Vaccination and its relation to animal experimentation / Jay Frank Schamberg.

  • Schamberg, Jay Frank, 1870-
Date:
1909
    40 dents were so rare that thousands on thousands of physi- cians vaccinating throughout a lifetime failed to en- counter any such unfortunate experience. Nevertheless, no matter how uncommon such a catastrophe might be, the remotest liability of such an occurrence constitutes a serious argument against the use of humanized virus. The opponents of vaccination bitterly attacked the pro- cedure on the grounds just mentioned. The bovine spe- cies being totally insusceptible to syphilis, the use of lymph of calf origin is entirely devoid of the danger of transmitting syphilis. The weightiest argument of those who have antagonized vaccination is, therefore, nullified. Erysipelas appears to be a much rarer complication since the general employment of animal virus. Many cases of vaccinal erysipelas were, in the past, doubtless due to secondary infection of the vesicle at the time that it was punctured to withdraw lymph for further vacci- nations. The use^of animal virus obviates the necessity of tapping the vaccine vesicle, thus rendering erysipelas from this cause practically non-existent. Many cases of erysipelas were also due to the use of crusts which had been unwisely selected or improperly preserved. What- ever the cause or causes may have been, actual experience shows an enormous reduction in the relative and total incidence of this complication since calf virus has come into general use. 2. The virus of calves offers an almost inexhaustible supply of lymph, inasmuch as a much greater yield can be obtained from the calf than from the human subject, and, furthermore, the number of calves used can be mul- tiplied according to existing needs. During extensive epidemics of smallpox when humanized virus was em- ployed. the community was often placed in a most em- barrassing and dangerous predicament owing to an in- sufficient supply of vaccine lymph. During the great pandemic of smallpox that spread over the entire globe in the early seventies a veritable vaccine famine existed in many countries. All kinds of sources were drawn on for virus, and much worthless lymph derived from spuri- ous and irregular vaccinations was employed, with en- tirely unsatisfactory results. 3. Animal lymph appears to give a much larger per- centage of successful revaccinations than long-human- ized virus. Dr. Henry A. Martin says:
    The number of those who in revaccination with old, long- humanized virus (not that of early human removes) experience vaccinal effect may be stated at the outside at 35 per cent. The number of those revaccinated with equal care and repetition with animal virus and virus of very early human removes, I affirm to be a fraction over 80 per cent.—a difference of 45 per cent.; and this 45 per cent. I firmly believe to represent ap- proximately the number of those insensible to the enfeebled in- fluence of long-humanized virus, but sensible to the intense contagion of variola just in the same degree as sensible to the intense power of bovine virus and that of the early human removes from it. 4. Vaccination with bovine lymph produces a vesicle which approaches more nearly the Jennerian prototype, and reaches, therefore, a greater degree of perfection than that produced bv long-humanized virus. The cowpox accidentally produced on the hands of dairymaids was believed by Jenner to confer lasting protection against smallpox. The bovine species ap- pears to be the natural soil of the prophylactic pock, and the view lias been maintained by many that calf virus or virus derived from an early human remove creates a more complete and permanent immunity. It has been alleged by the opponents of vaccination that tuberculosis has been and is transmitted by the use of calf virus. The precautions which are adopted in the propagation of vaccine virus make such an accident almost an impossibility. Even were this not the case, it is very doubtful whether an inoculation of virus con- taminated with the tubercle bacillus would produce more than a local skin lesion which could be readily cured. The precautionary measures employed are, as has been said, an all-sufficient safeguard. The virus is obtained from very young calves, and it is pretty well established that calves are but rarely the subjects of tuberculosis. It is stated by Flirst,19 on the authority of Pfeiffer, that but one case of tuberculosis was found among 34,400 calves under four months of age. The statistics of the abattoirs of Augsburg and Munich corroborate the above figures; only one tuberculous calf was discovered at Augsburg among 22,230 slaughtered, and the percentage was much smaller at Munich. Furthermore, in all well-regulated establishments for the propagation of vaccine virus, the calves are sub- 19. Fiirst: Die Fathologie der Schutz-Pocken-Impfung. Berlin. 1896, paragraph 431, p. 112; quoted by Acland : .Allbutt's System of Medicine.
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    2. Vaccination protects against smallpox in the same manner that one attack of the smallpox protects against a second attack. Vaccination has the special advantage in that the immunity which it confers against smallpox may be renewed when it becomes impaired or exhausted. 3. Vaccination in order to confer protection must be genuine: the mere production of a "sore arm” is of it- self no proof that the subject has been successfully vac- cinated. The vaccination must run a definite course before a protective substance is left in the body. 4. Smallpox may develop in vaccinated persons if they have permitted years to elapse without being re- vaccinated. 5. Vaccination and revaccination universally applied are capable of exterminating smallpox as an epidemic disease. The experience of Germany during the past thirty-five years proves this. 6. In isolated instances individuals in a generally well-vaccinated community may develop smallpox be- cause their protection is imperfect as a result of the use of an inert virus or because of some other fault of technic. These cases, however, will never appreciably influence the prevalence of the disease in such a com- munity. 7. Smallpox was an ever-present and terrible pesti- lence in the days before vaccination. In most civilized centers it is to-day a relatively rare disease. This change has been effected almost exclusively by vaccina- tion. Epidemics of smallpox prevail from time to time when the spark of infection is introduced into the com- munity and a sufficient amount of unvaccinated com- bustible material exists to lead to a general conflagra- tion. In countries where vaccination is neglected, as in Persia, Asiatic Kussia, etc., etc., smallpox is still a death-dealing scourge. 8. The foes of vaccination commonly refer to the in- frequency of smallpox at the present day and to the remote liability of contracting the disease. They forget that the relative security which we now enjoy is the result of vaccination. This security can be made abso- lute or it can be largely destroyed according as vaccina- tion and revaccination are generalty employed or gen- erally neglected. 9. The dangers connected with vaccination have been greatly exaggerated by the opponents of this measure.
    Vaccination causes an abrasion of the skin and in rare instances this wound, like other wounds may become infected, especially when neglected or maltreated. With the selection of a proper virus and care of the vaccina- tion site during and after vaccination, the risk in any individual instance is an entirely negligible quantity. The risk connected with vaccination is infinitesimal compared with the peril of remaining unvaccinated. THE RELATION OF ANIMAL RESEARCH TO OUR KNOWL- EDGE OF SMALLPOX AND VACCINATION 1. Xumerous experiments on calves have proved that smallpox virus may be converted into vaccine virus bv transmission through several generations of the bovine species. This discovery not only establishes vaccina- tion as a thoroughly scientific practice, but also provides for a new source of lymph in the event of the deteriora- tion or loss of existing strains. 2. Experiments on calves have resulted in a method of calf vaccination which permits of the production of any needed quantit}^ of virus. This renders unnecessary the use of humanized virus with the attendant disad- vantages elsewhere referred to. The use of calves for the propagation of vaccine lymph constitutes the most important improvement in vaccination since its discov- ery over a hundred years ago. 1922 Spruce Street.