SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



167 



were embodied in his "Inquiry," which was pub- 

 lished in 1798. One case which particularly 

 interested him is worth quoting. A poor widow 

 of Cheltenham was obliged to live with her four 

 children in a house in which there was a man 

 suffering from small-pox. After being exposed for 

 iive days to infection they were all vaccinated. 

 One child only showed slight symptoms of a skin 

 disease ; the rest were untouched. 



Within a very few years vaccination was intro- 

 duced in many different parts of the world, and 

 always with excellent results. Between 1802 and 

 1810 Christie practically exterminated small-pox 

 in Ceylon ; about the year 1812 Balmi's celebrated 

 expedition performed the same good oiRce for 

 Venezuela; and in 1818 it was calculated that 

 1,000,000 people had been saved to the population 

 of South America by its means. In a letter to 

 William Dillwyn, Jenner complains that in England 

 as much was not being done as might be to make 

 vaccination more general ; but he adds that " since 

 the first promulgation of my discovery, in the year 

 1798, the deaths by small-pox in tlie British realms, 

 according to the best estimate I can form, are 

 reduced from more than iO,000 to less than 6,000." 

 From Sweden, France, Germany, and Austria came 

 the same tale. Dr. Sacco wrote from Milan on 

 July 13, 182-4 : " Vaccination is carried on very 

 extensively throughout the kingdom. Almost all 

 the new-born children are annually vaccinated, so 

 that we have now no fear of the small-pox. 

 It is occasionally imported from the neighbouring 

 States of Parma, Piedmont, etc. . . . Such occur- 

 rences never fail to prove the efficacy of the pre- 

 ventative, for the disease never becomes epidemic." 



Are we not now receiving similar proof of the 

 eificacy of the preventative ? There are a consider- 

 able number of cases in London just now, but the 

 disease does not spread to anything like the extent 

 it did in former times It may be objected that 

 this is due to the more eiiicient means which are 

 now employed for isolating patients and thus pre- 

 venting infection. This doubtless is an important 

 factor, but it must be remembered that persons 

 suffering from attacks of small-pox, so slight as to 

 be passed by unnoticed among the poorer classes, 

 are capable of giving it to others in its most 

 malignant form. 



1 have dwelt on statistics and opinions given 

 during the few years immediately following the 

 introduction of vaccination, because they were 

 given by men who had the opportunity of directly 

 comparing the state of things existing just before 

 and just after its application became general. We 

 have no reason to suppose that there was any 

 sudden increase of precautions in isolating patients, 

 or, as some maintain, that small-pox naturally died 

 out about that time. From all parts of the globe 

 we have reports of the retreat of small-pox before 

 the advance of vaccination, manifesting itself so 

 plainly to those who were actually on the spot, as 



to leave no doubt in their minds that the one was 

 the cause of the other. We frequently see now- 

 adays great statistical attempts to prove the use- 

 lessness of vaccination. Its adoption has become 

 so universal that we have little opportunity of 

 comparing vaccinated with unvaccinated com- 

 munities ; but the very profusion of arguments and 

 counter-arguments brought forward, shows that the 

 evidence against the practice is as nothing compared 

 with the evidence in its favour deduced from the 

 great svveeping-away of small-pox in the early part 

 of the nineteenth centiury. iVIuch has been said on 

 both sides about the epidemic at Gloucester a few 

 years ago. The fact remains that it occurred in 

 one of the few cities where there was a large 

 number of unvaccinated persons. 



Another argument often brought forward against 

 vaccination is, that it does not give absolute im- 

 munity from small-pox, It is true that occasionally 

 a person may take small-pox after having had cow- 

 pox, just as a second attack of small-pox itself is 

 sometimes met witli ; but such cases are very rare. 

 JVIany of the supposed instances are due to improper 

 vaccination in the first place. Jenner himself 

 pointed out that the lymph from a cow-pox pustule 

 may produce no effect at all, or it may even raise 

 eruptions resembling those of true cow-pox, but 

 that ne\ertheless, to the trained eye, are different, 

 and which do not give immunity from small-pox. 

 He insisted that doctors should be specially trained 

 in this branch of their art, and that children should 

 be brought back to them, after the vaccination has 

 taken effect, to see if they have, as he termed 

 them, " correct" pustules. If not, the vaccination 

 should be repeated. 



Again, it has sometimes happened that other 

 diseases have been given to children by the process 

 of vaccinating them. This is liable to occur in arm- 

 to-arm vaccinaticni, if gi'eat care is not taken that 

 lymph is only drawn from perfectly healthy indi- 

 viduals ; but the method is now being everywhere 

 adopted of using only calf lymph, and where this 

 is done with proper precautions the danger is 

 exceedingly small. Cow-pox never causes death, 

 and is not itself infectious ; and therefore vaccina- 

 tion is not open to the same objections as inocula- 

 tion with small-pox. In the old days, when the 

 dreadful effects of small-pox were obvious to every- 

 one, very many were found willing to undergo 

 inoculation in spite of its great disadvantages. 

 Now that we have practically got rid of the disease, 

 we must not be forgetful of its possibilities, and 

 refuse to take a precaution which involves a risk 

 to ourselves so infinitely small, compared with the 

 danger of neglecting it, not only to ourselves but 

 to the whole community. It may be added that, 

 with ordinary care, cleanliness and the use of 

 antiseptics, the chance of any ey\\. even what is 

 termed a "bad arm" occurring after vaccination, 

 is reduced to a minimum. 



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