12 PHARMACEUTICAL BACTERIOLOGY 



Vaccination as a protection against virulent small-pox was practised 

 early in the eighteenth century in Turkey and other Oriental countries, and 

 was introduced into Europe via England through the influence of Lady 

 Mary Wortley Montagu. A. von Humboldt stated that the Mexicans 

 practised vaccination at a very early period. This early vaccination mate- 

 rial was obtained from a pustule of a small-pox patient, and not from the 

 cow, as at present. The immunity against subsequent attacks was es- 

 tabhshed, but the disease transmitted through this older method of vacci- 

 nation was severe and often fatal; besides, the general vaccination was a 

 source of spreading the disease. In 1840 this form of vaccination was 

 prohibited in England by act of Parliament. 



In 1768 Jenner's attention was attracted to the value of vaccination, 

 and after a series of patient researches he perfected the method of vaccina- 

 tion by means of the virus obtained from a cow which had been inoculated 

 with small-pox (vaccinia). Jenner established the first public institution, 

 for vaccination in 1799, and in the following year the practice was intro- 

 duced into France, Germany, and the United States. Vaccination with 

 vaccinia material is now universal in all civilized countries and in countries 

 under civilized control, and as a result small-pox in an epidemic form does 

 not occur in these countries, and the disease has become less and less viru- 

 lent, so that it is no longer the dreaded scourge that it was two centuries 

 ago. In spite of the beneficient influence of vaccination, there are indi- 

 viduals who oppose this simple, harmless operation with all the energy that 

 ignorance is capable of. Civilized countries are beginning to raise the 

 long-enforced small-pox quarantine as a wholly unnecessary infliction, 

 because vaccination makes the spreading of small-pox impossible. France 

 has raised the quarantine, and so have several other countries, examples 

 which will no doubt soon be followed generally. In conclusion, it is of 

 interest to note that the primary cause of small-pox is unknown even to 

 this day. Ho organism has thus far been isolated from diseased tissues 

 to which small-pox manifestations could be ascribed. 



Period in 



From Schwann (1837) to Pasteur (1862). (Investigations per- 

 taining to the relationship of micro-organisms to fermentation and disease.) 



The discoveries of the cause of fermentation, of decay, and of wound 

 infection, are closely associated. Many centuries ago Varro expressed it as 

 his-opinioir that certain minute animals, breeding in marshy places, got 

 into the system through mouth and nostrils and caused the disease and 

 decay of the tissues. Theodoric (1260) taught that wound infection came 

 from the air. To prevent such infection he applied wine, which is known 



