On animal vaccination / by Henry Austin Martin.

  • Martin, Henry A. (Henry Austin), 1824-1884.
Date:
1877
    proval of the American Medical Association and its warm com- mendation to the consideration and adoption of the medical pro- fession and the people everywhere? or shall it, so far as this Association can do it, be committed to that vast limbo whither have passed already so many methods and systems and theories and novelties in medicine? "Of all things vain, and all who in vain things Build their fond hope of glory or lasting fame." One word more of preface. None can be more sensible of the many defects of this report than its author. ' With extreme hesitation has he concluded to present it for acceptance. He alone can most fully estimate the vast extent and difficulty of the task he has assumed if performed as it should be. He is well aware that his work is very far indeed from such a stan- dard ; but, imperfect and unsatisfactory to himself as it is, lie considers its presentation now a matter of duty. With all its defects, it contains some of the results of a life's devotion to the study and practice of vaccination. Some of the results are, so far as the author knows, original; many of them are thought to be of very great practical importance; and although by another year a much more perfect and finished report might be prepared, one that would do far more honor to the author, it would only do so by presenting with more elaboration and literary finish precisely the same facts and opinions which are now offered without such advantages. If the reader agrees with the author as to the great importance of the matter, he will, per- haps, be inclined to be lenient in criticism of the manner of the report. The discussion of the topic of animal vaccination involves, if fully done, a consideration of the entire vast subject of vacci- nation. The writer might very easily have written a limited and merely technical paper on the vaccination of animals. Such a report was never contemplated by himself, nor, as he thinks, expected or wished by this Association. The question of paramount importance is, Whether the virus obtained by the inoculation of bovine animals with the virus of original cow- pox induces the development of vaccinia of greater perfection, and, therefore, of probably more protective efficacy, than that obtained by the transmission of the same disease on a series of human subjects? It is this question which so nearly and deeply
    concerns and interests not only every physician, but every human being. If the writer of this report even partly and imperfectly yet truly answers this great question, he will be well satisfied in having done a service to humanity by no means insignificant or unimportant; a service also which he feels confident will not always be unappreciated in having not only introduced animal vaccination into America, but in constantly and laboriously striving for its vindication and extension. REPORT. "Without further preface, let us consider the questions on the determination of which must depend the acceptance or rejection of the method of true animal vaccination. These questions may be included under four heads: (1) What is true animal vacci- nation ? (2) What is Jennerian vaccination ? (8) What are the advantages and defects of the Jennerian system, and is the as- sertion of the latter founded on reason and experience? (4) What are the advantages and defects of true animal vaccination? and how well founded are the assertions made by its advocates, that by its honest and full acceptance, and thus only, can the defects—which time and observation, a million times repeated, have demonstrated in vaccination as so long practised—be tri- umphantly remedied, the greatest boon ever granted to humanity restored, and, through the defects of the " Jennerian system," justice and due honor at last done to the memory of Edward Jenner ? Question First.—What is true animal vaccination ? It is very necessary that it should be exactly understood what is meant by the various terms animal vaccination, bovine vacci- nation, heifer vaccination, retro vaccination, variolo vaccination, equination, etc. etc. A very great deal of misapprehension ex- ists on this point, and many, indeed most, of the positive and unfavorable criticisms of the new vaccination have been based upon a supposition that it is something which it is not. There are four chief methods to which the term can and lias been applied : (1) Vaccination casually or intentionally from the original spontaneously occurring disease in the milch cow. (2) Retro-vaccination with virus obtained from the vaccine dis- ease in the human subject. (3) From vesicles, said to be vaccine vesicles, obtained by variolation of kine, or the inoculation of
    bovine animals with the virus of smallpox. (4) The method of true animal vaccination, or the inoculation of a bovine animal with the virus of original spontaneous cowpox; from this another, and so on in continuous and endless series as a source of vaccine virus. During the first ten years of vaccination an universal furor of experiment prevailed; a vast number and variety of animals were vaccinated. Similar experiments have since that time been occasionally repeated. Not only mammals, from the elephant to the mouse, but also birds and reptiles were thus experimented upon. It was found that the disease could be reproduced in the horse, the goat, the sheep, the pig, and, I be- lieve, some other animals; and the use of virus from these gave names to other varieties of vaccination, as equination, ovination, and possibly caprination and porcination ; but all this has only a certain historical interest, and need not delay us. These four varieties of animal vaccination include all, the consideration of wnich is of any importance whatever for our investigation. (1) Casual or Intentional Inoculation from Animals affected with Original Cowpox.—This must, of course, be included among the varieties of animal vaccination; but when it is stated (notwithstanding certain fictions in early American vaccine literature) that no perfectly authenticated case of true cow- pox has ever been known in America, it will be evident that it is of little practical importance to American physicians. The writer for many years offered a considerable reward for informa- tion of any case which should prove to be true cowpox, and, at a very considerable expenditure of effort and money, often travel- ling great distances, has at various times visited over twenty dairies and stables in which cowpox was reported to exist. He has never as yet, however, been rewarded by discovering what he so eagerly sought. On two occasions he found animals suf- fering from a very common bovine eruption or pock, described by Hering, Ceely, and others, from the pustules of which large quantities of fluid had been collected on many hundred quill slips. In three instances, in which, from the advanced state of the eruption, there was possibility of doubt, he collected crusts, and carefully used them in inoculation of young animals without any result. He has, on five different occasions, had crusts of so- called cowpox sent to him from California—in the vast herds of which State cowpox is said (by not very competent observers,
    however) to prevail at certain seasons—and from Wisconsin. These were all employed in inoculation of animals without effect. One other gentleman, the writer knows of, who firmly believes in American cowpox, and who has spent much time and labor in an as yet vain effort to find it. Several other less persistent seekers have thus far reaped only disappointment. In Continental Europe, on the authority of Bousquet, not a single properly authenticated case of spontaneous cowpox was reported for thirty years previous to 1836, possibly because in the per- fect and unquestioning faith in the Jennerian virus, which continued during the life of its great advocate, such cases were not much cared for or looked after. However this may be, the occurrence of cowpox is very variable; at times it widely prevails in a great many different dairies, and again no case will be heard of for many years. If it should be found, as now seems probable, that cowpox, transmitted on a series of bovine animals, does not tend at all to deteriorate or to essenti- ally change in any way from a perfect standard of excellence, the ascertainment of the existence of cases of spontaneous cowpox will be of little consequence or value. If, on the contrary, cowpox so transmitted tends at all to deteriorate, such cases will, of course, be of value as a means of renewing the "stock" or " strain." Before leaving this part of our subject, we may allude to the great intensity of the phenomena induced by the inoculation of original cowpox virus on the human subject. This has been noticed by all the old writers on vaccination, as well as by Hering, Ceely, and other modern investigators. There is no doubt of this, and it is of great importance to us. The undue violence of the vaccinia, induced not only by original cowpox virus, but the earlier human removes from it, undoubtedly strongly conduced to the ready acceptance and continuance of the Jennerian method as a means of avoiding them. The tra- dition of such violence in the casual cases in the milkers, the observation of which first led to Jenner's discovery, has, without doubt, had a great effect in dissuading many prudent and careful practitioners hitherto from adopting or favorably regarding the transmission of so violent a disease on the species in which it was first observed as a source of vaccine supply. When we come to consider the asserted objections to the heifer-transmitted cowpox virus, this point will be carefully considered. We wish
    here to admit and record the perfectly ascertained fact that in- oculation with the virus of the original disease induces phenomena of an undesirable intensity, extremely liable to be followed by troublesome and even severe ulceration. If original cowpox virus were to be obtained, this alone would constitute a complete objection to its employment, unless we were destitute of all other safe and effective means of insuring protection against variolous contagion. It may, on all accounts, be admitted that original cowpox virus may be dismissed from further consideration as a source of material for vaccination, except, perhaps, as an occa- sional means of renewing enfeebled and deteriorated "stocks" of humanized virus, although we think it can already be demon- strated that, in successive vaccinations of bovine animals from a perfect original " stock," there is no real tendency to deteriora- tion or essential change. (2) eetro-vaccination or the inoculation of bovine or other Animals with the Virus from the Vaccine Disease in the Human Subjects.—This was practised, experimentally, immediately after Jenner's announcement, and repeated then and since by a great many students of vaccination. A student of Waterhouse did it in 1801, and a great many similar observations are recorded in the first volume (1800-1803) of the reports to the famous Comity-central de Vaccine, one of the most important and interesting volumes in the whole range of vaccine literature. Sacco, also, in his admirable work, Eobt. Ceely, in 1841, and a great many others, have given us elaborate and accurate accounts and delineations of this form of animal vaccinia. It has, rather recently, and more than once, been done by zealous savans who, succeeding in the experiment, have supposed that they had made a great discovery and eagerly communicated their claims to medi- cal societies and other local coteries who, in one instance at any rate, seems to have received and recorded the claim in good faith as an evidence of the scientific energy and success of one of its members. About twenty years ago the writer of this paper repeated the experiment several times with perfect success so far as inducing vaccinia in the heifer. He tested the virus thus ob- tained with results which will be elsewhere stated. Very exten- sive experiments have lately been made in France, in this as well as all the other varieties of experimentation in animal vacci- nation, by a committee of which M. Chauveau was chairman,