The works of Edward Jenner and their value in the modern study of small pox.

  • Dock, George, 1860-1951.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of Edward Jenner and their value in the modern study of small pox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    factory vesicle required a repetition of the operation. The results of this justified the law. Both in the army and in the civil population the mortality from smallpox sank and remained permanently low, in marked contrast with countries in which revaccina- tion was not required. In 1899 the deaths from small- pox in the whole empire numbered only 28. Most of these occurred near the boundaries of coun- tries having a good deal of smallpox, and many were directly traceable to infection from those countries. The 28 deaths took place in 21 different places, giving striking evidence of the difficulty of the disease's spreading in Germany. As I remarked before, the death rate in the army has been lower since revaccina- tion was made general. As the army was just as well vaccinated before, this shows the great value of wide- spread vaccination, and proves the truth of a state- ment made by the German commission in 1884; Vaccination is beneficial not only to the individual, but generally. While this has been done in Germany, and while several other continental nations have made great advances, two countries that boast the highest ma- terial prosperity and perfection and the most ad- vanced interest in private or personal hygiene have not made any improvements, but in one case even, by the passage of the Conscience Clause in England, an actual retrogression. In England the epidemic followed the relaxation of the vaccination laws with customary promptness; in our own country, as I pointed out a year ago, the causes were complex. At present the epidemic in the United States seems to be declining, and although it may increase with the