422 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 91. 



county, have been distinguished by a terri- 

 ble illustration of the results which would 

 sooner or later inevitably follow the general 

 neglect of his prescriptions. 



I have no desire to speak severely of the 

 Gloucester Guardians. They are not sani- 

 tary authorities, and had not the technical 

 knowledge necessary to enable them to 

 judge between the teachings of true science 

 and the declamations of misguided, though 

 well-meaning, enthusiasts. They did what 

 they believed to be right ; and when roused 

 to a sense of the greatness of their mistake, 

 they did their very best to repair it, so that 

 their city is said to be now the best vacci- 

 nated in Her Majesty's dominions. But 

 though by their praiseworthy exertions they 

 succeeded in promptly checking the raging 

 epidemic, they cannot recall the dead to 

 life, or restore beauty to marred features, or 

 sight to blinded eyes. Would that the en- 

 tire country and our Legislature might take 

 duly to heart this object lesson ! 



How completely the medical profession 

 were convinced of the efficacy of vaccina- 

 tion in the early part of this century was 

 strikingly illustrated by an account given 

 by Prof. Crookshank, in his interesting his- 

 tory of this subject, of several eminent 

 medical men in Edinburgh meeting to see 

 the to them unprecedented fact of a vacci- 

 nated person having taken small-pox. It 

 has, of course, since become well known 

 that the milder form of the disease, as modi- 

 fied by passing though the cow, confers a 

 less permanent protection than the original 

 human disorder. This it was, of course, im- 

 possible for Jenner to foresee. It is, indeed, 

 a question of degree, since a second attack of 

 ordinary small-pox is occasionally known to 

 occur, and vaccination, long after it has 

 ceased to give perfect immunity, greatly 

 modifies the character of the disorder and 

 diminishes its danger. And happily, in re- 

 vaccination after a certain number of years 

 we have the means of making Jenner's work 



complete. I understand the majority of the 

 Commissioners, who have recently issued 

 their report upon this subject, while recog- 

 nising the value of importance of re- vaccina- 

 tion, are so impressed with the difficulties 

 that would attend making it compulsory by 

 legislation that they do not recommend that 

 course; although it is advocated by two of 

 their number who are of peculiarly high au- 

 thority on such a question. I was lately 

 told by a Berlin professor that no serious 

 difficulty is experienced in carrying out the 

 compulsory law that prevails in Germany. 

 The masters of the schools are directed to 

 ascertain in the case of every child attain- 

 ing the age of twelve whether re- vaccina- 

 tion has been practised. If not, and the 

 parents refuse to have it done, they are 

 fined one Mark. If this does not prove ef- 

 fectual, the fine is doubled ; and if even the 

 double penalty should not prove efficacious, 

 a second doubling of it would follow, but, as 

 my informant remarked, it is very seldom 

 that it is called for. The result is that 

 small-pox is a matter of extreme rarity in 

 that country; while it is absolutely un- 

 known in the huge German army, in con- 

 sequence of the rule that every soldier 

 is re-vaccinated on entering the service. 

 Whatever view our Legislature may take on 

 this question, one thing seems to me clear : 

 that it will be the duty of Government 

 to encourage by every available means 

 the use of calf lymph, so as to exclude the 

 possibility of the communication of any hu- 

 man disease to the child, and to institute 

 such efficient inspection of vaccination in- 

 stitutes as shall ensure careful antiseptic 

 arrangements, and so prevent contamina- 

 tion by extraneous microbes. If this were 

 done, ' conscientious objections ' would cease 

 to have any rational basis. At the same 

 time, the administration of the regulations 

 on vaccination should be transferred (as 

 advised by the Commissioners) to competent 

 sanitary authorities. 



