Professor F. Blochmann's work on accidental vaccination / by George Dock.

  • Dock, George, 1860-1951.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Professor F. Blochmann's work on accidental vaccination / by George Dock. 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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    ■/•'•■' ; - . ftRV Dock: Accidental Vaccination. the operation, so as to prevent secondary infec- tion. These directions usually do prevent acci- dents in the vaccinated, but little has been done to prevent danger to health and life through the vaccine matter itself. No intimation is given that the vaccine lesion contains material easy to communicate to others; that fingers, towels, bandages, etc., may carry dangerous matter ca- pable of setting up severe or even fatal disease. Blochmann thinks that the regulations should re- quire that hands be disinfected after as well as before dressing the lesions; that the official pub- lications, as well as others, concerning vaccina- tion should make it clear both to the operators and the parents that certain risks may not be taken without most serious danger. So, in re- gard to skin diseases, the regulations advise against vaccinating when these exist, but this is often neglected, and no effort is made to protect others with skin diseases who might be exposed to the vaccinated. The climax is reached when in practice the decision is often left to the mother whose knowledge of the subject is even less than that of the official vaccinator. Much space is still given in various works to the subject of vaccinal syphilis, but this does not appear to have caused any serious accidents in Germany in the last twenty years, in striking contrast to the accidents especially studied in the present work. Blochmann cites at length the various works that should set forth the danger and prevention of accidental vaccinia. These are all books made in Germany, but it is obvious that other countries have no advantage in this respect. In our own, where ideas regarding vaccination are so chaotic, it seems especially useful to call at- tention to the matter so clearly set forth in the little book of Professor Blochmann. The cases gathered from the literature are tabulated so as