Vaccination and vaccine virus.

  • Martin, Henry A. (Henry Austin), 1824-1884.
Date:
[1861?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vaccination and vaccine virus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    but usually from the causes above given and from the carelessness of the lower classes about vaccinating their children, scanty and unw rtain. It is a very com- mon circumstai.ee for Boston practitioners to call on mc for lymph, stating tin ir repeated failures and paying me in preference to making further attempts with the Boston lymph, which is afforded to them gratuitously. The professi ma] em- inence of the City Physician of Boston, even if deserved, is but a slight guaran- tee for the goodness of the material furnished from his office ; this port on of the business of which has been, to a large extent done by students. As to my own facilities, I would state that Itoxbury is a city of nearly 2>,000 inhabitants, that it is in the immediate vicinity of a number of other large and closely-settled towns, and so near Boston as to be continuous with it, and only separated from that city by a conventional line. Its situation is extremely salu- brious ; its population, to a very large extent, of the poor and laboring (lass, but part iking to a large degree of the character of a rural rather than a city population. My peculiar opportunities for the practice of Vaccination have arisen from the fact, that since my establishment in the place (now 13 years) I have paid par- ticular and continued attention to this specialty. I have thus obtained a repu• tation for successful Vaccination which is not confined to Roxbury, but exends to Boston and the neighboring towns, to such a degree that before I undertook my present enterprise, I have fr quently vaccinated from twenty to thirty in a day; my annual Vaccination for the whole period having been many hundreds. I may also add, that a large Obstetric prac'ice helps to afford me facilities ; and I have always on hand a list of at least a hundred children to be vaccinated. Kven after the panic of last year, when I was obliged to vaccinate large numbers at once, I did not fall short of subjects. I vaccinate every child, very often with fluid matter directly from a vesicle, and almost always with lymph less tt.an an hour old. In this way I secure, I may say, very nearly invariable success, so that it is an extremely rare occurrence for me to be disappointed in my expectation of supply from any subject or subjects on a given day. All my lymph is collected by myself. I never, except during a severe illness in the summer of 1859, trusted its collection to another. Each lot of lymph collected is put into a Kepi- rate phial, and usually the quills supplied to order are from several different sub- jects. Of course, pursuing this plan, I know all about every lot of lymph fur- nished. I have never been for more than three days without a fresh supply, and have never been without reliable lymph even when the orders received anviunted