scientific investigation, it must be conceded that 

 vaccination, under wholesome limitations and wise 

 legal regulations, is a safe, wise, and humane pro- 

 vision against the inroads of one of the most loath- 

 some and fatal diseases that ever afflicted mankind. 



[Original in The Popular Scifince J^ewn.\ 

 AN IMPROVEMENT NECESSARY. 



Let him who would become a public benefactor 

 labor for the banishment of the "old-fashioned," 

 cottage privy, which figures so conspicuously in our 

 tow:ns, villages, and even cities — polluting the 

 ground water, charging the ground ^ir with virulent 

 poisons, contaminating the atmosphere, and spread- 

 ing the germs of disease broadcast. The subject is 

 most unsavory, but sanitarians and the public at 

 large must face it squarely, for the number of these 

 pernicious institutions is hourly increasing, and, 

 unless active measures are taken, it is only a ques- 

 tion of time when all our surroundings will be fully 

 saturated, and their evil results made clearly mani- 

 fest. The idea of digging holes in the ground as 

 permanent receptacles of human excreta, is one of 

 the most depraved conceptions that ever originated 

 in the human mind, and, while it appears strange 

 that the health anthorities and thinking public 

 should tolerate such unreasonable proceedings, it 

 seems incredible that civilized people of the present 

 age should be content to spend half an hour eacli 

 day — or even a shorter period of time — over a foul 

 vault, redolent of filth and replete with poison. 

 Nature rebels against the insult and we naturally 

 avoid such places as much as possible, for nothing 

 is more disgusting to sight or smell, or more nau- 

 seating to the stomach. If, however, the public 

 were to calmly consider how great an abomination 

 it is, they would rise up as one man and demand its 

 overthrow. The dangers of the priyy-\ault may be 

 briefly summed up thus: It poisons the greatest 

 life giving elements, pure air and pure water, w ith- 

 out which life cannot be sustained. 



There is abundant evidence to sliow that mi- 

 crobes, which are ever present in coimtless numbers 

 wherever decomposition is taking place, and w hicli 

 are undoubtedly the active agencies in producing 

 typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, and other dire 

 disea.ses, can travel through the soil for short dis- 

 tances and thus infect vyater-supplies : while even 

 the foul liquid from vaults and cesspools may readi- 

 ly percolate through the ground and enter wells. 

 springs, and poorly constructed rain-water cisterns. 

 The privy, located for convenience or supposed 

 necessity within fifty feet of somebody's well, must 

 contaminate it in time, unless the most favorable 

 circumstances exist. In a light sandy soil the pro- 

 cess may proceed quite rapidly; in a clay soil more 

 slowly, but not less sureiy; in a thin soil over clay 



