IX. 



THE POSITION OF VACCINATION IN 

 PATHOLOGY AND BACTERIOLOGY. 



IT is not the cMef purpose of this paper to enter into 

 a direct argument upon the protective influeiice of 

 vaccination against smallpox, nor to array the statis- 

 tics in its favor. Such an effort would surely be su- 

 perfluous. He who in this day, with the light of the 

 last decade's revelations before him, issues broad de- 

 nials of the efficacy of vaccination, seriously compro- 

 mises his reputation for professional and scientific 

 sanity. It were useless to argue with him. But in 

 view of the recent advances in our knowledge of the 

 infectious diseases, and the efforts being made to ex- 

 tend the range of preventive and curative inocula- 

 tions, it may be of interest and profit to survey the 

 field and see just where vaccination against smallpox 

 stands in pathology, what it means, dts extent and lim- 

 itations, and what its promise for success in other dis- 

 eases. 



Two theories have always existed, and do, to some 

 extent, still exist, as to the nature of cowpox. The 

 one, that it is a peculiar, distinct disease, whose antag- 



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