660 WHO ARE SOME OF THE MAKERS OF BIOLOGY? 



to associate the disease called cowpox with that of smallpox, and 

 gradually the idea of inoculation to prevent this terrible scourge, 

 which killed or disfigured hundreds of thousands every year in 

 England alone, was worked out and applied. He believed that 

 if the two diseases were similar, a person inoculated with the mild 

 disease (cowpox) would after a slight attack of this disease be 

 immune to the more deadly and loathsome smallpox. It was not 

 until 1796 that his theory was generally accepted, as at first few 

 people would submit to vaccination. War at this time was being 

 waged between France and England, so that the former country, 

 usually quick to appreciate the value of scientific discoveries, was 

 slow to give this method a trial. In spite of much opposition, how- 

 ever, by the year 1802 vaccination was practiced in most of the civ- 

 ilized countries of the world. At the present time the death rate 

 from smallpox in Great Britain, the home of vaccination, is less 

 than .3 to every 1,000,000 living persons. This shows that the 

 disease is practically wiped out in England. An interesting com- 

 parison might be made between these figures and those of France 

 in 1754 before vaccination was practiced. A French physician 

 then stated that " every tenth death was due to smallpox, and one 

 fourth of manhood was either killed by it or crippled and dis- 

 figured for life." 



Another interesting comparison may be made between Mas- 

 sachusetts and California, two states having nearly equal popula- 

 tions. In Massachusetts vaccination is required by law of all 

 children who attend school ; in California no such law exists and 

 in addition there are a good many people who do not believe in 

 vaccination. During the period between 1921 and 1926 there 

 were 64 cases of smallpox in Massachusetts, a case rate of .3 per 

 100,000. During the same period there were 26,985 reported 

 cases in California, a case rate of 104.1 per 100,000 and these cases 

 were not centered among the Mexicans or other foreigners, but 

 largely among young people of school age whose parents did not 

 believe in vaccination. Such comparisons speak for themselves. 

 Since some stubborn opposition to vaccination is found even 

 nowadays, Jenner must have had an extremely hard time in his 

 day to have his idea accepted. He had many failures, due to the 



