Audubon Republican. [volume], February 28, 1918, Image 2

About Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925

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Xt is not the object of this little
article to stir up strife among the
different methods of healing, but it
IS the object to educate the laymen
as to facts regarding vaccination,
and its results. Therefore, in this
little publication I am stating facts
and reports from statistics gathered
by statisticians, and others who are
interested, and those who have been
awakened by the fatalities and mor
tality caused by vaccination.
And furthermore. what has
prompted me to publish these re
ports, is the experience I have had
thru conversing with different peo
ple in our town regarding smallpox
and vaccination.
In talking with two of our sup
posedly well read and intelligent
citizens, they both made the remark
that they never heard of vaccination
being injurious to the human body.
Or heard of any mortality directly,
or even indirectly, caused by vacci
nation.
And many others with whom I
have talked have supposed that vac
cination must be all right from the
fact that the health board recom
mend it, and even force it upon the
people.
Now as to why this is done. I am
going to leave it to your own good
judgment, dear reader, after you
have finished reading these columns.
And don’t lose sight of the fact that
while you are reading it, there are
serum factories, and vaccine farms,
and these farms and factories must
certainly find a market for their
product'. (???)
We all boast about our FREE
country and like to talk about liv
ing in a FREE country. Yes, I will
ag.ee that it is a mighty fine thing
to live in a Free country. But do
you call it a free country when a
group of men can be given the power
to tell you what kind of a doctor
you shall employ when you are sick?
Do you call it a free country when
a group of men can compel you to
vaccinate your children before they
are admitted to the school, whether
you believe in the theory or not?
If vaccination will make you im
mune from smallpox, why compel
those to be vaccinated who do not
wish it? If they contract the dis
ease it is them for it. If vaccina
tion causes immunity to smallpox,
those unvaccina/ed cannot give the
vaccinated the smallpox.
You probably have noticed that
since vaccination has been started,
the cases of smallpox have increased
several fold.
In talking with a citizen the other
day regarding the compulsory vac
cination for school children he said,
“Oh. I don’t believe in vaccination,
I don’t believe it does a bit of good,
but I wanted my girls to go to sehool
and what else could I do? The
HeaMh Board says they cannot go
to school unless they are vaccinat
ed.”
Man, Oh Man, where is your back
bone? I say if I don’t believe in a
thing, and if I think I am right in
my views, I have to be convinced be
yond a reasonable doubt that I am
in the wrong before I will flop over
to the other side.
If you don’t believe in a thing
that is being forced upon you, that
in your estimation is liable to be in
jurious to your family, I say fight
it out, and if you are in the wrong,
be convinced that you are before
you give up.
This same good man made the re
mark that “the reason he did not be
lieve in vaccination was because he
had a bunch of hogs vaccinated, and
he lost twelve out of the bunch
from vaccination.” Now it is cer
tainly needless to say that after such
an experience, this man would not
have submitted to having his own
children, his own flesh and blood, in
oculated with this poisonous corrup
tion. if it had not been forced upon
him to do so.
The writer's children have not
been vaccinated and WILL NOT be.
The people are given the impression
that it is a state law in many places,
where it is not. And the state of
lowa is one place where it is not,
and even if it was, I would pity the
serum squirtter who would endeavor
to introduce the poisonous corrup
tion into my children against my
will.
I would like for some sane person
to explain to me the consistency of
the method that is being used here
at the present time. The ruling by
the local health board is that all
children attending public school shall
be vaccinated before being admitted
to the school. Those same children
have brothers and sisters at home
who have not been vaccinated, the
parents in the majority of the fam
ilies have not been vaccinated, and
very few children in the country
havo been vacillated. The vaccinat
ed and unvaccinated attend church,
assemble on the streets together, the
children play together out of school
hours, attend the show together, at
tend Sunday school together. But
it seems the only place they are li
able to catch smallpox is in school.
One family brought their children
in from the country to be vaccinated
explaining to the doctor that their
neighbor had smallpox and thought
their children better be vaccinated.
The doctor's reply was. "No, I don’t,
think there is any need of vaccinat
ing them yet, so long as they have
not been exposed.”
DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUS
IONS.
The following is an article writ
, ten by Dr. Amy Barnette, D. C. of
Arkansas:
"This is truly the day of right
handed children in Arkansas. Nine
I out of ten, or about that proportion,
are going about with a woe-begone
expression on their faces, as if ask
ing. "Why should we be led. like the
proverbial. lamb to the slaughter, to
the office of the Family Physician?
Because Arkansas has lined up beau
tifully with some of the other states
and decided that all persons, regard
less of age, who will have any asso
ciations in the sacred walls of any
school, shall be vaccinated. Hence
hundreds of perfectly good left arms
aro out of commission at this time.
"Why should this be? Because
so-called science, backed up by the
FACTS ON VACCINATION
arm of the law (I wonder if it is a
vaccinated arm?) says ‘Thou Must/
“If a person, even your best
friend, were to come to you with a
boil on his arm and suggest that he
could make a scratch on your arm
and bind some of the pus of that
boil in the said scratch on your arm,
thereby making you immune against
boils in the future, what would you
say? Probably you would report
him to the County Judge at once,
with the advice to send him to the
asylum provided for the known
mentally unfit. I say KNOWN be
cause there are no doubt unknown
mentally unfit running at large.
"But the friendly M. D. can come
to you and advise you. and as in this
case, make a law compelling you to
have the same operation performed
except in the latter case the pus tak
en from the sore on a calf which is
putrid with sores, and you dare say
nothing. Now, just what is the dif
ference?
“Why should I (or you) have one
case of small pox called varioloid as
the result of the first case, if we do
not wish to have them? Yet as in
this state, all persons connected with
a school in uny way must have this
thing.
“A man suffering with Bright’s
disease is given a bottle of pills to
take with the promise of being cured
in due time. In very small print
you will notice what these pills are
made of, if you will look closely.
Certain parts of kidney are used in
the makeup. Now just what animal
this kidney is taken from, whether
sheep, goat, horse, dog. monkey or
another man, or if the victim were
dead or alive at the time of com
mitting the robbery, is not told us.
Supposing it be clean, and the owner
of the kidney was in good health,
pray tell me how dead disintegrated
kidney tissue can in any way rebuild
diseased tissue in a living body?
"By the same reason, if you are
becoming bald by reason of your
hair falling, well might you take a
few strands from another’s head,
sterilize it, make it into pills, swal
low the same, when presto, your
hair quits falling out and you have
a new growth of hair. Is there any
reason in this theory? O. Graft, thy
name is medicine. (Amy Barnette.
D. C.)“
The Bowbells Tribune (N. Dak.)
had the following on the same sub
ject:
START ACTION ON
VACCINATION ORDER
“A case was started in district
court in Bottineau this week by Dr.
M. J. Farnand against the Bottineau
school board, ordering the board to
show cause why his children should
be refused admittance to the public
schools even though not vaccinated,
as ordered by the state board of
health. The case was heard before
Judge Burr the first of the week,
but was dismissed, as defendants
claimed they had not refused the
children admission to the schools.
On acount of this technicality the
case was started anew and will be
heard on its new merits in a few
days.
Awaiting the outcome of the case,
the children are now permitted to
attend school.
While Dr. Fernand appears as
plaintiff in the case, he is supported
by several others who likewise pro
tested against the vaccination order
and refused to have their children
vaccinated.”
The Houston (Texas) Chronicle
of 1-11-18 had this to say:
VACCINATION OPPOSED
AND REASONS GIVEN
"The published repart (Chronicle
December 22) of the death of a 7-
year old child named Grady in the
Montrose district from -tetanus
caused from a vaccination perform
ed three weeks previous will cause
many parents to pray that the Sec
ond Court of Appeals at Austin will
declare the ordinance requiring ‘vac
cination as a condition of entrance
to the public schools in Texas il
legal. Said ordinance is now before
that court on appeal of a San An
tonio parent, who having one child
killed by vacillation prefers to
change the law rather than risk an
other child.
Many others are of the same mind
and it is to bo regretted that the
deaths due directly or indirectly to
vaccination are not more fully re
ported in the public press.
In England the registar-general
requires practitioners to record such
deaths in a separate column headed
"cowpox and other effects of vacci
nation.” There has been an average
of one death per week, but medical
witnesses examined before the royal
commission on vaccination (1889-
1896) gave evidence of over 3.000
cases of death or serious injury
caused by vaccination. It was this
startling evidence that led to the
breaking down of the rigidity of this
compulsory English law and the en
actment of two new statutes, which
practically leaves vaccination an op
tional matter in England.
In Houston and in this country
generally the secondary symptom is
recorded on the death certificate.
Thus a child dies from tetanus in
stead of the vaccination that caused
the tetanus. If the English official
method were adopted wo would re
alize fully how dangerous vaccina
tion really is, and it would be more
truthful.
In Prof. Horn’s annual report of
the public schools, Houston, 1915-
16. on page 87, we find three pupils
contracted smallpox und were ex
cluded from the schools while in
fected. These children were vaccinat
ed and "protected” yet they took
smallpox.
We must conclude that a child if
vaccinated may get tetanus or even
syphillis or other blood tants from
the vaccination. If it survives and
is exposed to the infection, Supt.
Horn’s figures show that it can take
smallpox. What other deductions
can be made from the figures and
the fatality?”
THE AUDUBON REPUBLICAN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1918
GIRL’S DEATH DIE
TO VACCINATION
Dr. E. B. Allen Says Child Had N<»t
Been 111 Before This Winter
“Mary Lee. six-year old daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Elverton Y. Lee
of 761 East State Street, died this
morning. Dr. E. B. Allen, who
signed the death certificate, gave
vaccination as the cause of her
death
Dr. Allen says that he vaccinated
the child January 5 at the request of
the parents, although he is person
ally opposed to vaccination, and be
fore that time she had not been ill
one day this winter. Twenty min
v’es after the operation had been
performed the child became ill. She
died this morning in convulsions.
The funeral will be held from the
parents’ home Friday afternon at .2
o’clock. Interment will be made in
Greenwood cemetery under the di
rection of Swayze & Margerum.”
The same paper under date of
January IS, 1918 has the following
article.
SAYS THREE DIED
FROM VACCINATION
Charges That Deaths of Trenton
Children Were Due to It
“Three cases of death. Who is
responsible?
Benjamin Hardesty, son of David
Hardesty, 825 Melrose Avenue, 8
years of age, vaccinated December
24, taken sick January 9th, died on
January 11. Diagnosed as spinal
meningitis. Enjoyed previous good
health.
Harding Fell, son of Frank Fell,
504 Rutherford Avenue, six years of
age, vaccinated December 31, died
January 11th. Diagnosed as spinal
meningitis. Had been in good health
previous to vaccination.
Mary Lee, daughter of Elverton
Y. Lee, 761 East State Street, six
years of age. vaccinated January 5.
died January 16. Death due to vac
cination. Had not been ill one day
this winter.
These three cases are similar in
all details, and how many more sim
ilar cases that are not known and
how many more cases to be expect
ed. There has not been a death
from smallpox in Trenton for nine
years, and only one case reported
during that time, which was not
sqrious. This was during a period
when vaccination was not enforced.
And now three deaths from vac
cination. Who is responsible? This
is some of Dr. Fell’s "bugaboo” that
he would like to put off on the pub
lic’s lay mind. More “bugaboo” is
that It has been positively proven
that there are many unknown germs
in vaccine virus, and a result is 3
deaths.
The authorities hide behind a
"state law” which emphatically
states that vaccination is “not”
compulsory (unless made so by the
local board) and thus force parents
to have this poison injected in the
blood of healthy children. Who is
responsible? Why don’t the Board
of health insist that all men, women
and children be vaccinated? The
jails would not hold a small per
centage of those who would refuse
unless there was a serious out
break in Trenton.
If it is a “state law" why don't
the state concern itself in having it
endorsed ail over the state, the same
as the local board does in Trenton?
Camp Dix is thoroughly vaccinated.
If vaccination protects, there is no
danger to Trenton from that source.
At first one vaccination was sup
posed to provide immunity for life,
later fourteen years, later seven
years, then five and the results of
the United States army in the hil
ippines proved that six weeks was
the longest period of immunity.
Even at that soldiers vaccinated and
re-vaccinated every six weeks died
from smallpox.
Vaccination has positively noth
ing to do with the decrease of small
pox. It is all due to isolation and
sanitation. It can be proven that
vaccination started smallpox in a
community and has spread, the dis
ease where a slight outbreak has
occurred.
These are facts that the Board of
Health and School Board should
know before they insist on jeopard
izing, the lives of little children for
the benefit of the Drug Trusts who
profit from the sale and manufac
ture of vaccine virus
These three children are beyond
help now but for the sake of others
this thing must be stopped. As Mr.
Hardesty said. "Hereafter I shall re
serve the right to say whether my
child shall be vaccinated or not.”
And this is just the point that many
other parents insist on. The results
justify the opposition taken to com
pulsory vaccination.
The question is still to be an
swered. Who is responsible for
these deaths? A physician who at
tended one of these children said
that if he were the parent he would
charge the local school board. Dr.
Fell and himself with responsibility
for the child’s death, and be willing
to testify—A Parent.”
Dr. Ashworth sends us this clip
ping from the Lincoln (Nebr.) Daily
Star of 12-29-17:
VACCINATION LEADS
TO DEATH OF CO-ED
Miss Mabel Venner Passes Away at
Loui Hospital—Secondary In
fection Cause
Miss Mabel Venner, 18, a soph
omore in the State university, died
about nine o'clock this morning at
a local hospital as an indirect result
of vaccination.
Her death was caued from sec
ondary infection following vaccina
tion, Dr. F. L. Wilmeth said. Miss
Venner submitted to vaccination
last week following the order of uni-
1
versity authorities making this com
pulsory.
The precautionary measures were
taken following a threatened small
pox epidemic among university stud
ents. Miss Venner’s death cast a
gloom over university circles. She
had a sweet disposition and was be
loved by aJI.
She was the only child of Mr. and
Mrs. P. F. Venner of Nebraska City.
She was born in Eagle, Nebr., but
received most of her education in
Lincoln. She attended tho grade
schools here and was a graduate of
Temple high school in 1916. Early
in her school life she showed except
ional talent and a bright future had
been predicted for her.
Miss Venner was the grand-daugh
ter of Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Venner
of University Place. Her parents just
recently moved to Nebraska City
and the girl expected to be removed
to her new home today.
She was a member of the Alphi
Chi Omega sorority."
CHARGES DEATHS
FROM INFECTIONS HIDDEN
Death of children from infection
caused by vaccination have been
suppressed by Brooklyn physicians,
according to charges made by Chas.
M. Higgins yesterday. Higgins ap
peared before Justice Aspinall in
special term of supreme* court. De
cision was reserved.
F. A. Doyle, for Higgins, argued
a motion compelling the health au
thorities to give him copies of re
ports of death from tetanus. As
sistant Corporation Counsel Ken
nedy opposed the order. Higgins
said be wanted the information for
reasons of public good. He said
that vaccination killed more suffer
ers than the diseases it is supposed
to prevent.—New York, January 3,
1918.
OCCASIONALLY’ GOOD
SENSE OCCURS
O. R. Steiner of Akron, 0., sends
us the Sunday Leader. Cleveland,
Ohio, of January 20, 1918.
“Saves His Appendix”
“John Klein, a painter, employed
at the Goodyear Heights allotment,
still has appendix today, due to the
fact that he didn't follow the doc
tor’s advice. Klein was picked up
yesterday afternoon suffering severe
internal pains and taken to the City
Hospital, where the case was diag
nosed as appendicitis and an immed
iate operation ordered. But while
the operating room was being pre
pared, Klein grabbed his clothes and
skipped. No trace of him could be
found until morning, when he tel
ephoned in that he was feeling all
right and back on the job. He had
merely had an attack of painters*
colic, be said.
J. W. Hodge, M. D. says: “Regret
table as it is to have to say so, the
protection of the public from small
pox is but a mask used to hide a
selfish scheme of power and profit
on the part of the clique of mercen
ary doctors who are pecuniarily in
terested in spreading disease among
the people. Who can doubt the
truth of the statement that vaccina
tion laws were framed and passed
for the benefit of the doctors and
vaccine producers rather than for
the protection of the public health,
as they were professed to be."
OFFICIAL REPORTS OF ENG
LAND’S REGISTRAR GENERAL
1837-1807.
Referring to the official reports
of England’s Registrar-General, Dr.
Farr, *e find: ,
"In the first variolous epidemic
after the compulsory vaccination act
of 1853 came into operation, name
ly in the years 1857-59, the deaths
from smallpox numbered 14,244.
In the second epidemic of 1863-65,
the deaths rose to 20,059 and in the
third epidemic vhich came immed
iately In the wake of the more strin
gent Penal Act of 1867, the deaths
from smallpox reached the enormous
total of 44,840, of which some 20,-
000 were children under ten years
of age. So that not withstanding
that the vaccination of infants in
creased from 50 per cent to about
90 per cent of the births between
the first and third epidemics, small
pox also advanced in an increasing
ratio. Indeed while the population
increased between the first and the
third epidemics, 7 per cent, the death
from smallpox increased 40 percent,
and while between the second and
third epidemics the population In
creased only 10 per cent, the small
pox deaths increased 120 per cent.
The experience of the well re-vac
cinated men in the British army and
navy, a picked class as regards age,
physical strength and health, shows
an amount of smallpox and a rate of
fatality which would be impossible
if there were any virtue at all in re
vaccination.—Medical Century, Oc
tober, 1908.
Many eminent medical authorities
concur in the fact that cancer. Tuber
culosis, Scrofula, Syphillis, all forms
of blood diseases and insanity, have
enormously increased since the in
troduction of vaccination. We must
therefore infer that in its ultimate
results, vaccine virus Is a great dis
ease producer, as well as a money
producer for those who practice it.
In England alone, It was estimated
by the “Herald of Health," two mil
lions of pounds sterling were an
nually paid to physicians, which
would not have been paid if the law
had not enforced vaccination.
In the report of the Local Gov
ernment Board of London, Eng., for
1905, it is admitted that the virus
then used was obtained from the
deadhouses on the smallpox hospital
ships, because they found It most ef
fective. This vaccine was cal)ed
corpse virus, and it cannot be denied
that it carried with it the frightful
danger of inoculation with cadaveric
poison—one of the most deadly tox
ins known to science. Mr. Albert
Bridges Fam, an expert employed for
many years in the British govern
ment vaccine virus department, tes
tified before the royal commission
that he had never guaranteed one
sample of pure vaccine virus.
COMPULSORY DISTRIBUTION OF
DISEASES IN THE SCHOOLS OF
THE EMPIRE STATE
The. New York statute provides
that “No child or person not vac
cinated, shall be admitted .or receiv
ed into any of the public schools of
the state.” In acocrdance to the re
quirements of this monstrous law no
healthful child can lawfully be
taught in our public schools until
he shall have been diseased. “No
disease, no education” is the. grue
some mandate of this odious and de
testable law. “Be diseased or grow
up in ignorance” is the inscription
written over every schoolhouse door,
in violation of right, reason or com
mon sense. Think of it, reader! The
offenseenjoyment of health is made
a penal offense by a law of the em
pire state of this nation, while the
distribution of undefined disease is
made obligatory! Think of the un
paralleled injustice and unspeakable
outrage of the compulsory infliction
of disease by tho state upon its
healthy children as a qualification
for school attendance in this age of
boasted civilization, hygiene enlight
enment and sanitary science!
The enforcement of this law is a
crime! To call it by any other name
is to temporize. Although at one
time an Uiplicit believer in the
“dairy maid's creed” having vacci
nated more than 3.000 victims, ig
norantly presuming that I was pro
tecting them from smallpox, I now
denounce vaccination as the suprern
est folly of the age, and compulsory
vaccination as the crime of the cen
tury.”—(J. W. H.)
Dr. Hubert Boens said: "Continue
gentlemen, to vacicnate if you
choose, and because you make money
by it; but never forget, pseudo sci
entists and false physicians that you
are, that while you sow vaccine
among the people, they reap the
pox.”—Adopted from the allocution
of Dr. Herbert Boens, of Charleroi,
Belgium.
Dr. Brigham, diretor or the Mus
eum of Natural History at Honolulu
and a trained scientific observer, in
a conversation said: "Vaccination at
the Hawaiian islands has not only
failed in its purpose since 1864 but
has resulted in a rapid and extensive
spread of syphilis, leprosy, and other
diseases.”
Dr. Charles Creighton testified be
fore the British Royal Commission
on vaccination when askod whether
in his opinion vaccination -affords
any protection against smallpox: “In
my opinion it affords none”—Second
Report, Minutes of Evidence, Q. 5430
p. 179.
T. McKenzie, M. D„ F. R. C. P„
Edinburgh, January 26, 1882: "I
can produce children of three differ
ent families where scrofula was nev
er heard of until they were vaccinat
ed, but those necks are now a sad
sight to see'*
Sir W. J. Collins and Mr. Plcton
have shown that symptoms indisting
uishable from those of syphillis, and
which have, hitherto been regarded
as characteristic and diagnostic, have
arisen when vaccination has been
performed with matter derived from
the calf. (British Royal Commis
sion on Vaccination Final Report, p.
201. Statement of Grounds of Dis
sent, paragraph 213.)
Dr. Alexander Wilder of Newark,
N. J. says. “After such contamination
you can never hope to grin the form
er purity of the body. Thus tainted
the body is made liable to a host of
ailments. Consumption follows in
the footsteps of vaccination as cer
tainly as effect follows cause.”
Dr. W. J. Collins, M. D„ L. R. fc
P. M R C P, L. M.: “Dr. Jenner’s eld
est son Edward, when a year and a
half old, was inoculated with swine
pox matter. . Other members of his
family were afterward operated on
in the same way, and they all died
of consumption.”
Dr. E. B. Foot©, Jr., New York
City: “Vaccination has stood for
nearly one hundred years on three
legs—theory, practice and profit.
Now it is fast tottering to a fall. The
English know more of it than any
other people. There it started, there
It has been tested, studied and is
falling into ‘inocuous desuetude.’ ”
M. R. Leverson, M. D., says: "Or
dinary vaccination, the name given
by the vaccinists to the disease pro
duced by vaccination, ie a more se- '
vere disease than ordinary small
pox. Severe vaccinia is a very much
more severe disease than severe
smallpox and often lasts throughout
the life of the patient.”
Dr. Robert Hall Bakewell, former
Vaccinator General of the Island of
Trinidad, says: ... he was led to
fear "that in some instances whole
sale vaccination and re-vaccinations
at the commencement of an epidemic
have spread smallpox among those
who remained unvaccinated;” again,
he found a remote part of the Island
“was entirely free from smallpox un
til an energetic vaccinator, newly ap
pointed. vaccinated upwards of a
hundred in the course of three or
four weeks. Smalpox then broke
out.”—Excerpts from an article by
Porter F. Cope, in “The Healthy
Life," Scranton, Pa., February, 1907
STATISTICS OF ITALY
Dr. Ruata, professor of
Materia Medica in the university of
Perugia, Italy, states that in that
country vaccination is executed with
great care and he believes that in
no other country is it more univers
ally practiced. Yet his observations
have led him to oppose vaccination,
and he gives in the La Salute Publica
the following figures:
Table 17—Deaths from Smallpox in
Italy
Year Deaths
1881 8000
1882 7000
1883 2000
1884 6000
1885 12000
1886 19000
1887 16200
1888 18000
This is the result with ninety-five
per cent of the population vaccinated.
o
THE EXPERIENCE OF GERMANY
There is absolute proof that vac
cination in Germany was not effect
ive to prevent smallpox, because vac
cination has been compulsory in
Prussia for the past seventy years.
In 1871 Dr. Seaton said to the Com
mittee on Vaccination: “Q. 5608: I
know Prussia is well protected" and
the general medical opinion was ex
pressed thus in the Pall Mall Gaz
ette. May 24, 1871:
“Prussia is the country where re
vaccination is most generally prac
ticed. the law making the precaution
obligatory on every person, and the
authorities conscientiously watching
over its performance. As the result
cases of smallpox are rare."
As a matter of fact, however, dur
ing the twenty-four years preceding
1871 there had been much greater
smallpox mortality in Prussia than
in England. Almost immediately af
ter Dr. Seaton made the above state
ment, the smallpox broke out in
Prussia and killed in 1871-2 125,000
people, nearly all of whom had been
vaccinated.—From the British Un
ion for the Abolition of Vivisection,
August 1908. .
Statistics of the Realm, furnished
In 1877 by C. T Pearce, M. R. C. S.
and Registrar-General of England:
Vaccination was made compulsory in
1853, again in 1867, and more rigid
in 1871. Since 1853 we have had
three smallpox epidemics:
1. 1857-59, deaths 14244
2. 1863-65, deaths 20059
3. 1870-72, deaths 44,840
Smallpox deaths the first ten years
of enforced vaccination (1854-1863)
33,515.
THE FAILURE OF VACCINATION
TO PREVENT FROM SMALLPOX
IN RE-VACCINATED JAPAN
(By J. W. Hodge, M. D., Niagra
Falls, N. Y. Reprinted from the
September 1910 number of the 20th
Century Magazine.)
Japan is one of the most complete
ly vaccinated and re-vaccinated na
tions in the world. In the year 1872
a law was passed making vaccination
in the country compulsory. Notwith
standing the rigid enforcement of
that law, Japan subsequently suffer
ed many thousands of deaths annual
ly from smallpox following success
ful vaccination.
Pro-vaccinist, far from being dis
mayed at this death roll, instated
that it might have been avoided if
every Individual, instead of having
been but once vaccinated, had been
re-vaccinated.
The legislative chamber, therefore
in the year 1885, passed another and
more stringent law whereby re-vac
cination, repeated every five to seven
years, was made compulsory. In pur
suance to this Jaw, 25,474,370 vac
cinations, re-vaccinatlons and re-re
vaccinations were officially recorded
as having been performed in Japan
between the years 1886 and 1892,
which means that about two-thlrds
of the entire Japanese population al
ready vaccinated under the provis
ions of the law of 1872, were re
vaccinated within the period above
stated. It does not seem possible
that the moot ardent pro-vaccinist
could desire more than this. What
was the result of this enormous
amount of re-vacination? The offic
ial government records show that
during the seven years that Inter
vened between 1886 and 1892 Japan
suffered 38,979 deaths from post
vaccinal smallpox. while 156,175
cases of vaccinated smallpox were of
ficially notified.
This was a case-fatality of nearly
twenty>five percent, which greatly
exceeds the smallpox death rate of
the pre-vacclnation epoch when no
body was vaccinated. By the provis
ions of the compulsory law. every
infant born within the Empire of
Japan must be vaccinated within the
first year after its birth. In case the
result of this primary vaccination
proves to be unsatisfactory, the vac
cine operation must be followed by
three additional operations within a
year.
Even if the result of the primary
vaccination proves "successful” and
entirely satisfactory, vaccination is
required to be repeated after a per
iod of from five to seven years there
after.
In the event of an outbreak of
smallpox the Japanese rigidly en
force re-vaccination, irrespective of
previous vaccinations and re-vacci
nations. In spite of those stringent
requirements in respect to re-vac
cination. and re-re-vaccination, of
the entire Japanese population, what
has been the result? Lot the sta
tistical government figures hear tes
timony. During the scxtennlal per
iod (1892-1897) Japan had 142,032
cases of post-vaccinal smallpox not
ified, 39,535 of which cases proved
fatal. In a single year, 1893, 41,898
cases of smallpox were officially
notified, 1,852 of which cases prov
ed fatal.
By another Act of Parliament,
passed in 1896, and at once signed
by the Mikado, re-vaccination at the
end of every five year period was
made compulsory upon every Japa
nese subject, whatever his or her
station in life. This act, like its pre
decessors, was rigidly enforced un
der a severe penalty. What was the
result? Nearly 4 2,000 cases of
smallpox were notified in the Empire
during the next and succeeding year.
In the single year of 1897 the
Japanese nation had 41,946 cases of
smallpox officially notified, of which
12,276 terminated fatally. This was
a case fatality of about 32 per cent
or nearly double the fatality rate
for smallpox in the pre-Jennarlan
era when nobody was vaccinated and
(Continued on Page 3)
IMPRESSIVE STATISTICS
ENGLAND