328 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 382 



Cherokee alphabet. As the presence of the stone in the 

 mound cannot be attributed to an intrusive burial, it is evi- 

 dent that the mound must have been built since 1820, that 

 Mr. Guess was not the author of the Cherokee alphabet, or 

 that the stone is a fraud. The mound in which this was 

 found is described as follows: — 



" The Tipton group is situated on the north side of the - 

 Little Tennessee, about two miles from Morganton. No. 3 

 of this group, which stands about one hundred feet from No. 

 2, is of small size, measuring twenty eight feet in diameter 

 and about five feet in height. Some large trees," says Mr. 

 Emmert, the Bureau agent, " were standing on the mound, 

 and Mr. Tipton informed me that he had cut other trees off 

 of it forty years ago. and that it had been a cluster of trees 

 and graps-vines as far back as the oldest settler could recol- 

 lect. There was an old stump yet in the centre, the roots of 

 which ran down in the mound almost or quite to where the 

 skeletons were found. . . . Having worked to the bot- 

 tom, I found here nine skeletons lying at full length on the 

 natural surface, with faces up, and surrounded by dark- 

 colored earth. No. 1 (as shown in the diagram which 

 accompanies his report) was lying with head to the south ; 



while No. 2, close by the side of it, had the head to the north, 

 and feet almost touching the head of the other. On the 

 same level, but apart from the preceding, were seven other 

 skeletons lying closely side by side, heads all to the north, 

 and all in a line. No relics of any kind were found with 

 any of the skeletons except No. 1. Immediately under the 

 skull and jaw-bones were two copper bracelets, an engraved 

 stone (Fig. 7), a small drilled stone, a single copper bead, a 

 bone instrument, and some small pieces of polished wood. 

 The earth about the skeletons was wet, and the pieces of 

 wood were soft and colored green by contact with the copper 

 bracelets. These bracelets had been rolled up in something 

 which crumbled off when they were taken out, but whether 

 buckskin or bark I was unable to decide. The engraved 

 stone was lying pai-tially under the skull. I punched it 

 with my steel prod on the rough side in probing, before I 

 reached the skeletons." 



As soon as the collections made by Mr. Emmert during 

 this exploration were received at the office in Washington, 

 a member of the Bureau was sent to the field where Mr. 

 Emmert was at work, to learn the whole history of the find. 

 This course was taken by the Bureau merely as a means of 

 being fortified with all possible evidence as to the facts of 

 the find being as stated. The examination by the person 

 sent confirmed the statement by Mr. Emmert in every par- 

 ticular. This, therefore, necessitates one of two conclu- 



sions, — that the mound was thrown up since 1820, or that 

 some one was at work on the Cherokee alphabet before Mr. 

 Guess's time. But this is a question which has no beai-ing- 

 on the present discussion. 



[Continued on p. .330.] 



DR. FREIRE'S PROTECTIVE INOCULA.TION.- 

 VERSUS FIGURES.' 



-FACTS 



The Medical Record published some time since a translation of 

 a communication, made by Dr. Domingos Fieire of Brazil to the 

 French Academy of Sciences, relating to his protective inocula- 

 tions. This summary statement has been copied in this country 

 by Science, and probably by other journals, and will doubtless be 

 read by many who will never see a copy of the volume contain- 

 ing my official report- of investigations made in Brazil, in which 

 I show that Dr. Freire's statistics are misleading, and that his 

 •'vaccinations" have no prophylactic value. 



Dr. Freire's recent statistics have also been brought to the no- 

 tice of the profession by an article by Dr. J. McF. Gaston, pub- 

 lished in the Journal of the American Medical Association, March 

 23 1890. In order that the profession in this country may be able- 

 to estimate Dr. Freire's statistics at their true value, I beg leave 

 to call attention to the following facts: — 



First, there has been no veritable discovery of the specific germ 

 of vellow-fever, and consequently there is no "attenuated virus" 

 at Dr. Freire's command with which to vaccinate against the dis- 

 ease. It is certain that the micrococcus, which he presented to 

 me at the time of my visit to Brazil as his yellow-fever microbe^ 

 has nothing to do with the etiology of this disease. A careful 

 bacteriological study of forty fatal cases, made in Havana since 

 my return from Brazil, enables me to affirm this in the most posi- 

 tive manner. 



There is, then, no scientific basis for the wholesale inoculations 

 which Dr. Freire has made; and his statistics, wlien viewed in 

 the light of certain facts not brought out in his publications, give 

 no substantial support to his claims. 



As my personal investigations were made in the city of Rio de 

 Janeiro, and a majority of Dr. Freire's inoculations have been 

 made m that city, I shall consider at present only those figures- 

 which relate to his recent inoculations in the Brazilian capital. 

 With reference to these, Dr. Fieire says in his latest publica- 

 tion,' — 



"Between March 1 and June 30, 1889, 3,407 persons died of 

 yellow-fever (including the deaths at the Jurajuba Hospital), 21 

 of whom had been vaccinated; that is to say, that 3,386 iion- vac- 

 cinated persons succumbed to the disease (1,606 in the city, 800 

 at Jurajuba, in all)." 



Now, the total population of Rio is estimated at 400,000. Let 

 us suppose that 100,000 of this population enjoys protection from 

 having sufl'ered an attack of the disease: we have left 300,000 

 persons wbo may fairly be compared with those vaccinated by 

 Freire, and who were exposed during the epidemic. The mor- 

 tality upon this estimate is 1 in 13.5 and a fraction (^°t§-=12o T). 

 Among the 2,087 vaccinated, there were, according to Dr. Freire, 

 31 deaths {loc. cit., p. 16), that is, one in 99 and a fraction 

 (^44j^=99.38). It will be seen that this comparison is not at all 

 favorable to Dr. Freire's method. But no doubt he will claim 

 that the comparison is unfair, and that the 2,087 vaccinated by 

 him represent a greater proportion of su'^ceptihle persons than the 

 300,000 with whom we have compared them. Let u.s, then, deduct 

 another 100,000 of the population, considering one-half as pro- 

 tected by a previous attack or long residence in the city. The 

 remaining moiety includes the entire foreign population; Brazil- 

 ians not born in the city of Rio; all young children, who, accord- 

 ing to Freire, are to be classed with strangers as to susceptibility: 

 in short, a population that may be fairly compared with those 

 vaccinated. 



' From the Medical Record. 



- Annual volume of the Marine Hospital Service for 1889. 

 3 Statistique des vaccinations au moyen des cultures du microbe atteuue 

 de la flSvre jaune (Rio de Janeiro, 1890). 



