VACCINATION A CURSE.
				propagating itself, just as much as there was a first dog, or pair of dogs; and that the small-pox would not begin itself any more than a new dog would begin without there having been a parent dog. Since then I have seen with my eyes small-pox growing up in first specimens, in close rooms or over-crowded wards, where it could not by any possibility have been caught, but must have been begun. Nay more; I have seen diseases begin, grow up, and pass into one another; with over-crowding, continued fever; with a little more over-crowding, typhoid; with a little more, typhus, and all in the same ward or hut."
					COMPARISON OF SMALL-POX DEATHS.
			NEW YORK. NO VACCINATION. LONDON. VACCINATION THE FASHION. YEAR. PER HUNDRED THOUSAND LIVING. DEATHS. DEATHS. 1804............................ 1805............................ 1806............................ 1807............................ 1808............................ 1809............................ 1810............................ AVERAGE................ 169 62 48 29 62 66 4 63 61 163 110 122 I08 106 106 111
		In 1820, that is, before Jenner's death, it was said: "Cases of small-pox after vaccination have increased to such an ex- tent, that no conscientious practitioner can recommend vacci- nation as affording a certain security against the contagion of small-pox."—"Gazette of Health," London, 1820. In 1828 there was a severe epidemic in Marseilles where 2,000 were attacked with small-pox, who had been vaccinated. In the epidemic of 1831, in Wirtemburg, 955 persons were at- tacked with small-pox—all vaccinated. "The matter has been looked into by Dr. Creighton and by Prof. Crookshank as far as its pathological aspect is con- cerned; and the conclusions towards which we are pointed in

		VACCINATION KAILS TO PROTECT.                             59 this, that while vaccination is not, and from the nature of the case cannot be, a specific prophylactic against small-pox, yet a severe attack of cow-pox, or, in other words, vaccination fol- lowed by considerable constitutional disturbance, is likely to prove, while the febrile symptoms still last, antagonistic to the small-pox infection, and, so far, affords a temporary protection against it. Probably the same is true of any other disease that produces constitutional disturbance with febrile symptoms. We must, moreover, bear in mind that many persons, apart from vaccination, had been known to show constitutional insuscep- tibility to the variolous inoculation, and that inoculation itself was often enough a mere formality, producing no results; and this was extremely likely to be the case when the operators were anxious that no results should be produced. Add to this the enthusiasm for the cause, which, unless Jenner and his fel- low-workers had been more than human, would lead them, with- out conscious dishonesty, to make no record of experiments that failed, and we have perhaps a fair explanation of the whole business; but it is not altogether a satisfactory one; and it is difficult not to regret that similar experiments cannot be re- peated now under conditions involving publicity, as that would really settle the whole controversy."—"Vaccination Question," Arthur Wallaston Hutton. "The small-pox is making still greater havoc in the ranks of the Prussian army, which is said to have 30,000 small-pox patients in its hospitals."—"London Morning Advertiser," Nov. 24, 1870. "The United States frigate Independence, with a ship's company of 560 persons, there were 116 cases of small-pox, seven fatal. The crew of this ship almost universally presented what are regarded as genuine vaccine marks. The protection, however, proved to be quite imperfect."— U. S. Navy Depart- ment Reports, 1850. "In a cruise of the North Carolina up the Mediterranean, she shipped at Norfolk a crew of 900 men, most of whom had been vaccinated, or had the small-pox, but were nevertheless twice vaccinated prior to the ship sailing, a third time at Gibral- tar, and a fourth time at Port Mahon. Dr. Henderson, who reports these facts, states that notwithstanding this ultra vacci- nation under such various circumstances of virus, climate, etc.,

		60                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. 157 of the crew had varioloid."—Ibid. In New York (1870-71) the health department reported: "This extraordinary prevalence of small-pox over various parts of the globe, especially in countries where vaccination has long been efficiently practiced; its occurrence in its most fatal form in persons who gave evidences of having been well vacci- nated, and the remarkable susceptibility of people of all ages to re-vaccinations, are new facts in the history of this pestilence, which must lead to a re-investigation of the whole subject of vaccination and of its claims as a protecting agent."—Dr. Win- terburn, page 73. In 1882 small-pox was epidemic in Baltimore. The vic- tims were principally foreigners, crowded together in the most filthy quarter of the town. In a crowded tenement from fifteen to twenty cases were often reported. In a single month (Janu- ary) over 162,000 persons were vaccinated by the city physi- cians. There were 4,930 cases, of which 3,506 were children. The deaths amounted to 1,184, of which 959 were children— about 78 per cent. This, together with hundreds of other in- stances that might be cited from crowded centers of popula- tion, proves vaccination a complete and glarings failure in times of small-pox epidemic—the only time when sure protection is needed. When the great London epidemic raged (1871-72), 96 per cent. of births were registered as vaccinated, yet there were 11,- 174 cases of small-pox in the London hospitals. At the same period 17,109 cases were reported in Milan, of which but 278 were classed as unvaccinated. In the French army during the Franco-Prussian war, 23,469 cases were recorded, every one of which had been vaccinated, and a large proportion re-vacci- nated. Dr. Bayard, of Paris, says: "Every French soldier on entering a regiment is re-vaccinated; there are no exceptions." Sir Henry Holland reluctantly admits that "The circum- stances, of late years, have greatly changed the aspect of all that relates to this question. It is no longer expedient, in any

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             6l sense, to argue for the present practice of vaccination as a cer- tain or permanent preventive of small-pox. The truth must be told as it is, that the earlier anticipations on this point have not been realized." "From childhood I have been trained to look upon the cow- pox as an absolute and unqualified protective. I have, from my earliest remembrance, believed in it more strongly than in any clerical tenet or ecclesiastical dogma. The numerous and acknowledged failures did not shake my faith. I attributed them either to the carelessness of the operator or the badness of the lymph. In the course of time, the question of vaccine compulsion came before the Reichstag, when a medical friend supplied me with a mass of statistics favorable to vaccination, in his opinion conclusive and unanswerable. This awoke the statistician within me. On inspection, I found the figures were delusive; and a closer examination left no shadow of doubt in my mind that the so-called statistical array of proof was a com- plete failure."—Dr. G. F. Kolb, Royal Sta. Com., Bavaria. The Registrar General (England), in his official report for 1880, points out some very important facts, namely, that the reduction in the sum total of zymotic diseases for the previous decade, should be put down to the credit of improved sanita- tion. The death rate from fever fell nearly 50 per cent.; that of scarlatina and diphtheria, 33 per cent., while small-pox alone increased 50 per cent., and this when vaccination was general and thorough. This proves that vaccination has no appreciable effect to check the progress of small-pox when it becomes epi- demic. We also have here an illustration of the law, already pointed out, that when one zymotic disease is epidemic the others are in abeyance to the extent that the total death rate is not sensibly affected. The "London Lancet" (1871) says, editorially: "Those who have been building up in their imagination a great and ben- eficent system of state medicine, under which the great causes of diseases were to be controlled, must abate their hopefulness. It must be admitted that the existing system of public vaccina-

		62                                       VACCINATION A CURSE. tion has been sadly discredited and almost mocked by the exper- ience of the present epidemic." In a speech in the London Vaccination Conference (1881). Dr. Bullard—with a salary of $3,500.00 as public vaccinator— said: "If it were not for the interference of such small-pox ep- idemics as that of 1871, the records of vaccination would be per- fectly satisfactory." Dr. Robinson retorted: "Dr. B. reminds me of a bankrupt who avowed he would be perfectly solvent, if it were not for his confounded losses." Aye, it is during a money-crisis that the solvency of a bank is tested; and it is likewise during a small-pox epidemic the value—or total lack of it—of vaccination is tested. If at this critical period it fails to protect, it is thereby not only proved to be utterly useless, but an unmitigated curse; for it not only fails to yield any ben- efit, but it charges the bodies of its unnumbered victims with a virus, the effects of which the most thorough sanitation will only partially counteract. Here are some figures : SMALL-POX DEATHS IN LONDON. 1851-60 ...........................................    7,150 1861-70 ...........................................    8,347 1871-80 ...........................................   15,551 The deaths in England from the last three great epidemics of small-pox were: Deaths. 1857-9 ............................................ 14,244 1863-5 ............................................ 20,059 1870-2 ............................................ 44,840 This is vaccinated London; this is vaccinated England, and observe that the last curse was far more grievous than the first —twenty years earlier. Florence Nightingale writes that "Every one who knows anything of public health questions, will agree as to the practi- cal unity of epidemics and their determining causes, and that ex-

			VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             63 emptions from all alike must be sought, not by any one thing, such as vaccination, but by inquiring into and removing the causes of epidemic susceptibility generally."
		HARD BLOWS BY PROFESSOR WALLACE. One of the ablest writers and thoroughly scientific men in England—Prof. Alfred R. Wallace—has enrolled himself on the side of reform, and has recently written and published (1898) one of the best books on the vaccination controversy which has appeared within the history of the agitation—"Vaccination a Delusion." This has been published both as a separate volume, and also embodied in his latest work—"The Wonderful Cen- tury," where it is receiving a wide circulation. Prof. Wallace has made a thorough study and analysis of the statistical prob- lem as it relates to vaccination and to small-pox, and arranged the results in diagramatic form—twelve diagramatic maps— the only form in which statistics show the exact truth at a glance. I am more than pleased to have access to such an ample and thoroughly reliable source of information, and shall embody some of Prof. Wallace's results in these pages: He critically examined the early tests employed by the ad- vocates of vaccination to prove the protective influence of the practice, and points out the fallacy and complete inefficiency of these tests. Moreover, he urges that the real test would have been to inoculate with small-pox virus two groups of persons of similar age, constitution and health, one group having been vaccinated, the other not, and none of them having had small- pox. Then have the results carefully noted and reported by in- dependent experts. But such practical tests have never been instituted by the apologists and defenders of the practice. The Board of the National Vaccine Establishment, ap- pointed in 1808, consisted of the president and four censors of

		64                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. the Royal College of Physicians, and the master and two senior wardens of the College of Surgeons. Speaking of this board, Prof. Wallace observes:— "The successive annual reports of the National Vaccine Es- tablishment give figures of the deaths by small-pox in London in the eighteenth century, which go on increasing like Fal- staff's men in buckram; while in our own time the late Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Mr. Ernest Hart, the National Health Society, and the Local Government Board make statements or give fig- ures which are absurdly and demonstrably incorrect. * * * The unreasoning belief in the importance of vaccination leads many of those who have to deal with it officially to conceal- ments and mis-statements which are justified by the desire to 'save vaccination from reproach.' " Next Prof. Wallace cites two cases which shows the un- scrupulous special pleading of members of the National Vaccine Establishment—the recklessness in making assertions which scorns the slightest attempt at verification:— "In the first edition of Mr. Ernest Hart's "Truth About Vaccination" (page 4), it is stated, on the authority of a mem- ber of Parliament recently returned from Brazil, that during an epidemic of small-pox at the town of Ceara in 1878 and 1879, out of a population not exceeding 70,000 persons there were 40,000 deaths from small-pox. This was repeated by Dr. Car- penter during a debate in London, in February, 1882, and only when its accuracy was called in question was it ascertained that at the time referred to the population of Ceara was only about 20,000, yet the M. P. had stated—with detailed circumstance- that in one cemetery, from August, 1878, to June, 1879, 27,- 064 persons who had died of small-pox had been buried.' Ga- zetteers are not very recondite works, and it would have been not difficult to test some portion of this monstrous statement before printing it. Jenner's biographer tells us that he had a horror of arithmetical calculations, due to a natural incapacity, which quality appears to be a special characteristic of those who advocate vaccination, as the examples I have given sufficiently prove. "Another glaring case of official misrepresentation oc- curred in the Royal Commission itself, but was fortunately ex-

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             65 posed later on. A medical officer of the Local Government Board gave evidence (First Report, Q. 994), that the board in 1886 'took some pains to get the figures as to the steamship Preussen,' on which small-pox broke out on its arrival in Aus- tralia. He made the following statements: (1) There were 312 persons on board this vessel. (2) 4 re-vaccinated, 47 vacci- nated, 3 who had small-pox, and 15 unvaccinated were attacked —69 in all. (3) The case was adduced to show that 'sanitary circumstances have little or no control over small-pox compared with the condition of vaccination or no vaccination.' "This official statement was quoted in the House of Com- mons as strikingly showing the value of vaccination. But, like so many other official statements, it was all false! The re- ports of the Melbourne and Sydney inspectors have been ob- tained, and it is found: (1) That there were on board this ship 723 passengers and 120 crew—823 in all, instead of 312; so that the 'pains' taken by the Local Government Board to get 'the figures' were very ineffectual. (2) There were 29 cases among the 235 passengers who disembarked at Melbourne, of whom only 1 was unvaccinated. The crew had all been vaccinated be- fore starting, yet 14 of them were attacked with small-pox, and one died." —Page 81 of "Vaccination a Delusion," Again, officials of the Vaccine Establishment have no mo- tives why a record of small-pox mortality should not be cor- rect ; but they have a motive to charge the record up against the unvaccinated all that the state of the public health will bear. Of fatal cases none are returned as vaccinated unless distinct and visible vaccine marks are found, which often lead to error. Besides, official vaccinators have an admitted practice of giving vaccination the benefit of any doubt that may arise as to whether the victim of the disease was ever vaccinated. Hence, while statistics are sure to embrace the full number of the un- vaccinated, they rarely reveal the number of the vaccinated. Sweden is often quoted by advocates of vaccination as bear- ing out their contention that vaccination really protects. They point out that vaccination was introduced in Sweden in 1801.

		66                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. and that from that time to 1810 there was a great and sudden decline of small-pox mortality. But Prof. Wallace, taking the report of the Swedish Board of Health, and the statements of such authorities as Sir William Gull, Dr. Seaton and Mr. Marsen before the Commission of Inquiry in 1871, constructed a complete diagramatic table of Swedish mortality statistics. I will here attempt nothing more than a brief summary of a por- tion of the facts. In the first place, only 8 per cent. of the population were vaccinated in Sweden down to 1812. The first successful vacci- nation in Stockholm was at the close of 1810. And here it is important to note that the decline in small-pox mortality was between 1801 and 1812, while only 8 per cent. of the population was yet vaccinated, and even this small percentage was mostly confined to the rural districts. From 1812, for sixty years there was a continuous increase in the small-pox death rate. The Stockholm epidemic of 1807, before a single inhabitant in that city was vaccinated, and the epidemic in 1825, were far less se- vere than the six later epidemics when vaccination had become general. By referring to Prof. Wallace's diagram, we see that vaccination had nothing to do with the reduction of small-pox mortality, which was all brought about before the first success- ful vaccination in the capital, Dec. 17, 1810. As vaccination in- creased among the population, small-pox increased also. In 1874 there was a small-pox mortality in Stockholm of 7,916 per million, reaching 10,290 per million during the two years in which the epidemic prevailed. This was a higher mortality than the worst epidemic in London during the eighteenth cen- tury. Prof. Wallace sums up the case as it relates to Sweden:— "There has evidently been a great and continuous im- provement in healthy conditions of life in Sweden, as in our own country and probably in all other European nations; and this improvement, or some special portion of it, must have acted

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                                    67 powerfully on small-pox to cause the enormous diminution of the disease down to 1812, with which, as we have seen, vaccina- tion could have had nothing to do. The only thing that vacci- nation seems to have done is, to have acted as a check to this diminution, since it is otherwise impossible to explain the com- plete cessation of improvement as the operation became more general; and this is more especially the case in view of the fact that the general death rate has continued to decrease at almost the same rate down to the present day!
		"This case of Sweden alone affords complete proof of the uselessness of vaccination; yet the commissioners in the Final Report (par. 59) refer to the great diminution of small-pox mor- tality in the first twenty years of the century as being due to it. They make no comparison with the total death rate; they say nothing of the increase of small-pox from 1824 to 1874; they omit all reference to the terrible Stockholm epidemics increas- ing continuously for fifty years of legally enforced vaccination and culminating in that of 1874, which was far worse than the worst known in London during the whole of the eighteenth century. Official blindness to the most obvious facts and con- clusions can hardly have a more striking illustration than the appeal to the case of Sweden as being favorable to the claims of vaccination." In May, 1871, the Pall Mall Gazette expresses the medical opinion that:— "Prussia is the country where re-vaccination is most gen- erally practiced, the law making the precaution obligatory on every person, and the authorities conscientiously watching over its performance. As a natural result, cases of small-pox are rare." Never was there a more glaring untruth than this last statement. It is true that re-vaccination was enforced in public schools and other institutions, and most rigidly in the army, so that a very large proportion of the adult male popula- tion must have been re-vaccinated; but, instead of cases of small-pox being rare, there had been for the twenty-four years preceding 1871 a much greater small-pox mortality in Prussia than in England, the annual average being 248 per million for the former and only 210 for the latter. A comparison of the

					68
							VACCINATION A CURSE.
			two cases shows the difference at a glance. English small- pox only reached 400 per million (in 1852) while in Prussia it four times exceeded that amount. And immediately after the words above quoted were written, the great epidemic of 1871-72 caused a mortality in re-vaccinated Prussia more than double that of England."—Ibid, page 48. If we compare Berlin with London in 1871, we find the small-pox mortality for Berlin 6,150 per million—more than twice that of London; and this, remember, is where vaccination and re-vaccination were most thoroughly performed. Again, vaccination was made compulsory in Bavaria in 1807, and was so maintained down to the epidemic of 1871, when 30,742 cases of small-pox were reported, of which 95 per cent. had been vaccinated. Prof. Wallace truly remarks: "In Bavaria as in all other countries we have examined, the behavior of small-pox shows no relation to vaccination, but the very closest relation to the other zymotics and to density of population. * * Ninety- five per cent. of small-pox patients having been vaccinated is alone sufficient to condemn vaccination as useless." "One point more deserves notice before leaving this part of the inquiry, which is the specially high small-pox mortality of great commercial sea-ports. The following table, compiled from Dr. Pierce's "Vital Statistics" for the continental towns and from the Reports of the Royal Commission for those of our own country, is very remarkable and instructive;—
		NAME OF TOWN. YEAR. SMALL-POX DEATH-RATE PER MILLION. Hamburgh........ 1871 15,440 Rotterdam........ 1871 14,280 Cork ......... 1872 9,600 Sunderland 1871 1874 8,650 7,916 Stockholm........ Trieste......... 1872 1871 6,980 5,410 Newcastle-on-Tyne ...... Portsmouth........ 1872 4,420 Dublin......... 1872 4.330 Liverpool......... 1871 3.890 Plymouth......... 1872 3,000
				"The small-pox death rate in the case of the lowest of these towns is very much higher than in London during the same ep-

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             69 idemic, and it is quite clear that vaccination can have had noth- ing to do with this difference. For if it be alleged that vaccina- tion was neglected in Hamburgh and Rotterdam, of which we find no particulars, this cannot be said of Cork, Sunderland, and Newcastle. Again, if the very limited and imperfect vacci- nation of the first quarter of the century is to have the credit of the striking reduction of small-pox mortality that then oc- curred, as the Royal Commissioners claim, a small deficiency in the very much more extensive and better vaccination that gen- erally prevailed in 1871, cannot be the explanation of a small- pox mortality greater than in the worst years of London when there was no vaccination. Partial vaccination cannot be claimed as producing marvellous effects at one time and less than noth- ing at all at another time, yet this is what the advocates of vac- cination constantly do. But on the sanitation theory the ex- planation is simple. Mercantile seaports have grown up along the banks of harbors or tidal rivers whose waters and shores have been polluted by sewage for centuries. They are always densely crowded owing to the value of situations as near as possible to the shipping. Hence there is always a large popula- tion living under the worst sanitary conditions, with bad drain- age, bad ventilation, abundance of filth and decaying organic matter, and all the conditions favorable to the spread of zymotic diseases and their exceptional fatality. Such populations have maintained to our day the unsanitary conditions of the last cen-, tury, and thus present us with a similarly great small-pox mor- tality, without any regard to the amount of vaccination that maySbe practiced. In this case they illustrate the same princi- ple which so well explains the very different amounts of small- pox mortality in Ireland, Scotland, England, and London, with hardly any difference in the quantity of vaccination. The Royal Commissioners, with all these facts before them or at their command, have made none of these compari- sons. They give the figures of small-pox mortality, and either explain them by alleged increase or decrease of vaccination, or argue that, as some other disease—such as measles—did not decrease at the same time or to the same amount, therefore sanitation cannot have influenced small-pox. They never once compare small-pox mortality with general mortality, or with the rest of the group of zymotics, and thus fail to see their wonder-

		70                                             VACCINATION A CURSE. fully close agreement—their simultaneous rise and fall, which so clearly shows their subjection to the same influences and proves that no special additional influence can have operated in the case of small-pox."—Ibid, pages 51-52. Prof. Wallace then proceeds to give two remarkable test illustrations of the utter worthlessness of vaccination:— "The first is that of the town of Leicester, which for the last twenty years has rejected vaccination till it has now almost van- ished altogether and small-pox is almost unknown. The second is that of our army and navy, in which, for a quarter of a century, every recruit has been re-vac- cinated, unless he has been recently vaccinated or has had small- pox. In the first we have an almost wholly unprotected popu- lation of nearly 200,000, which, on the theory of the vaccinators, should have suffered exceptionally from small-pox; in the other we have a picked body of 220,000 men, who, on the evidence of the medical authorities, are as well protected as they know how to make them, and among whom, therefore, small-pox should be almost or quite absent, and small-pox deaths quite unknown. Let us see, then, what has happened in these two cases. In both it has been clearly proven that small-pox in- creased with the increase of vaccination, and decreased by sani- tation, cleanliness, and hygienic living. "Then commenced the movement (in Leicester) against vaccination, owing to its proved uselessness in the great epi- demic, when Leicester had a very much higher small-pox mor- tality than London, which has resulted in a continuous decline, especially rapid for the last fifteen years, till it is now reduced to almost nothing. * * * "The first thing to be noted is the remarkable simultaneous rise of all four death rates to a maximum in 1868-72, at the same time that the vaccination rate attained its maximum. The decline in the death rates from 1852 to 1860 was due to sanitary improvements which had then commenced; but the rigid en- forcement of vaccination checked the decline owing to its pro- ducing a great increase of mortality in children, an increase which ceased as soon as vaccination diminished. This clearly shows that the deaths which have only recently been acknowl- edged as due to vaccination, directly or indirectly, are really so numerous as largely affect the total death rate; but they

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             71 were formerly wholly concealed, and still are partially concealed, by being registered under such headings as erysipelas, syphilis, diarrhoea, bronchitis, convulsions, or other proximate cause of death." The small-pox history of Leicester presents one of the best object lessons of the past thirty years, for since the small-pox epidemic of 1871, the city not only rose in revolt and rid itself of the incubus of vaccination, but also instituted as thorough a system of sanitation as its crowded population of 180,000 would admit of. It therefore stands out clear and distinct above all the other cities in England, both as a rebuke to the vaccine prac- tice, and as a testimony that salvation from zymotic infection lies in the direction of hygienic habits and surroundings. In 1894 Leicester had only seven vacinations to 10,000 of the pop- ulation, while Birmingham had thirty times that proportion; and between 1891-94 Leicester had less than one-third the cases of small-pox and less than one-fouth the deaths in proportion to population, than well vaccinated Birmingham; whence it is readily seen that for both numbers and severity the facts are decidedly against vaccination. "Now let us see how theScommissioners, in their Final Re- port deal with the above facts, which are surely most vital to the very essence of the inquiry, and the statistics relating to which have been laid before them with a wealth of detail not equalled in any other case. Practically they ignore it altogether. Of course I am referring to the majority report, to which alone the government and the unenlightened public are likely to pay any attention. Even the figures above quoted as to Leicester and Warrington are to be found only in the report of the minority, who also give the case of another town, Dewsbury, which has partially rejected vaccination, but not nearly to so large an ex- tent as Leicester, and in the same epidemic it stood almost ex- actly between un-vaccinated Leicester and well-vaccinated War- rington, thus:— Leicester had 1.1 mortality per 10,000 living, Dewsbury had 6.7 motality per 10,000 living, Warrington had 11.0 mortality per 10,000 living.

		72                                         VACCINATION A CURSE. "Here again we see that it is the unvaccinated towns that suffer least, not the most vaccinated. ************ "What they urge is (the minority report), that sanitation and isolation are the effective and only preventives; and it was because Leicester attended thoroughly to these matters, and Gloucester wholly neglected them, that the one suffered so little and the other so much in the recent epidemic. On this subject every inquirer should read the summary of the facts given in the minority report, paragraph 261. "To return to the majority report. Its references to Lei- cester are scattered over 80 pages, referring separately to the hospital staff, and the relations of vaccinated and unvaccinated to small-pox; while in only a few paragraphs do they deal with the main question and the results of the system of isolation adopted. These results they endeavor to minimize by declaring that the disease was remarkably 'slight in its fatality,' yet they end by admitting that the 'experience of Leicester affords co- gent evidence that the vigilant and prompt application of isola- tion * * * * is a most powerful agent in limiting the spread of small-pox.' A little further on they say, when discuss- ing this very point—how far sanitation may be relied on in place) of vaccination—'The experiment has never been tried.' Surely a town of 180,000 inhabitants which has neglected vaccination for twenty years, is an experiment. But a little further on we see the reason of this refusal to consider Leicester a test experi- ment. Paragraph 502 begins thus: 'The question we are now discussing must, of course, be argued on the hypothesis that vaccination affords protection against small-pox.' What an amazing basis of argument for a commission supposed to be inquiring into this very point! They then continue : 'Who can possibly say that if the disease once entered a town the popula- tion of which was entirely or almost entirely unprotected, it would not spread with a rapidity of which we have in recent times had no experience ?' But Leicester is such a town. Its infants—the class which always suffers in the largest numbers —are almost wholly unvaccinated, and the great majority of its adults have, according to the bulk of the medical supporters of vaccination, long outgrown the benefits, if any, of infant-vacci- nation. The disease has been introduced into the town twenty

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             73 times before 1884, and twelve times during the last epidemic (Final Report, par. 482 and 483). The doctors have been assert- ing for years that once small-pox comes to Leicester it will run through the town like wild-fire. But instead of that it has been quelled with far less loss than in any of the best vaccinated towns in England. But the commissioners ignore this actual experiment, and soar into the regions of conjecture with, 'Who can possibly say?'—concluding the paragraph with—'A priori reasoning on such a question is of little or no value.' Very true. But a posteriori reasoning, from the cases of Leicester, Bir- mingham, Warrington, Dewsbury, and Gloucester, is of value; but it is of value as showing the utter uselessness of vaccina- tion, and it is therefore, perhaps, wise for the professional up- holders of vaccination to ignore it. But surely it is not wise for a presumably impartial commission to ignore it as it is ignored in this report."—"The Wonderful Century," pages 276-7. "Although the commission makes no mention of Mr. Bigg's tables and diagrams showing the rise of infant-mortality with increased vaccination, and its fall as vaccination diminished, they occupied a whole day cross-examining him upon them, en- deavoring by the minutest criticism to diminish their import- ance." The second test illustration referred to a few pages back— that of the army and navy—is made complete and crucial by a comparison with Ireland, which is practically unvaccinated, while the army and navy are the most thoroughly vaccinated and re-vaccinated of any class in the whole population. In Dr. MacCabe's evidence before the Royal Commission, it appears but a very small proportion of the population in Ireland have been vaccinated, and in a thorough comparison which Prof. Wallace makes between Ireland, Scotland, England, and with the army and navy, he reaches the result that unvaccinated Ire- land shows a smaller small-pox mortality than Scotland, enorm- ously less than England, and overwhelmingly less than Lon- don. With seemingly little or no regard to vaccination, this graduated series of increase in small-pox mortality is in exact correspondence with increased density of population; while in

		74                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. these crowded centers we find that small-pox behaves in the same general manner as all the other zymotic diseases. One pays no more regard than the other to vaccination, but all have respect for cleanliness and hygienic living. After discussing these features of the question, and after paying his respects to the Royal Commission, Prof. Wallace continues:— "Now if there were no other evidence which gave similar results, this great test case of large populations compared over a long series of years, is alone almost conclusive; and we ask with amazement,—Why did not the commissioners make some such camparison as this, and not allow the public to be de- ceived by the grossly misleading statements of the medical wit- nesses and official apologists for a huge imposture? For here we have on one side a population which the official witnesses de- clare to be as well vaccinated and re-vaccinated as it is possible to make it, and which has all the protection that can be given by vaccination. It is a population which, we are officially as- sured, can live in the midst of the contagion of severe small-pox and not suffer from the disease 'in any appreciable degree.' And on comparing this population of over 200,000 men, thus thoroughly protected and medically cared for, with the poorest and least cared for portion of our country—a portion which the official witness regarding it declared to be badly vaccinated, while no amount of re-vaccination was even referred to—we find the less vaccinated and less cared for community to have actually a much lower small-pox mortality than the navy, and the same as that of the two forces combined. * * * * "It is thus completely demonstrated that all the statements by which the public has been gulled for so many years, as to the almost complete immunity of the re-vaccinated army and navy, are absolutely false. It is just what Americans call 'bluff.' There is no immunity. They have no protection. When exposed to infection they do suffer just as much as other populations, or even more. In the whole of the nineteen years, 1878-1896 inclu- sive, unvaccinated Leicester had so few small-pox deaths that the Registrar General represents the average by the decimal 0.01 per thousand population, equal to 10 per million, while for the twelve years, 1878-1889, there was less than one death per

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                            75 Annum.' Here we have real immunity, real protection.; and it is obtained by attending to sanitation and isolation, coupled with the almost total neglect of the curse of vaccination. * * * "Now if ever there exists such a thing as a crucial test, this of the army and navy, as compared with Ireland, and especially with Leicester, affords such a test. The populations concerned are hundreds of thousands; the time extends to a generation; the statistical facts are clear and indisputable; while the case of the army has been falsely alleged again and again to afford in- disputable proof of the value of vaccination when performed on adults. It is important, therefore, to see how the commisssion- ers deal with these conclusive test cases. They were appointed to discover the truth and to enlighten the public and the legis- lature, not merely to bring together huge masses of undigested facts. "What they do is, to make no comparison whatever with any other fairly comparable populations, to show no perception of the crucial test they have to deal with, but to give the army and navy statistics separately, and as regards the army piece- meal, and to make a few incredibly weak and unenlightening re- marks. Thus, in par. 333, they say that, during the later years, as the whole force became more completely re-vaccinated, small- pox mortality declined. But they knew well that during the same period it declined over all England, Scotland, and Ireland, with no special re-vaccination, and most of all in unvaccinated Leicester! Then with regard to the heavy small-pox mortality of the wholly re-vaccinated and protected troops in Egypt, they say, 'We are not aware what is the explanation of this.' And this is absolutely all they say about it! But they give a long paragraph to the post office officials, and make a great deal of their alleged immunity. But in this case the numbers are smaller, the periods are less, and no statistics whatever are fur- nished except for the last four years! All the rest is an extract from a parliamentary speech by Sir Charles Dilke in 1883, stat- ing some facts, furnished of course by the medical officers of the post office, and therefore not to be accepted as evidence. This slurring over the damning evidence of the absolute inutility of the most thorough vaccination possible, afforded by the army and navy, is sufficient of itself to condemn the whole Final Re- port of the majority of the commisssioners. It proves that they

		76                                            VACCINATION A CURSE. were either unable or unwilling to analyze carefully the vast mass of evidence brought before them, to separate mere beliefs and opinions from facts, and to discriminate between the sta- tistics which represented those great 'masses of national experi- ence' to which Sir John Simon himself has appealed for a final verdict, and those of a more partial kind, which may be vitiated by the prepossesssions of those who registered the facts. That they have not done this, but without any careful examination or comparison have declared that re-vaccinated communities have 'exceptional advantages' which, as a matter of fact, the report itself show they have not, utterly discredits all their con- clusions, and renders this Final Report not only valueless but misleading."—"The Wonderful Century," pages 285-6. In addition to the above quotations, Prof. Wallace devotes an entire chapter to a criticism of the Royal Commission on Vaccination, in which their special pleading, their covert con- cealments, and their flagrant betrayal of the trust of the people through Parliament committed into their hands are unsparingly held up to view. But in this, as in nearly all similar bodies, there were a few men of conscience and integrity, who put the facts which were brought before them in their proper relation and embodied them in a minority report. The commission as a whole, however, conducted their investigations throughout as though they regarded the Vaccine Establishment as their clients, whom it was their duty to defend—even as a lawyer de- fends a client by suppressing or disparaging the testimony that bears on the other side. A further word of comment relating to this Royal Commis- sion may properly be inserted here. One redeeming feature of the medical profession is found in the fact that a fair percentage of its ablest members are loyal to the truth and have a large measure of regard for the public welfare. A certain residue are greedy and unscrupulous, and these are always plotting for place and privilege and power; and as these—through the co- operation of politicians—are opened and made accessible, they

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             77 are usually the foremost in securing official positions and places of responsibility. Now in the early history of vaccination this class secured state interference with a Compulsory Vaccination Law; but as the more conscientious and experienced physi- cians became fully convinced that vaccination was working great mischief in the community, they opposed the practice and agitated for reform. Through this public agitation the people became sufficiently enlightened on the subject to protest, and thousands refused to submit, or suffer their children to be vac- cinated. Prosecutions, fines, and imprisonment followed. The public clamor became widespread, and Parliament was repeatedly petitioned to repeal the law, which it refused to do. It was then asked to appoint a commission to investigate and report on their grievances. This also was repeatedly re- fused. Finally, after repeated refusals by the government, a Royal Commission of Inquiry on Vaccination was at length granted—in April, 1889. This was granted in consequence of popular pressure. It was professedly to be constituted a fair and impartial tribunal; but its real object was to "expose the distortions and misconceptions of the enemies of vaccination." It was really to become a "white-washing" commission to si- lence the public clamor and to intrench place-hunting officials and an army of vaccinators more strongly under the protection of the state. Not one of the fourteen members appointed was opposed to vaccination, though some of them did not favor compulsory legislation. Indeed, this commission of experts was a pretty good paralllel to that appointed in our own United States in 1898—also in obedience to popular clamor—ostensi- bly to investigate official abuses, but really to "white-wash" the "embalmed beef frauds" perpetrated on our soldiers in the field by corrupt agents who had pushed their way to the front and se- cured federal appointments. The commission found.that our soldiers had "no occasion to complain (?)." The agents did the best they could under the circumstances. The system of

		78                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. army contracts is a good one; it pays, and therefore the people should submit without complaint. The "taffy" offered them by this body of trained experts ought to taste good and quiet their murmurings. Well, this Royal Commission spread its labors over a period of seven years, on big government salaries, before it made its final report. It is this report which Prof. Wallace so unmercifully scores. What I have said in the preceding paragraph may likewise be applied in large part to the National Vaccine Establishment in England, which was founded in 1806 and endowed by govern- ment with £3,000 per year. During the eight years succeeding the Jenner discovery, cases of failure continued to multiply which occasioned a deal of trouble to Jenner and his party to explain away. So the doctors sought the co-operation of gov- ernment to extend and perpetuate their schemes. Dr. Scott Tebb, after detailing these early failures, continues:— "The reports of failure at length became so numerous, that it was found necessary to take action. In a letter to Mr. Dun- ning in reference to Dr. Benjamin Moseley's publication of fail- ures, Jenner expresses the opinion that nothing would crush the hissing heads of such serpents at once but a general mani- festo with the signatures of men of eminence in the profession, unless Parliament had a mind to take the matter up again." So Jenner had a conference with Lord Henry Petty (chan- cellor of the exchequer) who gave assurances that he would bring the matter forward in the ensuing session, which, when convened (1806) was readily persuaded to vote the Crown an address, praying "that His Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct his College of Physicians to inquire into the state of vac- cine inoculation in the United Kingdom, and to report their opinion and observations upon that practice, the evidence which has been adduced in its support, and the causes which have hitherto retarded its general adoption; and that His Majesty

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                              79 will be graciously pleased to direct that the said report, when made, may be laid before this House. "The College reported favorably, and the National Vac- cine Establishment was founded with a vaccine board of eight, each having a salary of £100 a year. Although the profession and Parliament had been practically committed to vaccination at the time of Jenner's petition (1802), this was the first instance of the establishment and endowment of the practice, and the natural tendency was to stifle opposition; indeed, it may be said that one of the principal functions of the National Vaccine Es- tablishment was to explain away the failures of cow-pox to pro- tect from small-pox. ****** In some towns fail- ures were such as to lead to a discontinuance of the practice. ******* The practice afterwards became more general, until the small-pox raged epidemically. It was then ob- served that many of the children who had been previously vac- cinated, and were supposed to be secure, caught the complaint; some of them died, and others recovered with difficulty." —"A Century of Vaccination," pages 122-23. In the "Medical Observer" for November, 1809, the details of fourteen fatal cases are given:— "1. A child was vaccinated by Mr. Robinson, surgeon and apothecary, at Rotherham, towards the end of the year 1799. A month later it was inoculated with small-pox matter without ef- fect, and a few months subsequently took confluent small-pox, and died. "2. A woman-servant to Mr. Gamble, of Bungay, in Suf- folk, had cow-pox in the casual way from milking. Seven years afterwards she became nurse to the Yarmouth Hospital, where she caught small-pox, and died. "3 and 4. Elizabeth and John Nicholson, three years of age, were vaccinated at "Battersea in the summer of 1804. Both contracted small-pox in May, 1805, and died. They were at- tended by Dr. Moseley and Mr. Roberts. "5. Mr. J. Adams, of Nine Elms, contracted casual cow- pox, and afterwards died of confluent small-pox. "6. The child of Mr. Carrier, Crown Street, Soho, was vac- cinated at the institution in Golden Square, and had small-pox three months afterwards, and died.

		80                                       VACCINATION A CURSE. "7. Mary Finney's child, aged one year, died of small-pox in July, 1805, five months after vaccination. "8. The child of Mr. Blake's coachman, living at No. 5 Baker Street, died of small-pox after vaccination. "9. Mr. Colson's grandson, at the 'White Swan,' White- cross Street, aged two years, was vaccinated by a surgeon at Bishopsgate Street, in September, 1803. He died of confluent small-pox in July, 1805. "10. Mr. Brailey's child, aged two years and eight months, was vaccinated at the Small-pox Hospital, and forty weeks after- wards died of confluent small-pox. "11. Mr. Hoddinot's child, No. 17 Charlotte Street, Rath- bone Place, was vaccinated in 1804 and the cicatrix remained. In 1805 it caught small-pox and died. "12. C. Mazoyer's child, No. 31 Grafton Street, Soho, was vaccinated at the Small-pox Hospital. Died of small-pox Octo- ber, 1805. "13. The child of Mr. R-----— died of small-pox in Octo- ber, 1805. The patient had been vaccinated, and the parents were assured of its security. The vaccinator's name was con- cealed. "14. The child of Mr. Hindsley at Mr. Adams' office, Ped- ler's Acre, Lambeth, died of small-pox a year after vaccination." Such entire failures of vaccination, as a remedy or protec- tion, multiplying on every hand, had no effect either on Parlia- ment or the College of Physicians. The failures were concealed, glossed over or explained away. Once committed to the vac- cine superstition there was no backing down to be thought of or tolerated. No confession of error must be allowed to cast reproach upon so learned a body as the College of Physicians. And then, it was a good thing—an establishment endowed by the crown; a goodly number of government offices with fair salaries; an army of vaccinators in government and municipal employ; these are not to be lightly surrendered. Christ—if he were here—might plead for the little ones, for the rising gener- ation. But why should the rising generation stand in the way of business? "Business is business." "We must live." These

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             8l are corporation and class ethics, without soul, without con- science, cruel as fate, knowing no other object or goal than what self interest dictates. This is the code by which oppressive laws become recorded on our statute books, and are kept there; the code by which otherwise good men will enter into compacts which, in their composite character, become merciless tyran- nies—a veritable car of Juggernaut—bearing down its victims without pity and without remorse! Again, the "Medical Observer" for August, 1810, states that the poor of the parish of Witford, in Hertfordshire, were vaccinated by Mr. Farrow, apothecary at Hadham, with matter procured from London Cow-pox Institute. During the small- pox epidemic that followed, of 69 vaccinated, 29 took small-pox, nine of whom died. The editor gives a list of the fatal cases:— Name.                                                                    Age. William Barton ...............................    5 years Mary Catmore ................................   13 years Ann Catmore .................................   13 years Emma Prior ..................................    6 months Martha Wrenn ...............................    6 years William Catmore .............................    3 years Charles Wybrow ..............................    6 months John Fitstead ................................    1 year James Thoroughgood .........................    2 years —Tebb, page 129. The "Medical and Physiological Journal," Vol. XXXII, page 478, said the cases of failure at Creighton were so numerous and decisive that they could not fail to excite alarm. Twenty-five cases were given where the vaccinations were considered per- fect. In these cases the fever was violent; the heat was excessive, the pulse very quick, universal languor, pain in the head and loins, frequent vomiting; occasional delirium, and sometimes convulsions.

				82                                       VACCINATION A CURSE.
			In the same journal, Vol. XXXVII, pages 2 to 12, the fol- lowing cases were reported:—
		No. Name. By whom. Nature of the Small-pox. 1 Robert Jones' two children.. Infants Mr, Redhead 10-8 Small horny pox, which continned out only five or six days; were not seen by a medical man. One child had considerable fever during four days previous to the eruption. 2 Elizabeth James Infant Mr. Harrison 12 Very feverish. Pustules distinct. A well-marked case of small-pox. 3 Jos. James..... Infant Mr. Redhead 15 Very feverish, and thought danger ously ill for a few days. Eruption not so full as with Elizabeth. 4 Wm. James... Infant Mr. Carter 8 Had them (eruptions) milder that the two former. Continued out a few days. 5 Wm. Parker.. 4 Mr. Close, Dal- ton 18 Delirious two days before the eruption appeared. Pustules numerous, ant! continued out seven or eight days. 6 Elizabeth Fell 3 Mr. Briggs 12 Considerable fever previous to the erution, which was of the distinct kind. 7 Maria Stable.. 10 Mr. Carter 19 Feverish before the eruption, which was of a small horny kind, ant soon disappeared. 8 9 Betty Turner.. Alice Turner.. Infant Mr. Redhead Infant Mr. Redhead 6 12 Feverish three days, with delirium Face full of pustules, and many on her body; small horny kind, which disappeared in five or six days. Feverish. Not so much indisposed as Betty; had fewer pustules, but larger 10 Robert Braith- waite's daugh. Infant Mr. Carter 14 Very feverish. Had a full crop 0f small horny pox. Face swelled Blind three days. 11i Mr. Rawlin- son's son___ — Mr. Brjggs — Much fever. Very full of pustules and much marked. 12 Ellen Physac- lea........... Infant Mr. Redhead 13 Very feverish. Had large distinct pox. Has marks on the face. 13 Wm. and Ben- jamin Kirby 5-3 Mr. T. Carter - The eruption on William was larger and continued longer than the rest These two children were infected four weeks after vaccination. Pus- tules of the horny kind. 14 Joseph Kirby.. Infant Mr. Redhead 5 Got easily through the complaint. 15 Sarah Bond... Infant At Liverpool 12 Much fever, with delirium. Had many pustules of the horny kind which soon disappeared. 16 Jane Ellis..... Infant Mr. Lodge, In- gleton 11 Had a remarkably full crop; in fact, was one complete cake of incrusta- tion. Recovered pretty well, but is much marked. Was about a month confined. 17 Isabella Dixon infant Mr. Harrison 10 Had a full crop. Is marked, but re coverSd well. 18 Marg'r't Dixon Infant Mr. Redhead 12 Not very full. Pustules perfectly dis- tinct. Recovered well. 19 Betty Garnet.. Infant Mr. Carter 14 Distinct pustules. Was at the height in eight days, and recovered well.
					Dr. Macleod—as quoted by Dr. Scott Tebb,—says:— "I have seen too many instances of small-pox in children

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             83 vaccinated in London, where that process was carried on in the way which the National Vaccine Establishment has recom- mended as the most efficacious, to retain much faith in its pre- ventive powers, in whatever manner conducted.' Again he re- marks (pages 8-9):—'The history of vaccination altogether forms a severe satire upon the mutability of medical doctrines. In the first ardor of discovery, not contented with its blessings to mankind, its benefits were also extended to the brute crea- tion. It was to annihilate small-pox, prove an antidote to the plague, to cure the rot in sheep, and preserve dogs from the mange. These good-natured speculations, however, were soon abandoned; and more recently all had agreed in acknowledging its anti-variolous powers, which, we were told, were as well-esta- blished as anything human could be.' "But the present epidemic shows too clearly the mortifying fallibility of medical opinions, though founded on the experi- ence of twenty years, and guaranteed by the concurring testi- mony of all the first physicians and surgeons in the world." Sir Henry Holland—a high authority—indulges in expres- sions of disappointment in view of the general failure of vaccina- tion as a protective against small-pox, and particularly its failure during seasons of epidemic, the only time such protection is really needed. In his "Medical Notes and Reflections," he writes:— "Not only in Great Britain, but throughout every part of the globe from which we have records, we find that small-pox has been gradually increasing again in frequency as an epi- demic; affecting a larger proportion of the vaccinated; and inflicting greater mortality in its results." Again he says (page 414):—"It is no longer expedient, in any sense, to argue for the present practice of vaccination as a certain or permanent preven- tive of small-pox. The truth must be told, as it is, that the earlier anticipations on this point have not been realized." Dr. Gregory well observes:—"It is often noticed that per- sons—vaccinated or not—who resist small-pox in common years, though fully exposed to the contagion, are attacked by it in years of epidemic prevalence." This is well worth remem-

		84                                       VACCINATION A CURSE. bering. It has been illustrated scores of times in all civilized countries. It is indeed during seasons of small-pox epidemic that we most fully realize the utter worthlessness of vaccina- tion—if we but use our eyes rationally. Yet with all these facts before them, boards of health in a great number of cities and towns in our own country, dogged on by a motley crew of second-rate doctors, drag forth a mouldy Compulsory Vaccina- tion Act from its pigeon hole, and then order all school children vaccinated, on pain of expulsion from the public school, if their parents refuse. Why should not those who really think vacci- nation a protection be content when they get their own children vaccinated? If that is really their protection certainly they would receive no harm by contact with the unvaccinated. But people are prone to compel their neighbors to adopt their own modes of thinking and practice. And then, this vac- cination practice has become a business and source of revenue to a privileged class, which neither professional or politician will ever consent that it shall grow less. I say "professionals" with a qualification, since I have reference only to the mercen- ary class within the ranks of the medical profession. If this class do not constitute a majority, they have "cheek" sufficient to accomplish a vast amount of mischief. A mercenary doctor, lawyer, or priest is a curse in any community; but when they form cabals and compacts to perpetuate a monstrous practice they augment the curse into a public scourge! The following items are from Dr. A. M. Ross' pamphlet, "Vaccination a Medical Delusion." Dr. Ross is a physician of high standing in Toronto, and is a prominent leader in the vac- cination controversy in this country :— "Whoever closely watched the course of the epidemic in Montreal must conclude that vaccination is utterly useless as a protection from small-pox. Much of what transpired in our small-pox hospitals was suppressed, especially whatever was likely to operate against the progress of vaccination, which

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                             85 proves a golden harvest to the vaccinators. But notwithstand- ing the conspiracy of silence a few official reports pregnant with proof against vaccination, and proving beyond question that a large proportion of the patients admitted into our small-pox hospitals had been vaccinated, and that many of them died, some with two and others with three, vaccine marks upon their bodies. "I refer to the official report from the Civic Hospital, dated August 17, 1885: 'Up to this date, 133 patients suffering from small-pox have been admitted to the Civic Hospital; of these 73 were vaccinated, 56 had one mark, 13 two marks and 4 three marks.' 'I refer to the official report from St. Roch's Hospital, dated October 22, 1885 : 'Number of vaccinated patients admit- ted since April . .. 197.' "I refer to the official report from St. Camille's Hospital, dated November 1 to 7, 1885: 'There are now in this hospital, 188 small-pox patients; of these 94 are vaccinated. Among the dead are 12 who were vaccinated.' "I refer to the first official report from St. Saviour's Hos- pital, November 1 to 7, 1885: 'Thirteen small-pox patients ad- mitted; of these 9 were vaccinated and 4 (only) unvaccinated.' "I refer to the official report from Crystal Palace Hospital, November 28 up to and including December 5, 1885: 'Number of patients admitted, 36; of these 19 were vaccinated.' "I refer to the second official report from St. Sa- viour's Hospital, covering a period of 15 days, that is, from Oc- tober 15 to 31, it was stated there had been in all 67 patients ad- mitted, of whom 60 had been successfully vaccinated, 36 having two vaccination marks, 2 having three, and 3 having four.' "I refer to the third official report from St. Saviour's Hos- pital, November 28 up to and including December 6, 1885:

			86                                   S   VACCINATION A CURSE. 'Number of patients admitted, 6; of these 4 bear evidence of vaccination, and 2 were not vaccinated.'
		LATEST OFFICIAL TESTIMONY FROM ENGLAND. "Read the following summary of the last report of the Registrar General of England, which proves conclusively that vaccination does not diminish or protect from small-pox:— In the first 15 years after the passing of the Compul- sory Vaccination Act, 1854 to 1868, there died of small-pox in England and Wales............... 54,700 In the second 15 years, 1869 to 1883, under a more stringent law, ensuring the vaccination of ninety- five per cent. of all children born, the deaths rose to 66,447 Total for 30 years......................... 121,147 Of these, there died under 5 years of age............. 51,472 From 5 to 10 years of age.......................... 16,000 Total under 10 years...................... 67,472 Sir Thomas Chambers, Q. C, M. P., recorder of the city of London, says: "I find that of the 155 persons admitted to the small-pox hospital, in the parish of St. James, Piccadilly, 145 were vaccinated. At Hampsted Hospital, up to May 13, 1884, out of 2,965 admissions, 2,347 were vaccinated. In Marylebone, 92 per cent. of those attacked by small-pox were vaccinated." "Of the 950 cases of small-pox, 1,870, or 91.5 per cent. of the whole cases, have been vaccinated."—Marson's "Report of Highgate Hospital for 1871." "There were 43 cases treated in the Bromley Hospital be- tween April 25 and June 29, 1881. Of confluent small-pox there were 16 cases; of discrete, 13; of modified, 13. All the cases had been vaccinated—three re-vaccinated."—F. Nicholson, L. R. C. P., "Lancet," Aug. 27, 1881. But I must bring this chapter to a close, having already exceeded the limits I had assigned to prove that vaccination has failed to fulfill the flattering promises of its advocates and pro-

		VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.                            87 moters. A volume could easily be filled with a record of these failures; but it is only a small part of my purpose to point out what vaccination has failed to do; I shall likewise hold up to view a portion of the detestable record of what it has done and is now doing in the world, as also some items of legislation which has made large portions of the general population invol- untary and compulsatory victims of this unholy covenant with disease, death, and hell. The widespread mischief which inoculation—the forerunner of vaccination—accomplished in the eighteenth century, is less a matter of surprise when we compare that period of general in- tellectual enlightenment with the nineteenth century; but that vaccination should be so generally submitted to, or even tole- rated as it has been the last fifty years, is one of those marvels which prove the desperate persistence of a practice when once it has become intrenched in the self interest of a privileged class, and when a powerful profession discover an adequate motive to invoke legislation to establish its permanence. It is incredible to believe—after the disclosure of such a multitude of facts, and after the amount of discussion already expended on the subject —that the majority of physicians who still continue to vaccinate have the slightest faith in the operation. Must we then conclude that the fee takes precedence in their minds over any public ben- efit they confer ? Aye, must they not be conscious not only that they do not confer a benefit, but that they are corrupting the blood and undermining the health of a large percentage of the community, sowing seeds and planting upas trees which must eventuate in a terrible harvest of disease and death in the near future ? If they do not realize the wrong they are perpetuating on the rising generation God pity their professional acumen; and may He with the good angels of heaven especially pity the little children who are turned over to the lance and putrid pus of this modern molock! Dion Casius, the Roman historian, writ- ing of the plague which scourged Rome in the second century,

		88                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. relates: "many died in another way, not only at Rome but over nearly the whole empire, through the practice of miscreants, who, by means of small, poisoned needles, communicated, on being paid for it, the horrible infection so extensively that no computation could be made of the number that perished." Unhappily, the "miscreants" are not all dead. They still walk the streets with their "poisoned needles" armed with a "permit" from the legislature to puncture and poison at so much per head, in the name of that public protection and benefit which they ruthlessly insult and over-ride. Look out for this public enemy reader, and bar your door against his approach! Fifty years ago it was a serious thing to fall sick with fever and have a doctor—I mean the doctor was the serious part of the business—for in those old-time days the doctor said: "Cold water is death," and so fathers and mothers were solemnly for- bidden to give a drop of cold water to the child, tossing with a raging fever, and vainly pleading like Dives for "just a drop" to quench the fire that was fast consuming the life. But the parent must refuse this agonizing appeal for the doctor had forbidden the cooling draught. Instead of water—the remedy which na- ture prescribed—it was mercury and blood-letting in those days which made the weary hours of sickness a crucifixion, and which left hundreds of thousands of human wrecks by the wayside. But we can forgive the average doctor of those days, since his sin was the sin of ignorance. Not so the vaccinator of today; he is sinning against the light, and his motives can plead no such excuse as we readily grant to members of the medical profes- sion of fifty years ago.

				CHAPTER IV
			VACCINATION LEGISLATION.
		"I can sympathize with, and even applaud, a father who, with the presumed dread in his mind, is willing to submit to ju- dicial penalties rather than expose his child to the risk of an in- fection so ghastly as vaccination."—Sir Thomas Watson, M. D. The Anglo Saxon peoples have always proved to be re- fractory soil in which to plant authoritative dogmas—medical or ecclesiastical—and then attempt to put them in force by legis- lative enactments. True, they will tolerate encroachments to a certain limit; for a time they will endure stripes and fines and persecution; but at last the spirit of liberty is sure to flame up in emphatic protest, when noble reformers enter the arena, a season of intense agitation ensues, and when the people are made fully aware whether legislative encroachments—in the in- terest and at the behest of a privileged class—are conducting them, they invariably rise and strike down the marauder, even though it involves a political revolution. This insistence of the Saxon that his personal lib- erty shall be respected and held inviolate, has been illustrated in three notable instances in the last four hundred years in those world-famed movements headed by Luther, Cromwell, and Washington. The first was a successful protest against the divine right of the church to rule over both

		90                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. soul and body of the subject; the second was a revolt against the divine right of kings to rule over the citizen instead of guarding and protecting him in his rights; the third transferred sovereignty from the king to the people, and made the pow- ers of government derivative from the people—made sover- eignty to inhere in the people; but this chiefly in theory, since the people have not yet learned how to either protect or exer- cise that sovereignty in their associate capacity. The people's sovereignty is continually being men- aced by class interests which, through legislation, seek to acquire special privileges by which they may be able to compel them to pay a perpetual trib- ute. Last but not least among these class interests, is the vac- cination syndicate, which is continually lobbying our legislatures for an extension of privileges on the pretense that the public welfare will thereby be enhanced. How exceedingly grateful the public ought to feel towards these gentlemen for their con- tinued good health and welfare! But dear gentlemen, let me remind you—you who pose as government vaccination sur- geons, members of departments of health, boards of health, mu- nicipal vaccinators, and small-pox scare promoters; let me re- mind you, your time is nearly up! The people—when a trifle better informed about what you are really doing—are going to get rid of this vile vaccination nuisance and turn you out of the office you have usurped, disgraced, and run for all the "traffic would bear." You will then be relegated to your proper station, put upon your good behavior, and compelled to wait until you are asked, before you will be permitted to enter our households with lance and putrid pus and run up a fee from one to three dollars per victim! The government has no more constitutional right to com- pel the people to submit to vaccination in the nineteenth cen- tury, than it had in the eighteenth to enforce inoculation which is now made a penal offence, or of legalizing the mercury prac-

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                             91 tice and blood-letting of the last generation. All these were once regarded as cure-alls and preventives, and would now be occasions for little harm so long as the people are left free to adopt or reject them. It is when physic and the state become united—when the state legalizes and enforces the creed of a par- ticular sect in medicine—that the serious and fatal mischief be- gins to be manifest. No class or creed or practice was ever granted special recognition and support by the state that did not forthwith begin to abuse those powers and make of them an oc- casion for human oppression. The people desire health and safety quite as much as the doctors desire it for them. And their common sense moreover demands the "open door" and a free struggle for the final survival of the "fittest" among the reme- dial agents brought forward. When these are found and tested —as cleanliness and wholesome living, for example—common sense people will adopt them without a resort to such coercive measures as repeated fines and imprisonments. Those who think vaccination is the absolute safeguard, by all means leave them free to erect this wall of protection, and then if vaccination is the thing they claim it is, at least they will not take the small- pox though every unvaccinated gentile falls a victim to the dis- ease. Excuse us, gentlemen of the lancet, we do not propose to jump out of the "frying-pan into the fire" by substituting the doctor for the priest. You are all right in your proper place; but when we found the claws of the priest were growing too long for the safety of the innocents, we clipped them; and we warn you—gentlemen doctors—if you continue to press legisla- tion to assist you in your vaccination scheme, we shall pretty soon clip your claws also. We don't mind having our bodies dragged through the mud now and then—good clean mud—but when you lobby the state to assist you in consigning our bodies, or our children's bodies, to the filthy pool of your vaccine pu- tridity, we object; our Saxon patience has then gone beyond

		92                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. its limit, and unless you quit this business something serious is going to happen! Mark it well! Happily, though compulsory vaccination laws are on the statute books of nearly every state in our commonwealth, they remain for the most part a dead letter on account of the ex- treme difficulty experienced in enforcing them. They are a flag- rant violation of our constitution, and opposed to the genius and common sense of our average Anglo Saxon intelligence. And if the people adequately realized what consequences are in- volved by submitting themselves or their children to the vaccine poison, they would very soon sweep every vaccination act from our statute books, and relegate this vile superstition to the same obscure retreat to which the inoculation practice of the preced- ing century has been consigned. In the meantime, I should still leave the ordinary "scrub" doctor free to ventilate his fads, for so long as he would be unable to invoke compulsory legisla- tion in behalf of his practice, the common sense of the citizen, left free to make his own choice, would in the long run choose what best conduces to his own health and welfare. Mrs. Eddy's unique medical creed may, or may not, benefit the world; at any rate, while left in free competition with the multiplicity of forms constantly arising for treating disease, it is quite powerless for harm. But if it were to receive state support and made com- pulsory, it would then become a glaring wrong and outrage which the people would be justified in overthrowing without much ceremony. We should bear in mind that physic is in a state of transi- tion. Harsh and drastic modes of treatment were common a century ago. These have been dropped by the profession, one after another, until now the instinctive calls of nature are more or less heeded by the practitioner, and the profession as a whole is daily approximating nearer and nearer a construc- tive art of healing, which takes more account of sanitation and hygienic living, and far less account of drugs and poisons--

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                  93 whether taken into the stomach, or introduced directly into the blood through the skin, as in the accursed practice of vaccina- tion. Inoculation has come and gone, taking with it its hun- dreds of thousands of victims. Calomel and bleeding have had their day as well as the good will of the profession, and during that terrible day the sick chamber was a torture chamber—a gloomy and dreadful place; the doctor's visit the most dread- ful part of the composite calamity. The light of heaven and the free air were excluded; pure cold water was "sure death !" The life-blood was drained off through the puncture of the lancet; the mouth and throat and stomach were corroded with mineral poisons—and all this was part and parcel of the "healing art" of those days. From the time of Jesus Christ to the present it has been the same. The "woman which had the issue of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse," it seems had much the same experience with the doctors which each generation from that time to the present has repeated. Now we have the greater curse of vacci- nation, backed up by the state, and an effort by its promoters to make it compulsory and universal. But with the growing good sense of the medical profession, I apprehend this supersti- tion would have been short-lived, but for the fact that the prac- tice became allied with the modern commercial spirit and an un- scrupulous class of medical men, who forecasted material ad- vantages in an alleged discovery which they warranted as a sure safeguard against a disease in regard to which the public stand in constant dread. The appointment of municipal boards of sanitation for the enforcement of cleanliness in crowded and filthy quarters is often urged by vaccinators as identical in principle with compul- sory vaccination. I insist that it is nothing of the kind. Vacci- nation is the medical creed of the class, the relative value and the relative peril of which a diversity of opinion exists, both in the

			94                                   VACCINATION A CURSE. community and among medical men; while no class or profes- sion believe that any peril is threatened by thorough sanitation. The public are in practical agreement touching its propriety and necessity. Nobody has conscientious scruples against it. No popular revolt ever rose up to fight against it as a common enemy. The liberty of the citizen is not infringed by the most thorough sanitary measures. Nor do we object to isolation and quarantine during the prevalence of small-pox, yellow fever, or cholera. To insist on the identity of these two procedures is an- other instance of "borrowing the robes of an angel to serve the devil in." No, filth and vaccination are boon companions ; they both belong to the devil's order. Sanitation, like the golden rule, belongs to the divine order, which nobody but the devil or the devil's servants will oppose, or otherwise attempt to identify with their own abominable practices.
		COMPULSORY VACSINATION IN ENGLAND AND EXTENT OF REPEALS EFFECTED. Before the repeal of the compulsory clause in the English vaccination acts in England, there was annually paid out of the public funds on account of vaccination, over half a million dol- lars, while the aggregate receipts of private practitioners must have been largely in excess of this; and well do these gentry un- derstand how to multiply their fees. A few cases of small-pox are reported, and immediately a rumor is started which is taken up by the press, and a small-pox scare is soon spreading terror among the populace. Then the vaccination harvest follows. As in all reforms, so in this, the laity are the first to aban- don vaccination; for the medical profession has an interest in addition to the pecuniary one. Having once committed itself— save an honorable minority—to vaccination as a beneficent dis- covery and great boon to humanity, and having adhered to this

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION. medical creed for the space of a century, it will not do now to show the "white feather;" not do to "back water," to surrender prestige by a confession that the profession framed a mon- strous fallacy into its medical creed, which would be an imputa- tion of fallibility. No, it is the air and attitude of infallibility that must be uniformly maintained. Keep the purple robe on the medical oracle and insist that he shall stick to a lie when once told. This is better than the modest truth coupled with a con- fession that the College of Physicians made a great mistake when they took Jenner to their bosom and asked Parliament to vote him £30,000. When compulsory vaccination was urged upon the atten- tion of Parliament (1853) for adoption, the lords and commons were assured that the medical profession were practically unan- imous on two fundamental points in the vaccination contro- versy :— (1)     That vaccination is an absolute protection against small-pox, and therefore that the vaccination of the entire popu- lation would prevent small-pox epidemic. (2)    That universal vaccination involves no risk to life or health; that the operation is of a benign character and free from peril. This protection was promised by Lord Lyttleton, the pro- moter of the Vaccination Bill of 1853, upon the unanimous as- surance of the entire medical profession. And when still more stringent legislation was demanded and secured by the doctors in 1867, Lord Robert Montagu, who introduced the bill, re-af- firmed the original promise, and declared it to be absolutely cer- tain that no person after vaccination could thereafter be in dan- ger of an attack from small-pox. Today there is not a director of a small-pox hospital in the civilized world who holds to that extraordinary view of vaccination. The worst epidemic of the century (1871-72), which rav- aged thoroughly vaccinated communities, causing the death of

		96                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. 50,000 persons, in England and Wales, gave a most emphatic negative to the assurances of Lord Lyttleton in 1853, and by Lord Montagu in 1867 in behalf of the doctors. In regard to the second claim, namely, that the operation is "benign and free from peril," we have already seen how abso- lutely untrue it is; and I promise that I shall in later chapters summon a "cloud of witnesses" to prove the terrible conse- quences which have resulted from the perpetration of this crime, in the name of the law, on the bodies of millions of defenceless victims. There is now on record in the London archives hun- dreds of pages of evidence brought before the Royal Commis- sion, which declares that loathsome and incurable diseases— syphilis, leprosy, cancer, etc.—have been inoculated into healthy persons at the point of the vaccinator's lancet; and these facts were fully known to the profession when they lobbied to secure more stringent acts for the most complete enforcement of com- pulsory vaccination. The Borgia, in the sixteenth century, were distinguished for their cunning, cruelty, and perfidy. They plotted and poisoned to remove people who were in their way— if it were a pope, it didn't matter—they resorted to cruelty and perfidy to secure the places and livings they coveted. How much better than these will the vaccination plotters stand in the day of judgment? Compulsory vaccination laws were passed in England in 1853, 1861, 1867, 1871, 1874, and 1878. In 1840 a vaccination act was passed, making inoculation a penal offence, and provid- ing facilities for public vaccination, but the compulsory vaccina- tion was not enforced until 1853, which made neglect of vaccina- tion punishable by fine and imprisonment. The most important act of the whole series, however, was that of 1867, which im- posed upon guardians the duty of seeing that all children were vaccinated; and empowering them to appoint and pay officers to prosecute, fine and imprison all recalcitrant parents. True, no person in England has ever been vaccinated by main force;

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                   97 but the repeated fines and imprisonment of the poor for refusal to comply, is equivalent to force, since the punishment inflicted exhausts their entire resources and wears them out. In Ger- many compulsion is applied literally, as any person who objects is held down by four men and vaccinated by force. Until 1867 no great amount of pressure was brought to bear to compel obedience to compulsory legislation; but after that date, the doctors having secured a more vigorous law, be- gan to push the vaccinating business with enterprising zeal and persistence. About 25,000 prosecutions were made in the in- terval of five years before 1873. During the six years following, the total number of persons proceeded against under the vacci- nation acts, was 34,286. Of these 136 were committed to prison, 19,482 were fined, 14 were bound over, and 7,354 suffered vari- ous kinds of punishments. The number of prosecutions reached their maximum in 1888, when vaccinations and prosecutions both began to rapidly decline, because boards of guardians were now being confronted with a thoroughly aroused public senti- ment and protest against these outrageous and oft repeated in- sults against personal liberty. A house to house census, taken about this time in a hundred towns and districts by sturdy mem- bers of the opposition—which had now become organized—re- vealed 87 per cent. of the people opposed to compulsory vacci- nation, and 68 per cent. opposed to both state interference and to the vaccine practice. Among the British colonies, Canada, Queensland, and New South Wales, there has never been any compulsory legislation on vaccination. In New Zealand they have a compulsory law, but public sentiment is decidedly against its enforcement, and therefore it remains practicality a dead letter. In Tasmania a law was on the statute books for some years, but it has finally been repealed. In Switzerland vaccination was rejected at the referendum by a large majority in 1882. It has also been aban- doned by Holland. In state-ridden Germany the doctors are

			98                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. backed up by the government on this question; yet it is signif- icant that the emperor will not permit his own children to be vaccinated. (See Vac. Inq. July, 1892.) At last in England, by the recent vaccination Act (1898), the compulsory feature in the vaccination laws was repealed. So Switzerland and grand old England, after discussing the matter in parliaments for ten or a dozen years, hearing the reports and sub-reports from men having small-pox hospitals in charge, have rescinded the com- pulsory features in their vaccination laws, and have thereby lifted a degrading and oppressive yoke which had fettered and galled the people to the utmost limit of endurance. Don't forget that in republican Switzerland and conservative old England, vaccination is now optional with parents and the people. And yet, be it said to the shame of America, that we still permit this foul blot from the filth pens of barbarism to smear and blacken the uages of our statute books. Shame on the state that legal- izes prize fights, "embalmed beef," cow-pox virus, discourages woman's suffrage, and persecutes the Mormons. Shame on the state that shuts the door of the school room against the child whose parent has sufficient enlightened common sense not to submit that child to the abominable pollution which, like a fanged serpent, strikes the victim from the point of the vaccina- tor's lance! Indeed, the Garrison's and Philipp's and Parker's have only entered the American vaccination arena to sound the clarion of reform. Not long—not long will the parents of the land permit this brazen marauder to flaunt his legal credentials as a badge of privilege to continue in his merciless slaughter of the innocents!
		ORGANIZED ASSAULT AGAINST VACCINATION IN GREAT BRITAIN. Previous to 1880 the numerous reformers that entered the field to battle against this common enemy, fought single-handed.

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                  99 and though they did much in the way of enlightening the gen- eral public on the real dangers of the vaccine practice, they ac- complished little or nothing toward mitigating the oppressive laws that were in force throughout the kingdom. The effect of the vigorous measures adopted after the great small-pox ep- idemic of 1871-72, called for an organized and more skillfully conducted movement against compulsory legislation. Hence the formation of the "London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination." Notices were sent to every known anti-vaccinator in the kingdom, requesting their attendance at a meeting called in London, Feb. 12, 1881. Only eight persons responded to this call. These met in an upper room at 76 Chan- cery Lane. In our Revolutionary war for American Independ- ence, the ball opened with the banding together of seven famous leaders. In this later movement the forces mobilized with one better,—there were eight, but these were scarred veterans who had seen service on many a battle-field. One—Mr. William Tebb—fought by the side of Garrison in our own anti-slavery struggle. This little organization included a chairman, secre- tary, treasurer, and a provisional executive committee. Every- body told them their enterprise was the most insane project that pestilent agitators and lunatics ever attempted to devise. But they were neither daunted nor discouraged, for the spirit of mar- tyrs and the sublime devotion of Apostles was in their hearts and heads. The London journals ridiculed and abused; the doctors warned; the proprietors of public halls closed their doors "for fear of the Scribes and Pharisees." Bill stickers re- fused to post their bills lest they should lose their jobs. The thorny path of the reformer was indeed theirs to traverse; but the field of their operations gradually widened; adherents mul- tiplied; new centers for propaganda were established; litera- ture was circulated; the "Vaccination Inquirer" was launched, and writers of ability rallied around their standard. The follow- ing year (1881), a new and powerful impulse was given to the

		100                                    VACCINATION A CURSE. movement, by the access of P. A. Taylor, S. P., for Leicester, who was made president and became a powerful advocate of the abolition cause. Within two years 300,000 pamphlets had been published and circulated. Perhaps the most notable event in the history of this organ- ized crusade, was the "Leicester Demonstration." In that city the doctors had overdone the business of coercive vaccination and public prosecutions, until the people rose en masse in open revolt. Upright, well-to-do and patriotic citizens of Leicester had been imprisoned, dragged through the streets hand-cuffed, and subjected to the most degrading punishments, because they stood for the defense of their children against the detested vacci- nator's poison. This public demonstration and popular protest included a procession two miles long. Hundreds of flags and banners with pictorial displays and a comic setting forth of the Jenner imposture, were carried, of which I will here append a sample:— Entire Repeal and no Compromise. Sanitation not Vaccination. From Horse Grease, Cow-pox, Calf Lymph, and the Local Government Board "Good Lord Deliver Us." Better a felon's cell than a poisoned babe. Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. It is not small-pox you are stamping out, but human creat- ures' lives. Revolt against bad laws is a Christian virtue and a national duty.— Wm. Tebb, "Fourteen Years Struggle ," page 8. The vaccination acts were publicly burned in the market place, in presence of the mayor and other public officials. In the evening there was a large mass meeting and energetic speeches. I have in previous chapters made prominent mention of Leicester, as the foremost city in England which has come to the front, not only in the complete over-throw of the vacci- nation practice, but with the most rational method for stamping

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                        101 out small-pox which any crowded population has yet devised; namely, in a thorough system of sanitation, which, though di- minishing doctor's fees to an alarming extent, gives a most sat- isfactory result in an enormous reduction of zymotic diseases over other cities in England. This was one of the practical fruits springing out of the labors of the society which only the year before organized with eight members. In 1888 and 1889 the labors of the London society were powerfully accelerated by the appearance of two able works against vaccination, by the highest authorities in England!—Dr. Creighton and Prof. Crookshank. The former is a distinguished graduate of Cambridge, and at the top of his profession as a pathologlist; while Dr. Crookshank is professor of comparative pathology and bacteriology in Kings College, London. Dr. Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, in a critical review of Prof. Crook- shanks' work, concludes:— "The work as a whole is one of reference to which the peo- ple, as well as the profession, will often turn. Already, indeed, the people have turned to it, and the so-called anti-vaccinators with a relish of revenge which is quite dramatic to see, have literally grabbed it. To many of them the work, without doubt, affords a vindication of much that has been said against vacci- nation, especially on the point of the evidence adduced by the too earnest advocates of vaccination and the method of enforc- ing it by compulsory law on free and yet sceptical members of the community. Some will feel that this disqualifies the book in a professional point of view. It should not do so. If it be true that we of physic have really, for well-nigh a century past, been worshipping an idol of the market-place, or even of the theatre, why, the sooner we cease our worship and take down our idol, the better for us altogether. We have set up the idol, and the world has lent itself to the idolatry, because we, whom the world has trusted, have set the example. But the world nowadays discovers idolatries on its own account; and if we continue the idolatry it will simply take its own course, and, leaving us on our knees will march on whilst we petrify." —Wm. Tebb's Pamphlet, page 10.

		102                                      VACCINATION A CURSE. Previous to the public appearance of Doctors Creighton and Crookshank in the vaccination controversy, the reformers chiefly depended upon laymen for their literary authority on the vaccination practice; and these, medical men affected to wholly despise and discredit. In Doctors Creighton and Crookshank however, they found foemen worthy of their steel. Soon after the appearance of Dr. Creighton's work, Mr. William White, an accomplished literary champion of the anti- vaccination cause, and author of "The Story of a Great Delu- sion," wrote:— "Lord Wolseley says the first axiom of war is to know everything about your enemy. It is an axiom we ought to real- ize about vaccination. If we are to prevail, it is not sufficient to dislike the practice; we must dislike it intelligently. On the political side we have some powerful allies; our weakness has hitherto lain on the medical side. We are told that medical au- thority is against us overwhelmingly, which is true, although we might dispute the grounds of that assertion. There is scarcely an affirmation by any authority relative to vaccination that is not contradicted by some other authority equally author- itative. Such is our position, and the trouble has hitherto been that we could not obtain a hearing for the facts against author- ity. The inconsistencies of the practice and its multiform irra- tionality have been persistently disregarded. A front of brass has been maintained towards the public by the medical pro- fession. "This situation has been completely changed by Dr. Creighton's exposition and criticism. Upwards of twelve months have elapsed since his 'Natural History of Cow-pox' was published. It has been widely read and indifferently re- viewed, but, so far, not a single statement made in its pages has been impugned. Next, in the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' the article 'Vaccination' has been written by Dr. Creighton, wherein he re-states his position as to the origin and character of cow- pox, its irrelevance to small-pox, its consequent impotence as a preventive of that disease, and its close analogy to syphilis. "Now another work has been published by Dr. Creighton, the title and contents of which are given above, in which he re-

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                 IO3 views the history of vaccination, and describes the various arts and manoeuvres whereby it was conjured into popularity in England and the Continent. It is an extraordinary history, full of interest and instruction; and no attentive reader who takes up Dr. Creighton's volume will lay it down a believer in the Jen- nerian craft." The following letter by Mr. William Tebb, which appeared in the "Manchester Guardian," shows the general situation in 1892:—                                                                                    , "Sir.—The importance of the unanimous recommenda- tions of the Royal Commission in their recent interim report, the promise of the government to consider the weight of evi- dence upon which this recommendation was made, and the no- tice given by Lord Herschell to call attention to the subject at an early day, prompt me to ask permission to present certain considerations which, in view of the present state of the ques- tion, can hardly be disregarded at this juncture. When Lord Lyttleton introduced the first Vaccination Bill, in 1853, he stated that the absolute protection from small-pox by Jenner's prescription was a point upon which the entire profession were agreed. Nothing was said about a temporary benefit which needed renewing by re-vaccination or was effective only when conjoined with improved sanitation. Nor was there any allu- sion to the risk of disease and death now admittedly attendant upon the operation. The evidence disclosed before the Royal Commission shows that vaccination has been a failure from its commencement, and this failure, coupled with the mischievous results of the practice in spreading serious diseases, has caused a widespread and constantly augmenting opposition to the law. The feeling is so acute in places like Keighley, Gloucester, East- bourne, Leicester, Oldham, and other towns, that thousands of intelligent people declare they would suffer any punishment rather than expose their children to the perils of vaccination. A large majority of the people of England (including nearly all the working classes), are opposed to compulsory vaccination, as I have found by personal inquiries in every part of the United Kingdom. Household censuses made in about 100 towns and districts show that 87 per cent. are opposed to compulsion and that 68 per cent. have no faith in vaccination whatever.

		104                                          VACCINATION A CURSE. "It is unfortunate that the evidence laid before the Royal Commission on vaccination should have been given with closed doors, no newspaper reporter being allowed to be present, so that the public are still uninformed of the extent to which vacci- nation has been discredited. On numerous occasions when the houses of vaccine recalcitrants have been stripped of furniture, or when anti-vaccinators have been handcuffed and sent to prison, large bodies of exasperated citizens have assembled and the public peace has been endangered. I have been told again and again by the more ardent spirits of this prolonged struggle, especially by those who have suffered numerous prosecutions or had their children injured by vaccination, that unless they re- sorted to violence they would never get the law repealed. I have unfailingly counselled the use only of active but legitimate means of agitation, and begged them not to disgrace the cause by overt acts, inasmuch as by the exercise of patience and devo- tion we should be sure to win, the best forces of society being with us. There is a limit to this forbearance, which will not, like Tennyson's brook, 'go on forever,' and the patience of the long-suffering people is already well-nigh exhausted. If new legislation is enacted, as recommended by the Royal Commis- sion, and compulsion is continued even to the extent of one penalty, and that a nominal one, the government will be sub- jected to daily defeat and defiance. In the interests of public order, a modus vivendi should be established, as with the Quak- ers, Nonconformists, Catholics, Jews, and infidels.—Yours, etc., WILLIAM TEBB. Devonshire Club, St. James's, London, June 9, 1892. Four years before the object of the London Society was consummated, in the midst of the heat and struggle for emanci- pation from the vaccination tyranny, Wm. Tebb penned the fol- lowing temperate but earnest words :— "I would specially take this opportunity to call upon all boards of guardians, in the exercise of that discretion which the law gives them, to abstain from prosecution which inflames pop- ular passions and creates an acute sense of injustice. I would also urgently appeal to our fellow countrymen and country wo- men who cherish liberty to countenance and aid us in this right- eous struggle for parental emancipation. I would respectfully

			VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                         105 invite the press throughout the land to give wide publicity to the resolution of the London Society, exposing the unfair treat- ment we have received at the hands of the Royal Commission."
		It is generally conceded to the meanest and most wicked criminal, that he has some redeeming feature; that he is not wholly and hopelessly depraved. This much, too, we may con- cede to the Royal Commission, which though appointed and in- structed to ascertain and report the facts upon the whole vacci- nation controversy, was nevertheless privately acting in the in- terest of a vaccination clique—a combination of vaccine promot- ers—apparently determined that the vaccination interests should "pass muster." It was not the people of England, but the vaccine syndicate whom the commission evidently regarded as their real clients, and whom they were bound in honor to vindicate at all hazards.. In their interim report the commission recommended the exemption from compulsion of the "conscientious objector." They did this, however, because the popular clamor had reached the danger point, and because the House of Commons had come to recognize the practical impossibility of forcing English peo- ple to obey a law which they practically regarded as committing them to a species of self-destruction. After forty-six years of compulsory vaccination over one-half of the 270 boards of guardians were declining to put the Act in operation on ac- count of the vigorous nature of the popular revolt. Not only this, but boards of guardians were being elected all over the kingdom on the express ground that they pledged themselves not to enforce the act. Every effort has been made to force the boards to make the vaccination laws operative, but to little pur- pose. The board in Keighley, in Yorkshire, was sent to prison, but they had to be let out, and the local government board found that as long as representative government was left the

		106                                         VACCINATION A CURSE. people, they could not be ruthlessly trodden upon until hope- lessly deprived of personal liberty. But why this stubborn persistence on the part of the gov- ernment, in cramming vaccination down the throats of a long- suffering and unwilling people ? Answer: A corrupt ring of medical gentlemen had lobbied a measure through Parliament, and by false promises secured a compulsory law, which their pecuniary and professional interests required should be vigor- ously enforced; and the government was constantly reminded that it was expected to faithfully perform its part of the agree- ment with the doctors; which it did until it found it had a thor- oughly aroused and indignant public sentiment to reckon with. This is certainly the most rational explanation which the case will admit of.
		The main feature of the Vaccination Act of 1898 is the "conscience clause"—properly the common sense clause:— "(Sec. 6). No parent or other person shall be liable to any penalty under section twenty-nine or section thirty-one of the Vaccination Act of 1867, if within four months of the birth of the child he satisfies two justices or a stipendiary or metropol- itan police magistrate, in petty sessions, that he conscientiously believes that vaccination would be prejudicial to the health of the child, and within seven days thereafter, delivers to the vacci- nation officer for the district, a certificate by such justices or magistrate of such conscientious objection." In all other regards vaccination is still compulsory in Eng- land. The dissentient can avoid arrest, fines and imprisonment only by working the "conscience racket," which he will probably not be slow in doing since only vaccination promoters and the uninformed portion of the community have any interest to con- tinue their connection with the business firm at the "old stand."

			VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                107 REVOLT AGAINST COMPULSORY VACCINATION IN INDIA.
		The report of the working of the vaccination department in Bengal for 1872, the commissioner says the compulsory law in the rural districts is practically a dead letter. Vaccination is rejected by all high class Hindoos—the Brahmins, Burmahs, Rajputs, and Marwaries; while among the Mohammedans, the Ferazis hold the rite in the utmost contempt. Nearly every vil- lage—according to the commissioner's report—many families persistently refuse vaccination, and secrete their children to es- cape the vaccinators. In order to overcome these prejudices, advantage was taken of the Hindoo's known reverence for their ancient sages and philosophers, by palming off upon them deliberate literary frauds. A Mr. Ellis, of Madras, well versed in Sanscrit litera- ture, composed a short poem in the native's language on vacci- nation, tracing the origin of vaccine pus to their sacred cow. This he professed to have deciphered from very ancient parch- ments. In Bengal, similar attempts were made to deceive the inhabitants. Some very ancient leaves were purported to have been found, containing a chapter on "Masurica," or chicken- pox. The doctors quoted the following words, which they al- leged were contained in the ancient Sanscrit, on these musty parchments:— "Taking the matter of pustules, which are naturally pro- duced on the teats of cows, carefully preserve it, and, before the breaking out of small-pox, make with a fine instrument a small puncture (like that made by a gnat) in a child's limb, and intro- duce into the blood as much of the matter as is measured by a quarter of a ratti. Thus the wise physician renders the child secure from the eruption of the small-pox." —See "Life of Jenner," by Bazon, Vol. I, page 557.

		108                                         VACCINATION A CURSE. Think of it—forgery—the actual forgery of manuscripts to keep the Hindoo mind chained to the blood-poisoning Moloch, vaccination. What could be more infamous ? It is much like the practice imputed to the church in gener- ations long gone by; namely, that it is right and proper to lie and deceive when the interests of the church could thereby be enhanced. At any rate, the vaccination-business syndicate is up to that sort of thing, not seeming to recognize even a remote connection between corporation-conscience and Sunday ser- vice. In India, it can be shown that this species of deception has been practiced on a large scale. Not only this, and notwith- standing the multiplied proofs that vaccination in that country is not only a complete failure as a prophylatic against small- pox, but a cruel injustice to the native population. Yet there are plenty of English doctors continually plotting to extend co- ercive legislation and increase the penalties for non-compliance with the law. When the Vaccination Bill of 1892 was before the Bombay legislative council, to make vaccination compulsory in certain additional districts, a native Brahmin asked for an amendment, and pointed out the danger of transmitting leprosy and syphilis by means of arm-to-arm vaccination, and then read before that body a letter from a Brahmin physician—Dr. Baha- durjee—in which he writes:— "In answer to your letter in which you ask me my personal opinion on the arm-to-arm vaccination method, which it is in- tended to be enforced by the new Vaccination Bill, I have no hesitation in saying that, besides it being not suited to the pe- culiar conditions which obtain in this country, on professional grounds the method is objectionable, and for these reasons:— I. Arm-to-arm vaccination obviously acts as a channel for the transference of some skin diseases, and affords a ready means for propagating such inherited constitutional taints as those of syphilis and leprosy. No doubt, special rules, with full details, will be framed for the guidance of the operators in their selec- tion of proper subjects, with a view to avoid those mishaps; but

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                 109 having regard to the class of men from whom the supply of dis- trict vaccinators is to be obtained, the detailed rules will be of as much use to them as the paper on which they were printed. II. Syphilitic taint does not necessarily show itself in ill-health at the early age at which vaccination is practiced and demanded by law. A child may be in fair health, and yet have inherited syphilis. Moreover, syphilis does not stamp itself on the face and arms, so much as on the back and legs—parts not generally examined by the vaccinator, and thus apt to be overlooked. Only yesterday I was asked to see a case of skin disease in a child. On stripping the child bare, I found him fairly healthy to look at, and could see no skin blemish on his person. But closer examination of the hidden parts revealed the presence of unmistakable condylomata (syphilitic). These condylomata unnoticed, I should have passed the child as a very fair speci- men of average health, and a fit subject to take the lymph from. Syphilis, as betrayed in obtrusive signs, is not difficult to recog- nize, but when concealed, as is more often the case, it is by no means easy to detect it. III.    In the case of leprosy it is still worse. There is no such thing as a leper child or infant. The leper heir does not put on its inherited exterior till youth is reached. And it is by no means possible by any close observa- tion or examination of a child to say that it is free from the leprous taint. Surely arm-to-arm vaccination will not help to stamp out leprosy. On the contrary, it has been asserted, and not without good reasons, that it has favored the propagation of the hideous disease. IV.    It is acknowledged that extreme care is re- quired in taking out lymph from the vesicles to avoid drawing any blood, for blood contains the germs of disease. Ex- treme care means great delicacy of manipulation, and delicacy of manipulation with children is not an easy task, and requires some experience and training. Is this to be expected from the class of men who are going to act as public vaccinators in the districts ? Supposing a district vaccinator to acquire it to some extent after considerable practice, what about the delicacy of manipulation of one newly put on? V.    Puncturing a vesicle with such delicacy as not to wound its floor and draw blood is one great dif-

		110                                    VACCINATION A CURSE. ficulty. But the selection of a 'proper' vesicle is an- other as great if not a greater difficulty. Products of inflamma- tion are charged with the germs of disease, the contagion of contamination media, as much as the blood itself is. And the contents of an inflamed vesicle are quite as contaminating as the blood itself of a subject who, though charged with the poi- son of (inherited) syphilis or leprosy, has none of the obtrusive signs of the taint for identification. And as here inflamed, i. e., angry-looking vesicles are not the exception but the rule, as can be easily told by personal observation and experience and equally easily surmised if the habits of our poor be duly con- sidered. Thus, even if no blood is drawn, the danger of trans- ferring constitutional taints by the arm-to-arm method is by no means small; remembering that leprosy that claims India, and not England, for one of its homes, does not admit of any dStec- tion on the person of a subject from whose arm lymph may be taken, and that syphilis is more often difficult to detect than otherwise, and remembering, also, that both these are often met with largely in some districts." —"Leprosy and Vaccination," Wm. Tebb, page 355. In nearly every village in India arrests and imprisonments for evading vaccination are of daily occurrence. Of this I speak from personal knowledge having witnessed the fact during my several visits to India and Ceylon. There are numerous fami- lies who if they fail to keep their offspring out of reach of the detested vacinator, after his departure they employ every means to wash and rub out the vaccine poison; suck it out, cauterize the wound, and treat it much as we should a rattlesnake bite, or the bite of a mad dog. In a future chapter I shall return to the case of India again.
			VACCINATION IN THE WEST INDIES. On the Island Barbados, with a population of 1,096 to the square mile, there is no compulsory vaccination. The popular feeling in the island is so vigorously emphatic against vaccina- tion, that its advocates are afraid to move in the matter, and any

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                111 attempt to enforce it would undoubtedly create a riot. William Tebb, who made the tour of the island in 1888, interrogated all classes upon this question and he writes:— "From the chief justice, Sir Conrad Reeves, to the poorest boatman or sugar plantation laborer, from one end of the island to the other, I failed to discover a single advocate of compulsion. Let those have it who want it, but don't force it upon me and mine, was the general straightforward reply." Yet epidemics are less frequent in this island than in the well vaccinated islands of Jamaica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Hayti. Another reason why they have kept compulsory vacci- nation at bay, is that they have representation in the govern- ment of the island. In Grenada, another island under English rule, the people being less proud and independent, compulsion is enforced with a rigor which amounts to cruelty, and as might be expected, small-pox frequently occurrs. The following is from a local paper, "The Grenada People," June 9, 1892 :— "During this week, upwards of thirty or forty of the peas- ants have been hauled before the police magistrate of the southern district for alleged violation of the vaccination act. In nearly every case fines of half-a-crown have been imposed, rep- resenting almost half of the week's wages which these unfor- tunates, if they are employed, can hope to earn. In face of the Royal Commission on Vaccination, we do not see why the old law, making vaccination compulsory should be still enforced. At most, it is of doubtful benefit; and doctors differ as to the posi- tive good or injury which it does. The advocates of Jenner's specific can quote very few cases, if any, in its support; whilst its opponents point with force and truth to the positive injury it has inflicted. Here, in Grenada, pure lymph is seldom employed. As a consequence, many of the children submitted to the pro- cess of vaccination contract therefrom fatal diseases. The lymph, in many cases, is collected from children inheriting a taint of the scrofulous disease which prevails amongst the peas- antry ; and many an otherwise healthy child, after the process

			112                                    VACCINATION A CURSE. of vaccination, presents the appearance of a disgustingly yaw- sey patient. As eminent medical men differ as to the value and utility of vaccination, we think it ought not to be made an of- fence punishable by fine or imprisonment if parents refuse to vaccinate their children; but that the law should be amended in the direction suggested by the Royal Commission in their re- cent report, i. e., it should be optional with the parent whether the child should be vaccinated or not."
		ON THE CONTINENT. Among the Latin populations—France, Austria, Italy, and Spain—where personal liberty is taken far less account of than among Anglo-Saxon peoples, the government has far less trouble in carrying out compulsory legislation. In France it has not generally been as rigorously enforced as in England. The higher thinking classes generally opposed it; but new reg- ulations are coming into force which makes vaccination a neces- sary preliminary for admission into the public schools and into the army. In Italy the vaccination laws are extremely stringent and yet they are yearly meeting with stronger opposition. The authorities are disposed to attribute the spread of small-pox in all cases to the existence of a small percentage of vaccinated persons; and this in face of the fact that large sections of the Italian population live in the midst of notoriously filthy condi- tions. There are many eminent medical men in Italy, however, who view this whole subject from the most enlightened stand- point ; and if once the commercial element could be eliminated from the vaccination practice, it would take but a short time to consign the superstition—so far as legislation is concerned—to the under-world where eighteenth century inoculation has gone. In Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, no soldier is now compelled to be vaccinated. In Switzerland, the terrible effects which followed many cases of vaccination caused

			VACCINATION DEFORMITY

			VACCINATION LEGISLATION. .                            113 the people to rise in their majesty and overthrow the compul- sory vaccination system. Here is one from a large number of Swiss cases where vaccination published its own repulsive char- acteristics. I subjoin a reprint from a monthly journal of health —Terre Haute, Indiana.
		VACCINATION IS THE CURSE OF CHILDHOOD. "John Pfaender, child of healthy Swiss parents, born Sep- tember 23, 1875, was sturdy, beautiful, and healthy until vacci- nated, June 16, 1876, by the official vaccinator. Eight days later his feet began to swell, abscesses formed, his teeth began to rot, his glands to swell and fistulous sores appeared on his hands and feet. The foregoing photograph was taken in May, 1882. He could neither walk, nor stand. Several of the bones of his hands had rotted out. "It was such cases as this that led the Swiss people to over- throw the infamous system of blood poisoning, yclepted vacci- nation, which a medical clique was seeking longer to impose upon them. Since its rejection, not only has there been less small-pox, but the general death rate is the lowest in Europe. There are thousands of such cases in this doctor-ridden land. It is time the American people should know the truth in all its hideousness. Surely the spirit of freedom, the good sense and parental affection will soon arise and banish forever this mur- derous outrage and insiduous cause of so much disease and death."
		AUSTRALIA. New South Wales has but a very small per cent. of vacci- nated persons. This fact I fully established during my several visits to this country—and yet small-pox has been literally stamped out by adopting a vigorous policy of isolating small- pox patients and by thorough sanitation in urban districts. Sir Richard Thorne, in his testimony before the Royal Commission,

		114                                         VACCINATION A CURSE. said: "The evidence is so abundant that I could keep you for hours in telling of cases in which epidemics have evidently been prevented by cleanliness and the isolation of the first cases." Sir Richard speaks of twelve different occasions where the disease did not spread beyond the house originally attacked.
			COMPULSORY VACCINATION IN UNITED STATES, In nearly all, if not in every state of our American union, compulsory vaccination laws have been enacted, but in nine- tenths of these states the law is a dead letter on account of the extreme difficulty of enforcing it. The thinking, reasoning masses are strongly opposed to it and this opposition is becom- ing an army. Occasionally boards of health in municipalities are instructed to enforce the law. Then for a time the schools are closed against all children whose parents positively refuse to expose them to this public enemy—this serpent that stings and scars. A hot contest immediately succeeds; mass meetings of indignant citizens are held and anti-vaccination leagues are or- ganized ; a test case is carried to the higher courts, and in the long run, when the fight is maintained with vigor and unyielding persistence the law is decided to be unconstitutional—as in the celebrated case from Geneseo, Ill.,—and the doors of the school- room are again opened to children who have been cruelly de- prived of at least one entire term of school privileges. And for what? That a hungry hoard of second-class, scrub doctors may compel every householder in the land to pay tribute for a public commodity upon which the devil (personified meanness of the vaccine syndicate) has put his stamp. How much longer—oh, how much longer, I ask will the American voter tolerate this infamous travesty of justice, this flagrant outrage upon his per- sonal rights. The American's house is his castle and no doctor

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                 115 with poisoned lancet has a right to cross the threshold of his door and poison and scar his children. Usually from one to two new-school doctors, or psychic physicians, in a municipality, head the agitation for reform. The balance go with the Scribes and Pharisees and affect to sneer at and despise the dissentients as a crazy lot of agitators, "who make a great ado about a perfectly harmless operation which injures nobody, but is a wholesome precaution against a com- mon danger." Bourbons learn nothing. They are stupidly con- servative. While the rank and file, go the easy way; and not until the danger becomes painfully apparent with swollen arms, ulcerous sores and perhaps death in their own households, do they consider the question of vaccination of sufficient import- ance to engage their serious attention. True, no one is vacci- nated by physical force in this country as they are in some parts of Germany, but exclusion of children from public schools and of grown persons from government employ are unjust and il- legal, constituting an oppressive meanness which American citizens will not continue to tolerate when they come to fully re- alize the true danger and degradation of the situation. A decision of the supreme court of the state of New York in June, 1874, deprived the health commissioners of the powers which they had previously claimed to enforce vaccination and re- vaccination of adults. The attempt to compel free-born citizens of a representative commonwealth to submit to vaccination on the pretence that it is the "greatest good to the greatest num- ber," when their common sense and higher intelligence not only rejects its prophylactic value, but when their souls likewise abhor the vile intruder as a hundred times more to be dreaded than small-pox—the attempt to coerce, I repeat— will ere long meet with such an angry, if not violent, protest that every compulsory act will be swept from statute books, else I fail to interpret

		116                                    VACCINATION A CURSE. rightly the quality and rigid energy of our Americanized, Anglo Saxon genius. Humanity constitutes a brotherhood and what affects one sympathetically affects the whole. Two classes in the United States particularly suffer in consequence of our outrageously unjust vaccination legislation—namely, the poor man and child, and the emigrant who lands at Castle Garden to make his home in this widely proclaimed, the land of the free. "Be vaccinated or be returned in the next census as among the illiterate," we say to every poor man's child. And the public vaccinator— who has become nothing less than a scourge in the land—would have the state keep those innocent children in illiteracy until the parents consent to hand them over to them to be punctured and poisoned at $1.00 a head. "Be re-vacinated or stay out," we say to every emigrant who proposes to adopt an American citizen- ship. Here are a few instances of the practical working of our vaccination laws as they relate to emigrants:— A German physician left Bremen on the steamer Nekar— Lloyd line—in November, 1882. Besides no cabin passengers there were nearly eight hundred in the steerage. This physi- cian writes:— "The United States law provides that every emigrant with- out regard to age or physical condition, shall be vaccinated within twenty-four hours after leaving the foreign port. Many of those on board were exceedingly ill, and to anyone who has ever suffered the pains and pangs of "seasickness" it will be ap- parent that that was not a favorable nor a proper time for vacci- nation, but it must be done, for the law is clear and peremptory; there is no evading it, for on our arrival in New York, all those who cannot show a certificate from the ship's surgeon are con- signed to Blackwell's Island. "During the three days following our departure from Bre- men, vaccination was the order of the day in the steerage. I was enticed thither by curiosity, and what I there saw was sug- gestive, to say the least, to me, and may be of interest to you. The surgeon sat on a box in the storeroom, lancet in hand, and

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                 117 around him were huddled as many as could be crowded into the confined space, old and young, children screaming, women cry- ing ; each with an arm bare and a woe-begone face, and all la- menting the day they turned their steps toward 'land of the free.' The lymph used was of unknown origin, kept in capillary glass tubes, from whence it was blown into a cup into which the lancet was dipped. No pretence of cleaning the lancet was made; it drew blood in very many instances, and it was used upon as many as 276 during the first day. I inquired of the sur- geon if he had no fear of inoculating disease, or whether he ex- amined as to health or disease before vaccinating. He replied that he could not stop for that, besides, no choice in the matter was left with him. The law demanded the vaccination of each and every one, and he must comply with it or be subjected to a fine. I thought it a pitiful sight, and am persuaded that could the gentlemen through whose instrumentality the law was en- acted, see what I saw of the manner in which it was carried into effect, they would be as zealous in seeking its repeal. As con- ducted, the law is an outrage, and no one can estimate the num- ber of helpless, innocent children, as well as adults, who are in- oculated with syphilis or other foul disease, on every ship bring- ing steerage passengers to our shores."—G. H. Merkel, M. D., in the "Massachusetts Medical Journal," November, 1882. The following extracts from a graphic letter by a scholarly layman, describes the painful treatment to which emigrants are subjected:— Brooklyn, New York, May 7, 1883. Dear Sir:—I found the vaccination tyranny much more than sentiment on board the Adriatic. Aboardship, as every- where, it has attained terrible proportions, which makes it prob- able that in the near future it will become the Great Terror that shall 'cause that as many as will not worship the image of the beast shall be killed,' and that 'no man may buy or sell save he that has the mark of the beast.' ********* "One morning it was rumored that the doctor was coming to examine the passengers, and I went with two friends to the surgeon to state our objections. I told him that as we had been vaccinated, if that fact would let us pass without further trouble, we could satisfy him; but if not, vaccinated we would never be.

		118                                   VACCINATION A CURSE. Like most doctors, he was without capacity to understand our conscientious objections, and the degradation involved in sub- mission to the rite. He curtly told us the law was not his; it was United States law. He should come forward at two o'clock and if we showed him that we had been vaccinated he would give us a certificate, and if not, he would vaccinate us if we chose; if not, we must take the risk of passing the doctor at the port. It mattered nothing to him. ******** "By and by came the doctor in his gold-laced cap, with his bottle of 'lymph,' pure from the sores of children or heifer's but- tock, and commenced operations. First a rope was stretched from a post, and held by two stewards in a horseshoe form, and into this enclosure passed, one by one, the victims of an insane medical legislation, and bared their arms to the Medical Igno- ramus, who stood on the other side. If he there saw the ortho- dox scars, he forthwith bestowed a ticket like this:—
				White Star Line. S. S. 'Adriatic.' VACCINATED. C. S. Murray, Surgeon. 14th April, 1883. Which further had this exhortation on the back :— PASS. Keep this card to avoid detention at quarantine, and on railroad in the United States
			"There was nothing in common among them save their degradation, and, as I thought, the most degraded of the lot was the vaccinator. How a man with any sense of decency and the congruity of things, could for mere pay consent to the folly that the individuals of such a heterogeneous crowd were all alike liable to small-pox, and were all alike saved by his per- formance, passes my understanding. It is hard to believe in a

			VACCINATION LEGISLATION.
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		man's sincerity in view of such absurdity; and yet he may be sincere. When a lie is taught, and still more when a lie is prac- ticed, it confounds the intellect, and is ultimately taken for the truth of truth.                         Yours truly, F. SCRIMSHAW. In the issue of the New York Tribune, March S8, 1884, is a significant editorial of the "Cow and Hog Doctor" trying to work up a panic among the farmers when some sickness ap- pears among their live stock. These editorial comments apply so exactly to the vaccination doctors that a paragraph will be appropriate here. "Whence, then, all this noisy affirmation? It emanates from a few persons already in government employ and naturally anxious to enlarge and perpetuate their easy places. Every slight local sickness is magnified and telegraphed over the whole land, as was the case the other day in Columbia county, N. Y. The alarmists are thoroughly organized; they have been work- ing toward this one end half a dozen years, and it is proverbial that Plea is much more active than Protest." Certain doctors in San Diego, Cal., headed by one preten- tious Jones endeavored to get up a small-pox scare by starting the report: "Small-pox is spreading with alarming rapidity in Los Angeles and we shall have hundreds of cases here in a few weeks unless the city is thoroughly vaccinated." The cry spread, lancets were unsheathed, and doctors' pockets were filled. I re- peat, if it were possible to eliminate the commercial feature from the vaccination enterprise, this pathetic solicitude, on the part of the dear doctor to guard the public against the alleged danger of small-pox epidemic, would soon be found drooping. "A SMALL-POX SCARE PROBABLE." "Compulsory vaccination has been knocked out for the time being in Duluth, and we know that most of the really progres- sive and up-to-date physicians hope that it is knocked out for all time, but not so with the vaccination doctors, who made all the way from five to fifteen dollars a day in the way of vaccination fees during the last three weeks. It is estimated that the recent

		120                                    VACCINATION A CURSE. bulldozing scheme only brought about one-fourth of the chil- dren for vaccination after all, and the professional vaccinators wish as many of the other three-fourths scared into camp at no distant day, as possible. So, look out for another sSall-pox scare during the coming winter."—Duluth (Minn.) Tribunal. A judge of the circuit court of Milwaukee recently decided that compulsory vaccination of children by order of the board of education as a preliminary to their admission to the public schools of Wisconsin, was unconstitutional. The circuit courts in several other states have rendered similar decisions. But the noble state of Illinois has given the hardest blow to compulsory legislation which has yet come under my observa- tion. Thanks to the pluck and persistent fighting qualities on moral grounds of a single man. A test case was brought from Geneseo in which George Lawbraugh was the plaintiff. Five years ago the board of education of that town issued their man- date, that all unvaccinated children after a certain period would be excluded from the public schools. Mr. Lawbraugh had a little girl whom he proposed should remain in school, which as a citizen owning real estate, he had paid his lawful tax to sup- port. He also proposed that his daughter should not be pol- luted with the vaccinator's lance and poison pus. He had al- ready lost a little boy from the effects of vaccination and he de- clared in terms most positive that his remaining child should not take a similar risk; and yet, she was peremptorily excluded from the school. Upon Mr. Lawbraugh's representation the state superintendent of schools advised the board of Geneseo not to enforce their mandate against this little innocent girl; but the doctors standing shoulder to shoulder behind the board, the board stood by their mandate. Then Mr. Lawbraugh brought an action in the circuit court on two grounds: (1). That compulsory vaccination was unconstitutional. (2). That it was dangerous to the health of the rising gen- erations. That court decided against Mr. Lawbraugh. He then car- ried the case up to the appellate court and again lost it. Brave, honest, cultured, and true to principle, he then carried his case to the state supreme court, where, after a patient hearing, that august body rendered a sweeping decision for the plaintiff—a decision which declared the vaccination act unconstitutional.

		VACCINATION LEGISLATION.                                          121 This moral contest upon the part of Mr. Lawbraugh was not only noble and commendable, but it has likewise established a precedent in this country by which hundreds and thousands of children will escape the wicked work of the detestable enemies of our rising generation. It is indeed a sad commentary on the form of society under which we live, that human interests in- stead of being mentally helpful, morally up-lifting, and produc- tive of brotherhood, are largely destructive and antagonistic to health and happiness. Each class thrives, or strives to thrive, at the expense of every other class, warring not only against its rivals in the same field of activity but likewise against the com- mon social integrity. The corner-stone of modern society is self-interest and in its service we do not identify our brother's interests with our own, but rather sacrifice that brother that our own selfish self- interest may the better thrive. It has been too often and too truly said, that the interest of the lawyer is prompted by quar- rels; that of the priest by ignorance, superstition, and creeds; the dividends of corporations by the helpless dependence and impoverishment of the masses; and finally that the self-interest of the doctor depends upon a sort of composite degeneration and degradation, ignorance, dirt, disease, dependence, and trans- mitted superstition. Thus we have a "brotherhood of thieves," for each of the four cardinal points of the compass. How is it possible then for the masses to rise and throw off this and that incubus when all institutions are framed with a special reference to plunder and despoilation manipulated by politicians? Nevertheless, it must needs be in this preliminary state of unfoldment, "that offences will come;" but great and good men—men full of faith, the mean- time, will hail the faintest token of the approach of the normal order in which there will be no bitter war among the members, but each will contribute to the up-building and moral integrity of the whole, while the whole will exercise more than a mother's care for the nourishment and protection of each member. Good men will hail the approach of that order in which the lawyer, unless peradventure their breed will have become extinct—will have no quarrels to promote or prolong; wherein the priest will give love for love and service for ser- vice, instead of preaching the obsolete dogmas of a petrified

				CHAPTER III.
			VACCINATION FAILS TO PROTECT.
		The flattering promises made by Jenner and other advo- cates of his school, that cow-pox is an absolute and infallible protection against small-pox, we have repeatedly seen is contra- dicted by the concurrent testimony of the highest medical au- thorities in all civilized countries, as also by the facts with which we are daily confronted, but more especially in seasons of small- pox epidemic. During the last twenty years all the leading countries of the world have expended every effort to render vaccination general and complete. Compulsory laws have been enacted, an army of vaccinators put into the field, tens of thous- ands of prosecutions have been brought, together with fines and imprisonments, against those who refused to comply with the provisions of arbitrary legislation, and millions of dollars have been expended to make vaccination universal. And I ask, what beneficent result has been accomplished by this unparalleled vigilance and expenditure? None. The average death rate from zymotics has not diminished, except where improved san- itary regulations have been adopted, and even there small-pox has not diminished in a greater ratio than scarlatina or diph- theria, as it should if the claims for vaccination had any valid basis or justification in recorded facts. Just in proportion as vaccination has modified the symptoms of small-pox it has ag- gravated other forms of infection, as will be amply shown in

Part 3 of Compulsory Vaccination ...    Back to Index