Reasons why the vaccination law should not be repealed : a consideration of some of the arguments of the anti-vaccinationists / published by the Committee on Vaccination Connecticut State Medical Society.

  • Connecticut State Medical Society.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reasons why the vaccination law should not be repealed : a consideration of some of the arguments of the anti-vaccinationists / published by the Committee on Vaccination Connecticut State Medical Society. 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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    service; only 3 of this number had ever had smallpox and not one of the 300 contracted the disease. This is the uni- versal result .wherever vaccination has been employed under similar conditions and it is unnecessary to cite further in- stances, except to qimtc the statement made by Dr. Elisha North, of Goshen and New London, Conn. Writing in 1829, he says thai Connecticut contained then about 250,000 inhabitants and during the thirty preceding years only ahoul twelve had died from smallpox. lie adds: We, the people, are indebted for so great a blessing to two causes. 1. Vac- cination ; 2. Public law. In answer to the assertion that the prevalence of small- pox depends entirely upon unhealthy sanitary conditions as regards pure air, pure water and wholesome food, reference is made to the above mentioned pamphlet. Following the World's Fair the city of Chicago had an epidemic of smallpox in which over 1,000 lives were lost. The following quotation is from the health report of the city of Chicago for the year 1894: Recognizing the necessity of prompt and active defence, the commissioners at once increased the number of medical inspectors and established a corps of five hundred vaccina- tors, a number amply sufficient to cover the territory in which they had to labor, and so thoroughly was this work done that the most unsanitary and overcrowded districts were finally rendered the most free from smallpox. As an example: In one of the West Side districts, with a popula- tion of 70,000, within two months 03,000 were successfully vaccinated, and although this district was almost completely saturated with contagion, and although numerous cases had occurred within its limits, yet after the vaccinators had once gone over the field five months of perfect freedom from the disease ensued, and the only case which then appeared was that of a babe, nineteen clays old, who had not yet been vac- cinated. This has been the universal experience wherever