108 ESSAYS ON BACTERIOLOGY. 



i 



vaccinator shoiild see to it that this is secured or the 

 procedure repeated. Many of those said to have been 

 vaccinated have doubtless not been really vaccinated 

 at all. Thus, in the presence of smallpox, discredit 

 is thrown upon vaccination and danger upon the com- 

 munity. 



The public should be made to understand this: that 

 the vaccinator should have full opportunity to insure 

 genuine vaccinations, and that the security arising out 

 of the now comparative rarity of smallpox may be a 

 false security unless reinforced by genuine, general, 

 and repeated endowment with that active power of re- 

 sistance which can come only in one way. 



In a word, the public should distinctly understand' 

 that the immunity throiigh vaccination, though prac- 

 tically complete, is temporary and must be reinforced 

 by repetition; that the process must be genuine, and 

 that, somewhat unpleasant though it may be, it should 

 be thorough. With these injunctions may happily be 

 joined the assurance of safety by their observance. 



In conclusion, something ought to be said, from a 

 pathological standpoint, about the supposed dangers 

 of vaccination. "Whatever ground there may have 

 been for fear in its earlier history, when the human 

 lymph was indiscriminately used, vaccination as at 

 present practiced is attended by but trifling danger. 

 Outcries to the contrary, with the wild statements 

 which sometimes accompany them, are but the wan- 

 derings of distorted vision and disordered minds. 



