1 66 



SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



Date 





1900 



•~ 





o 





M 





a.m 



March SOtli 







April 1st 



657.36 



21 



058.40 



19.4 



657.69 



19.8 



656.50 



20 



055.35 



20 



p.m. ■ 



4.20 ! 



656.70 23.3 



p.m. 



7 



655.95 20.5 



20.8 



11.15 65G.10 



The Temperature is Hegistered 



in Degrees Centigrade. The Barometer 



and Rainfall in Millimetres 



a.m. Sky cloudy. 1 o'clock no rain ; 

 clouds 10. 4.20. Heavy rain since 

 2.15 with thunder; air calm. 7p.m. 

 Rain ceased at about 5 o'clock Sky 

 still cloudy 8.8. 12 midnight. Rain ; 

 sky fairly clear. 

 9 a.m. Fresh breeze, morning fine. 

 2.30. "Wind East, clouds 5 ; some 

 lieavy clouds. 6.20 Wind North, 

 : beautiful sunset, clouds 5 ; cirrus and 



■ cumuli. 10.30. Night fine, few clouds, 

 no wind. 



9 a.m. Sky cloudy, wind North-east. 

 1 o'clock. Showers of rain, clouds 10. 

 11.15. Misty rain, clouds 10. 

 I 9 a.m. Rain at 8.30 ; sky cloudy. 3.15. 



■ Heavy showers at 3 o'clock ; no 

 j thunder. 7.15. Heavy rain until 4.15. 



About 1 inch must have fallen in an 

 hoar. 

 12.30 a.m. Misty rain ; shower and 

 misty rain during the morning. 



The weather continued uncertain until 

 the middle of the month showing no 

 i excessive rainfall. 



My readings are not corrected to the sea level. 

 I regret the period of readings is so short, but 

 my official work and the difficulty in procuring a 



barometer prevented my commencing 



29 Niglitingale Place, Woolwlclt : 



September 24.t7t. 1901. 



earlier. — 



VACCINATION. 



Br H. H. B.UvEH, B.A. (Oxox.) 



~^rOW that small-pox is again among ns, when 

 -'-^ hundreds of people are being re-vaccinated, 

 and the anti-vaccinator is raising his voice in a 

 howl of protest, it seems advisable to look back to 

 the original causes which led to the almost universal 

 adoption of vaccination. 



Jenner's discovery was first publislied in the 

 year 1 798. Before that date the ravages of small- 

 pox were simpily appalling, not only in this country, 

 but all over the world. We are told one in four- 

 teen of all that were born died of small-pox. Of 

 those taken ill with the disease one in five or six 

 died, and many were deprived of sight or perma- 

 nently disfigured. In Russia 2,000,000 deaths from 

 small -pox are reported to have occurred in a 

 single year of epidemic. " La petite verole nous 

 decime," said Condamine of France. Dr. Lettsom 

 calculated that the average number of deaths from 

 this cause in Europe was 210,000 annually. 



About the year 1720 the method of inoculation 

 was introduced into this country. A second attack 

 of small-pox in the same individual, though not 

 unknown, is very rare. Therefore, after a severe 

 course of discipline, designed to bring the body 

 into a fit state to resist it, a slight attack of small- 

 pox was brought on by inoculation, which usually 



rendered the patient secure against further in- 

 fection. About two per cent, of such artificially 

 produced cases were fatal ; but this was small 

 compared with the mortality in accidental cases. 

 The great objection to it, however, was that inocu- 

 lated small-pox, even when very slight, was just 

 as infectious as the natural product, and thus the 

 practice temled to spread the disease and to keep 

 the germs alive instead of exterminating them. 



The words of a peasant woman — " I cannot take 

 that disease, for I have had cow-pox " — first riveted 

 Dr. Jenner's attention on what he already knew as a 

 vaguetradition among the milkmaids of Gloucester- 

 shire. The account of his first actual experiment 

 in this subject is best given in his own words. In 

 a letter to Gardner, dated July 19th, 1796, he 

 wrote: " A boy of the name of Phipps was inocu- 

 lated in the arm from a pustule on the hand of a 

 young woman who was infected by her master's 

 cows. ... I was astonished at the close re- 

 semblance of the pustules, in some of their stages, 

 to the variolous pustules. But now listen to the 

 most delightful part of my story. The boy has 

 since been inoculated for the small-pox, which, 

 as I ventured to predict, produced no effect." 

 Jenner's subsequent experiments and observations 



