Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

S2 THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL. j
India, has succeeded in producing an arti- variola was one of the most prevalent and \
ficial immunity against cholera infection dreaded of all diseases. Few persons reach- j
by means of subcutaneous injections of ed adult life without an attack. Today, ^
cholera cultures. In several hundred thous- though outbreaks still occur, it is a disease 1
and persons whom he has inoculated the which is thoroughly controllable by vacci- \
results obtained would undoubtedly seem nation. The protective power of the inocu- '
to show a distinct protective influence in lated cowpox is not a fixed and constant '
the prevention of the disease. quantity, as is well known. The protection j
The cause of the disease and the condi- may be for life, or it may last only for a 3
tions under which it is produced being year or two. The all-important point is J
known, cholera is not likely ever again to this; that efficiently vaccinated persons '
obtain a foothold in this country, as it un- may be exposed with impunity, and among i
doubtedly can be controlled by modern pre- large bodies of men (e.g., the German ,
ventive measures. army), in which vaccination and re- vacci- .
Bubonic Plague.—This disease, which in nation is regularly practiced, smallpox is I
the Middle Ages became such a terrible unknown. 1
scourge that it was known as the "Black It seems strange that after more than a I
Death," is also still one of the most dread- hundred years of the beneficent effects of \
ed of the great epidemic infections. It has, vaccination throughout the civilized world, \'
however, been confined principally to the there should be fanatics who still oppose it.
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East, Southeastern Europe, Asia and Aus- But within the last few months from Bos- \
tralia. Both in China and India there have ton,the very city from which Waterhousefirst I
been outbreaks of great severity in the last spread the blessings of vaccination over the '
fifteen years, and even in this Hemisphere, United States, there have emanated a series »]
in certain of the ports of South America and of diatribes which, to saj' the least of them, !
the United States I San Francisco and New are truly astonishing. This anti-vaccina- ''
York ) there have been some cases of recent tion delusion has become so strong that
years, especially among the Chinese. Judg- various Medical Societies in Philadelphia
in g from the readiness with which it has andelsewherehavedeemeditnecessary tobebeen
checked and limited wherever it made gin an active campaign against it. In recent
its appearance in this country, there is very papers read on the subject, Doctors Abbott,
little risk that the plague will ever assume Welch, and others, have produced some
again its former devastating power. It is valuable statistical evidence of the efficacy I
caused by a bacillus discovered by Kitasato of vaccination, which are worth repeating. %
and Yersin in 1894. Its mode of infection Since the enactment, in Germany, of the \
is by means of wounds of the skin, and law requiring the compulsory vaccination '.
throughbitesof infected fleas from rats hav-„ and re-vaccination of all persons, in 1874, a
ing the disease, which are thought to be one
of the chief factors in spreading the malady,
there have been no epidemics of smallpox ^
in that country. The disease is frequently "
Haffkine, in India, has recently applied introduced by foreigners, particularly on
his method of preventive inoculation to the frontiers, but it can obtain no foothold. J
bubonic plague, as he previously did with In 1899, among a population of .54,000,000
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cholera, and apparently with equally good in Germany, there were only 28 deaths from
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results. Yersin and Calmette have also smallpox, and these occurred in 21 differ- |
prepared a serum by immunizing animals ent districts, the largest number in any one "%
against plague infection by the repeated district being three. In 1897, there were •*'
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injection of dead cultures of the bacilli, and but five deaths from smallpox in the entire
this serum has been employed in the treatment
of the disease in man with promising
German Empire. The large German cities,
Berlin, Hamburg, Breslau, ^Munich and
results.
Smallpox.—The question as to the excit-
Dresden, have a perfectly insignificant mortality
from smallpox as compared with
ing factor in smallpox, according to some Loudon, Paris, Vienna, and St. Petersburg,
authorities, is still undecided, while others in all of which the vaccination laws are
maintain that it is now settled beyond dis- relatively lax.
pute. The latter consider that certain In the 28 years before vaccination in
bodies found chiefly in the epithelial cells London there died each year from smallof
the skin and mucous membranes in the pox, per 1,000,000 of population, 2,050
specific lesions of the disease are protozoa persons; during the 40 years following vac- :
and the causeof the infection. Theseminute cination, per 1,000,000 of population, the .
"vaccine bodies" were first ol)served in smallpox deaths annually average 158. i
1892, and have since been studied and con- During the seven years preceding the intro- I
firmed, especially by Councilman. duction of vaccination in Prague, smallpox \
While not a great scourge like cholera caused l-12th of the total number of deaths;
and the plague, during the last century during the 20 years following the introduc-