Letter on vaccination to a medical practitioner / from H. Strickland Constable.

  • Constable, H. Strickland (Henry Strickland), 1821-1909.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter on vaccination to a medical practitioner / from H. Strickland Constable. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    logically untenable. It arises in fact from arguing in a circle. Why did the patient die ? Because the lymph used was impure. How do you know the lymph was impure ? Because the patient died. I am afraid this mode of argument is not uncommon amongst uneducated or half educated people. Another day you said that even if in any case Vaccination were to poison the blood, it must take several days to do it, in consequence of the operation being performed by mere abrasion of the skin. I think, therefore, you would like to know a curious Dr. Peter, experiment that was tried by Doctor Peter, in Paris. He vaccinated sixty children, and in each case, im- mediately after the operation, he rubbed the place vigorously with a wet sponge but to no purpose. The poison had already got into the blood, for the vaccine eruptions made their appearance afc the usual time. Poison will act quickly sometimes. I need not remind you of snake bites. I once saw a person who was stung by a wasp, covered within two hours from head to foot with white lumps, which had spread gradually from the stung place. I dare say you know the valuable German works Virchow, of Virchow. I am afraid there is no English transla- tion of them, but no doubt you will not mind that. Medical men of the present day are highly educated; and it is necessary that they should be so, because the foreign works on medical subjects are so excellent. You should read what Virchow says about Vaccination. He gives a great many curious cases of its effects, some