Early Adventist Writings
The Adventist Church has strongly promoted a healthy lifestyle to reduce incidence and severity of disease. It has also supported the community-based public health approaches to alleviate suffering, including responsible use of immunizations. Following are excerpts from early publications of the Church during the lifetime and ministry of Ellen G. White.
Three-page article printed in section “Medical Missionary Department”, WA Ruble, MD (General Secretary), LA Hansen (Assistant Secretary), HW Miller, MD (N. Am. Div Secretary)
Vaccination a Prevention of Smallpox and Typhoid Fever: Sanitation Not Dependable Protection’
FOR many years it has been generally held that smallpox and typhoid fever might largely be controlled through quarantine and disinfecting measures properly carried into effect. But we have reason to believe that this result will never be obtained in such a manner, since with our sanitation, improved as it has been during the past two decades, we have had a tremendous amount of smallpox in the United States.
In 1902 there were 54,014 cases, with 2,083 deaths; in 1910 there were reported 30,352 cases of smallpox. Something, it is true, has been done in protecting communities from this disease; but once let smallpox enter a community and it finds plenty of susceptible persons who readily came down with it, and the death rate is very high.
Statistics gathered by the board of vaccination show that only five per cent of the population in prevaccination thing, it is true, has been done in pro-ease. In the eighteenth century in Europe only one in twenty escaped the disease. Since so few have natural immunity, immunity must be produced artificially; and we are compelled to look to vaccination to secure this, and not depend on sanitation to protect against smallpox. In districts in which vaccination has not been enforced, it is shown that there has been but a very slight decrease in the death rate of smallpox as a result of quarantine and ordinary sanitary measures. In the early part of the nineteenth century the annual toll of death in France from smallpox was thirty thousand, while in England and Wales statistics gathered in 1796 show that out of every million, three thousand died annually of this disease.
A Disease That Affects All Classes
Furthermore it is a disease that attacks the rich as well as the poor, the educated and well-kept as well as the ignorant and often less well-cared-for persons. Among the royalty who succumbed to smallpox were William II of Orange, Emperor Joseph of Austria, Louis II of France, Peter II of Russia, Queen Mary and her uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, and many others. It is recorded of George Washington that he was suddenly taken ill with smallpox during his early manhood, when on a visit to the West Indies.
Too much dependence should not be put on what the municipal boards of health will be able to do in protecting any one from this dread malady through quarantine precautions. Any one who depends upon careful diet, healthful surroundings, plenty of exercise, and general hygienic precautions for protection, and at the same ‘time neglects vaccination against smallpox, is taking a tremendous risk. Many instances might he shown of the results to only partially vaccinated communities that were kept in good sanitary condition, many persons being infected through exposure to his disease.
I will note only one illustration, which was recorded by William Osler: On Feb. 28, 1885, a Pullman car conductor, who had traveled from Chicago on the Grand Trunk Railway to Montreal, through a district in which the government officials had been slack regarding the enforcement of vaccination for a number of years, left in his trail along the line of the railway and in the city of Montreal an epidemic of smallpox, there being reported, in the nine months following, the death of 3,164 persons, the disease having started from this single infection.
Vaccination Applied to Other Diseases
‘That today which affords the greatest protection to the unvaccinated is the fact that epidemics are to a certain extent checked, compared to what they were a century ago, by reason of the proportionate number of persons in every community who have been vaccinated. The greater the proportion that are vaccinated, the greater the community immunity. For years there has bern more or less prejudice on the part of a certain class of educators, as well as among a large mass of the laity, against the use of vaccine from cattle. Confidence in vaccination depended for years upon experience and the showing of statistics; and the laity’s lack of knowledge concerning the methods of preparing vaccine led to some suspicion in reference to its utility in the production of immunity. But today the same principles of vaccination are being applied in other diseases, as typhoid, diphtheria, and cholera, with gratifying results in the reduction of mortality; and this has yearly strengthened confidence in the use of vaccination to secure immunity.
History of Vaccination
Vaccination against smallpox has an interesting history. During the eighteenth century the mild epidemics of smallpox were taken advantage of by inoculating from the pustule of one suffering with that disease to an abrasion made in the skin of another susceptible individual. This method of inoculation had been used for a number of centuries as a means of contracting the disease at a time when the epidemic was of least severity, rather than to take chances on the more virulent types that swept off a large number of the inhabitants; and it was recognized that one attack of smallpox, though it be a mild one, prevented a second attack. On the same principle some today take a vantage of childhood in exposing their children to measles, since it is known that the disease is more mild in childhood.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century it became known that cattle had a type of smallpox very similar to the human, and that occasionally persons would contract smallpox from a cow. This type of the disease was called cowpox. On May 14, 1796, a milkmaid of Sodbury, England, made the statement in the presence of a young physician by the name of Edward Jenner: “I cannot take that disease. I have had the cowpox.” This led Jenner to study carefully the nature of transmission of cowpox to the human, and to adopt artificial inoculation from the cow, and his system of vaccination against the disease proved a great blessing to humanity in the century past.
The disease that cattle have is produced by the same virus as that which human beings have, except that this virus in passing through the body of a cow has its infectious character and virulence greatly diminished, so that when transplanted again to an individual the disease is greatly modified, and in some cases produces scarcely any reaction. Nevertheless, immunity is just as truly and just as fully established in those individuals in which the reaction from smallpox vaccination is light as in those in whom it is exceedingly severe.
Immunity
Since today we are vaccinating against not only one disease, but numerous diseases, a great abundance of knowledge has come to us through methods of producing immunity against infectious diseases. The general principle of immunity is that in some way or other the violence of the toxin, or active poison, of any infectious disease-producing organism is so diminished that its introduction into the susceptible individual is not attended with serious results. We have known in the past the body’s ability to resist poisons to a wonderful extent, and in excessively large doses, provided those poisons were first introduced into the body by gradually increased doses. For example, every one is aware of the ability of the drunkard to drink large quantities of alcohol, while only one fourth of the same quantity would intoxicate a person not accustomed to the use of this beverage. Again, not infrequently patients have been admitted to institutions for the cure of the morphine habit, who were daily consuming fifteen to twenty grains of morphine; whereas, if those same individuals had been given one grain hypodermically when they had just begun the use of the drug, it might have resulted fatally. This adaptability of the body to resist poisons comes about through the development within the blood of an antitoxin, or fighting toxin, which neutralizes and destroys the active drug poisons injected. These drugs — morphine, strychnine, and a number of other deadly narcotics — belong to the group of medicines known as alkaloids. They are derived from plants. They are very similar in their action upon the body to the poisons produced within the bodies of bacteria and eliminated by them. These germs are miniature one-celled plants, and certain types are poisonous, the same as some kinds of larger plants are poisonous. In the same way that opium can by certain methods of preparation be given in large doses and prove less toxic to the body, so it is that these bacteria can be modified through the kind of cultural media that they grow upon, or by passing them through the body of an animal, or by an unfavorable environment, such as being subjected to extremes of heat and cold, so that they become very mild in their toxic effect, and then are useful for producing immunity without harm.
Whenever it is possible to reduce the virulence of these disease-producing bacteria, it enables us to use, by a process of vaccination, these poisonous germs which we can control, to educate the tissues of the body to produce in a larger quantity an antitoxin for the purpose of destroying or neutralizing the large doses of the virulent type of bacterial poison of accidental infection which we otherwise could not control. This process of developing within the body substances which have a destroying and resisting influence upon any particular kind of disease-producing organisms is what we understand by the production of immunity.
Diphtheria Antitoxin Different
In some cases, for example diphtheria, the antitoxin is produced by the oft-repeated inoculation of an animal, such as the horse, with increasing doses of the organism and its poison until the animal has developed within its blood large quantities of the antitoxin. The persons suffering with this disease take into their bodies the antitoxin made by the horse’s blood, and in that way obtain immediate immunity. This is called passive immunity, as the horse produces the antidotal vaccine, and man borrows it from the horse. The other class is called active immunity, which is the immunity resulting from the production of antitoxin within the human body.
Thus we depend for immunity upon producing in the individual a resistance against these infections, knowing that at some period in life the individual is sure to meet with this or that infection, which if he is in a susceptible condition might result fatally. We consider it vastly more important to be able to control individual resistance against disease than to be able to control environment and circumstances which prevent simply direct contact with disease, as the latter is not yet entirely possible.
Sanitation endeavors to control disease by keeping it away from people, whereas vaccination fortifies the individual against the disease; and, as before stated, the results show that vaccination is very much more to be depended upon than sanitation, in respect to both smallpox and typhoid fever, the diseases we are especially considering in this article.
Vaccination Statistics
Authentic statistics show that the results of vaccination are superior to those of sanitation. Most of the figures that I shall give, cover a period of time when quarantine regulations and sanitary precautions were about as rigorously enforced as at the present time; and yet a neglect of vaccination showed that among the unvaccinated, smallpox was just about as prevalent as it ever was, and just as destructive. To illustrate: we have been using quarantine measures against measles, scarlet fever, and whooping cough for nearly a century past, and yet these diseases, which are of the same contagious character as smallpox, have decreased during the past century only about five per cent in frequency in proportion to the population, whereas, in the case of smallpox, the decrease has been seventy-two per cent. This tremendous decrease in the attacks of smallpox over those of measles is certainly due to the practice of vaccination as a protection against disease.
Statistics collected in Sweden between 1774 and 18o1, a period of twenty-seven years, show an average of 2,050 people infected with smallpox out of every 1,000,000 inhabitants; whereas, the forty years following the introduction of vaccination, from 1801 to 1840, the statistics of that country show only 158 cases of smallpox out of every x,000,000 inhabitants.
During the great pandemic of smallpox in Europe, between the years 1870 and 1874, there were found in Germany, as a result of vaccination, only 160 cases out of every x,000,000 inhabitants. Copenhagen, a city which in the prevaccination period had at times suffered terribly from this disease, during the years 1811 to 5823, a period of thirteen years, after the introduction of vaccination, did not have a single death from smallpox.
The British Royal Commission on Vaccination reports six epidemics in the early nineties of the nineteenth century, in which 11,965 attacks of smallpox resulted in 1,283 deaths. This report is of interest as showing a very small number of fatalities among those who had been previously vaccinated. Of those having the disease, 5.2 per cent of the previously vaccinated died, whereas among those who had not been vaccinated the death rate was 35.4 per cent. Another important consideration of the report of the commission is the fact that nearly all the cases of smallpox that did occur among those who had been vaccinated were among those who had been vaccinated but once, and that in childhood; and further, the vaccinated cases showed very few complications, whereas among the unvaccinated there were many cases of abscesses, bedsores, blindness, deafness, joint disease, insanity, paralysis, and subsequent pneumonia.
This same commission, in reporting upon another epidemic, showed that out of 286,397 previously vaccinated persons, there were only 4,151 attacks, or 1.55 per cent of occurrence; whereas, among 5,715 of the unvaccinated population, there occurred 552 attacks, or 9.7 per cent. Especially important in the statistics of this epidemic is the fact that 65,000 of the vaccinated were children, and there were but 353 attacks among them, amounting to .5 per cent; whereas of the unvaccinated there were 2,259 children, with 228 attacks, the death rate amounting to 10.5 per cent. This would show that in recently vaccinated persons, as was the case with those children, there is almost 100 per cent of immunity insured.
The Franco-Prussian War furnishes an important chapter in the history of vaccination. Before the time of this war, vaccination was compulsory in the German army, whereas little attention had been paid to it among the French. Statistics of this kind are entirely reliable, and show that the Germans lost during the war only 297 men from smallpox, while the French paid the terrible toll of 23,469 men. This was not altogether due to the lack of vaccination in the French army, but to the poor methods of using the vaccine.
An Immune Nation
Possibly no other country in the world has attained such general immunity to smallpox as has the German Empire, where there is enforced vaccination. The rule is that every child must be vaccinated at the expiration of the first year of its life unless it has been previously vaccinated or has had the disease. In case it is necessary to delay vaccination on account of some physical disability, the child is vaccinated within one year after the removal of the disability. Every pupil of a public or private educational institution must be vaccinated between the ages of thirteen and fourteen years, unless there is medical proof that he has had an attack of smallpox within five years, or has been successfully vaccinated within that time. A vaccination must in every case be performed by a physician, for failure or neglect of which a fine is imposed. The results of this compulsory vaccination prove its value, since in 1899 among a population of 54,000,000 there were only twenty-eight deaths from this disease. In 1897 there were only five deaths, most of these were recorded among those living in the outlying districts of the German Empire.
In our own country we have some very important records of the value of vaccination. In Philadelphia there were entered into the Municipal Hospital during a period of thirty-four years 9,00o cases of smallpox, which were cared for by the physicians and nurses of that institution. During that entire time, no physician or nurse was permitted to come in contact with these patients unless he had been vaccinated; and although the physicians and nurses are in constant association with these patients, the Municipal Hospital has never had a physician, a nurse, or an attendant attacked by smallpox. This is not true of scarlet fever or of measles, the record showing a large number of persons on the hospital staff who not only contracted these diseases, but succumbed to them; and it is not believed that scarlet fever and measles are any more contagious than smallpox. This certainly affords very strong proof in behalf of immunity due to vaccination.
How Vaccine Is Prepared
It is now customary everywhere to employ calf vaccine; that is, to use lymph obtained from calves which have previously been inoculated with the resulting characteristic pustular lesions. Before these calves are vaccinated, they are carefully examined and tested for tuberculosis. The lymph taken from the calves is first diluted with glycerin. The glycerin, besides destroying any extraneous germs which may happen to be present, increases the quantity of the vaccine so that it can be used for a greater number of cases. It can be truly said that no harm can follow the vaccination of normally healthy children when a carefully prepared vaccine is used with antiseptic precautions.
Method of Vaccination
It is very important that the proper method in every case be used. The arm is generally the best part of the body to select. The skin about three inches below the shoulder joint is scrubbed with soap and water, then washed with alcohol, after which it is rubbed dry with a sterilized piece of gauze or cotton. It is then scarified to the extent of the appearance of blood, but with no flowing of blood. A small drop of the vaccine is laid upon this scarified area and is slowly brushed in by the same scarifier. The vaccine should then be allowed to dry, and a vaccination shield with a felt margin and celluloid cover should be placed over the arm, and the arm carefully protected from injury and dirt. Usually on the third or fourth day some soreness will develop, and a small papule will begin to show, which in two or three days becomes very sore. The glands under the arm swell and become sore. In a short time this papule breaks and forms a scab, which after a few days falls off, leaving a scar. In some cases the amount of reaction is very slight indeed, no marked scar being left; yet these cases have been known to show as great an immunity against the disease as some of the more marked reactions.
The general rule to follow as to the time to be vaccinated is, first of all, during the first or second year of child life, and then again at the occurrence of every epidemic. No vaccination should be depended upon longer than three years, especially if one is residing in a territory where smallpox is raging at all times. Those who travel into a distant country where they are almost certain at some time or other to come in contact with those infected with this disease, should be protected by vaccination.
We are not living today in the experimental stages of vaccination, but should open our eyes to the clear and very definite evidences which show that it affords almost perfect immunity, when properly carried out, against this dread disease, smallpox.
Immunity in Typhoid
The results thus far in vaccination for typhoid fever show that the per cent of prevention is even greater than in the case of vaccination for smallpox. Sanitation has done and is doing much to limit this disease; and since we know the specific organism that causes typhoid fever, we can deal with it by sanitation better than with the unknown infectious virus of smallpox. Yet, with all modern methods in sanitation, we find that through accident or carelessness thousands of people annually pay a terrible penalty in sickness and death from typhoid bacilli. There is no absolute security afforded in the supervision of food and water supplies against typhoid. Some communities and cities have suffered terrible epidemics from this disease without its source being detected. It has become proverbial around hospitals that if a nurse or a doctor contracts typhoid from a patient, he will surely die of it; for the germ gains in virulence every time it passes through the human host.
From a recent statement of the United States War Department, which has made vaccination in the army and navy compulsory, the following is taken: “It has now been clearly demonstrated that immunization against typhoid fever by the use of typhoid prophylactic is a thoroughly practical measure for the prevention of the disease, that it is unattended by bad results, and that is protective value is very probably equal to that afforded against smallpox by vaccination.”
The annual death rate of typhoid today in the United States is 400,000, or 46 for every 100,000 of population. During the Boer War there were 31,000 cases among the British troops, and 5,877 deaths from this disease. In 1906 in the Spanish-American War, among 10,759 troops stationed at Jacksonville, Fla., there were 2,000 cases and 248 deaths in four months, and among one regiment of 1,300 soldiers there were 400 cases of typhoid. The story among soldier camps today is entirely different. The United States in 1911 sent 20,000 troops to Texas, all of whom had been vaccinated, and in four months there were but two cases of smallpox in the army. Both recovered. The record of this army for one year, according to the surgeon-general’s report, was a total of eight cases and two deaths as against 2,000 cases in Florida with only one half the number of men in the camp.
No country has seemed more reluctant to use typhoid vaccine on its troops than England. That country experimented long and carefully before making it of general adoption. A commission of English army surgeons in India vaccinated 10,378 soldiers, the larger portion of a division of the army. The other portion of this army, amounting to 8,936, were not vaccinated. They all lived in the same camp and were subjected to the same conditions. There wee 56 cases of typhoid and 5 deaths among the 10,000 vaccinated, and 272 cases and 46 deaths among the 8,936 non-vaccinated. Today typhoid vaccination is very popular among the laity in India.
Physicians, nurses, and attendants today feel a great degree of safety when among the typhoid patients, because of the immunity assured them by vaccination. Medical journals now rarely record the death of a doctor or a nurse from typhoid fever.
What Is the Vaccine Used?
The germs of typhoid fever are dependent upon soluble albumin, moisture, and warmth for growth. A solution of beef bouillon is a splendid culture media for these bacilli, and when incubated they grow rapidly. It has been found that the poisonous powers of these germs are chemical components residing in their bodies; that these germs, when they enter the body of an individual, excite the blood cells to activity in the production of a neutralizing substance called the “antibody ” (a chemical antidote), rendering the germs inactive an easily killed and digested by the phagocytes (white corpuscles).
If it were not for this power possessed by the human body of producing an antidote to the poison of the germ, the germs would continue to grow, and would increase until no one would ever recover from typhoid. When typhoid germs grown outside of the body are mixed with the blood drawn from an individual convalescing from the fever, it is noted that the germs are paralyzed and soon die, and this ability of the blood to kill germs insures persons against the second attack of typhoid fever, and is the state we call immunity.
Since that poison which incites the production of these antibodies within the blood is found in the bodies of the typhoid fever germs, and its poisonous character is not affected by sterilization, a given quantity of these germs grown in bouillon are sterilized to prevent their increase in number, and immunity is gradually induced by the injection of all doses of these dead bacilli. It has been found that immunity is just as complete to when established by repeated injections of the dead germs which are incapable of harm beyond the local reaction, as when produced by their multiplication in the tissues during an attack of the fever. Once immunity is established by the development of the antibody, within the blood, typhoid fever germs may be drunk in liquids, or even injected, if in not too great numbers, and there is no reaction noticed at all, the body having been fortified to take care of them. Antityphoid vaccination is simple, easy, and safe of execution, and affords protection when all else fails.
By methods known to the bacteriologist, the number of typhoid germs are counted, and a certain number constitutes a dose. For example, 500,000,000 of these dead germs held in suspension by a salt solution and bouillon, are put up in a little sealed glass vial. The second dose is double this amount, and the third dose is the same as the second dose, or even larger. A certain non-virulent strain of the germ is selected for the culture. It is grown in an incubator for three weeks, and then heated to 6o°C or 140°F to kill the germs. It is then divided into doses of sufficient ‘strength to kill a guinea pig, which is just a sufficient amount to produce a good reaction in man.
Method of Use
Three doses are considered necessary to establish immunity. They are given ten days apart by injecting about one cc. (one quarter teaspoonful) of a diluted culture under the skin of the arm with a hypodermic needle. Four o’clock in the afternoon is the best hour to select for the injections, as the reaction follows in from three to six hours, and will occur during the hours of sleep. There is usually some redness around the area of injection, some soreness in the arm, and occasionally in the axilla, but no scar is left. In some of the severe cases there is headache, fever (102° to 105°), and nausea; but the cases of severe symptoms are very rare indeed. The Germans have divided the types of reactions into three classes: —
1. Those of no reaction.
2. Those of moderate reaction (temperature, 101° to 102°).
3. Those of severe reaction (temperature, 102° to 104°).
About two thirds of the persons inoculated fall in the first class, one fourth in the second class, and about one in twenty in the third class. The immunity in all three classes of reactions is considered equally protective. No vaccine should be used that is more than three months old. The immunity resulting is quite permanent, with no apparent necessity for revaccination. It is important that this technic be carried out by a physician or one trained in antiseptic procedure. Thus far in its use by the United States government not one case of fatality has occurred, nor any accident serious to the future health of the person vaccinated. So carefully and well has the work been accomplished that not one case of abscess has followed the thousands of injections. Neither is it shown that the body loses its natural protective immunity to other diseases by typhoid protective inoculation.
Who Should Be Vaccinated
I would say in regard to typhoid, the same as in smallpox, that every one ought to be vaccinated, unless it be those above sixty years of age. Typhoid is not a disease of old age, rarely attacking those of over fifty years, and is not frequent in childhood; but those of late childhood and middle age, in view of the frequent occurrence of this disease in every community, its high mortality, and its serious effects on the future health of those that survive an attach, should most certainly be vaccinated at their earliest convenience.
All the vaccine used thus far for purposes of vaccination in the United States Army and Navy has been prepared in the laboratories of the Army and Navy, Medical School at Washington. Every batch that is made up has, before being sent out, been tested by injecting some of it into guinea pigs and mice, these animals being most susceptible to tetanus and other forms of infections, and not one contamination has yet occurred, according to the government report. Certainly in these enlightened times such wonderfully protective measures should be made use of, which, if generally adopted, would almost stamp out of existence two of the most dreaded diseases; and the possibility of attaining such immunity is readily within the reach of every American citizen.
Objections, we know, are offered even at this late date, but they are growing fainter and less founded as our knowledge of diseases and their causes is increasing through scientific research. We can often well afford to wait for good evidence and confirmation before subjecting our bodies to any questionable test, but there is very little that we are more sure of concerning the prophylaxis and rational treatment of disease than the use of vaccination in typhoid fever and smallpox, and there need no longer be hesitation or delay in making use of this safeguard.
H. W. MILLER, M. D.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19150218-V92-09.pdf
Printed in section “Educational Department” subtitled “Ministerial Reading Course”
Notice to 1915 Readers
Our new course for 1915 is now ready. The reading recommended by the General Conference Committee is as follows: —
“Medical Science of Today,” by Wilmott Evans, M. D., 324 pages.
The magazine Christian Education, to be used for promoting and supplementing the course.
” Gospel Workers,” the new book by Mrs. E. G. White, about 50o pages.
” The Minister as Shepherd,” by Charles Edward Jefferson, 229 pages.
” History of the Ancient World,” by George Stephen Goodspeed, 483 pages.
These books are arranged above in the order in which they should be read.
The first book, ” Medical Science of Today,” was adopted in harmony with an action of the autumn council that we include a book on medical science to be recommended by the Medical Department. The author of the book says: ” The object of this book is to give a simple explanation of some of the main principles on which are based the medicine and surgery of the present time. It has been written for non-medical readers.” Among the chapter headings are found these: “Causes of Disease,” “Germs,” “Immunity,” “Vaccination,” “Diagnosis,” “Arrest of Hemorrhage,” “Malaria,” “Role of Insects in the Production of Disease,” “Industrial Diseases,” “Medicine of the Future.” The book is illustrated, and bears date of 1912.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19141217-V91-53.pdf
Printed in section “Medical Missionary Department”, WA Ruble, MD (General Secretary), LA Hansen (Assistant Secretary), HW Miller, MD (N. Am. Div Secretary)
IN connection with the tent meetings now being held in Washington, D. C., by Elder R. E. Harter, medical talks are given every Monday night. The circumstances attending the securing of the tent location and the opening of the meetings were such as to give the effort a wide publicity. The attendance has been good. As, is usually the case, the largest attendance is on Sunday nights, and Monday nights the attendance is comparatively small. Notwithstanding this, an audience of nearly five hundred persons was present at the last medical lecture. Among this number were government officials and other persons of influence. Close attention and a good interest are always shown.
These medical lectures are given by Dr. H. W. Miller, superintendent of the Washington Sanitarium. They have covered subjects of current interest, and have been given in a way to fit in nicely with the subjects of the other evenings. A brief outline of the ground covered may be of interest.
The lecture on “The Relation of Health to Morals” showed the vital association of correct physical habits with spiritual uprightness. The obligation of right physical habits was shown to be a God-given one. God has also made full provision for healthful living. Transgression of physical law means a violation of God’s law, and brings a sure penalty. Indulgence in intemperate habits brings not only physical degeneration, but moral decline. Both scientific and Scriptural proof was given in abundance.
“Race Degeneracy” was the subject of a lecture that gave the physiologic signs of the times, showing that, while the average of life is now longer than it has been at times, the proportion of long lives is less. Infant mortality is reduced because of protection by health laws. While sanitation and hygiene in general have served to prolong the average length of life, improper living has brought disease into the homes, and has increased the death rate from chronic diseases.
“Natural Defenses of the Body” explained the immunity of the body to infectious and contagious diseases, showing that the body is naturally a fighter capable of developing increasing immunity. This immunity may first be recognized in the ability of the body to produce antitoxin against drugs so that the habitual opium user may be able to use fifteen to twenty times the amount required to kill a man. The body also is able to resist chemical poisons of bacteria, and parasites, so that we recover from certain diseases and are protected from future attacks. Vaccination is based on this principle of the power of the body to produce antitoxin.
“Vegetarianism Defended From the Standpoint of Science” gave a clear outline of the rational dietary. It was represented that man and beast were originally given a vegetarian diet. There were no animals created in the carnivorous state. The carnivorous appetite is a developed one. In the new earth there will be no death, and no carnivorous animals. The tree of life will be for food. The same God that created man prescribed his diet and made provision for him accordingly. Vegetable foods are the primary source of life. Disease and imperfection in vegetable foods may be easily detected. This is not the case with animal food, where even the microscope may fail to reveal the presence of disease. Vegetarianism is economical, requiring less time for digestion, and giving two or three times the nourishment of flesh foods, pound for pound. Experiences in Oriental fields were cited, proving that physical and mental endurance are greater on a vegetarian diet.
L. A. H.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19140827-V91-36.pdf
Printed in section “News and Miscellany”
— Physicians are hopeful over the question of the efficacy of vaccination for typhoid fever. During the first six months of 1913 only half as many cases were reported in New York City as for the corresponding period last year.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19130731-V90-31.pdf
Partial listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
Shall We Vaccinate Against Tuberculosis? Read of Actual Results Produced by This New Remedy. See Also Other Excellent Features in This June Number.
Some June Features
How a Vacation Paid for Itself
Preventive Vaccination Against Tuberculosis
History of Tobacco Using (Illustrated)
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19130529-V90-22.pdf
Partial listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
Shall We Vaccinate Against Tuberculosis? Read of Actual Results Produced by This New Remedy. See Also Other Excellent Features in This June Number.
Some June Features
How a Vacation Paid for Itself
Preventive Vaccination Against Tuberculosis
History of Tobacco Using (Illustrated)
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19130522-V90-21.pdf
Partial listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
Shall We Vaccinate Against Tuberculosis ? Read of Actual Results Produced by This New Remedy. See Also Other Excellent Features in This June Number.
Some June Features
How a Vacation Paid for Itself
Preventive Vaccination Against Tuberculosis
History of Tobacco Using (Illustrated)
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19130515-V90-20.pdf
Printed in article titled “Typhoid Vaccination for Foreign Missionaries” in Section “The World-Wide Field” by HN SISCO, M. D.
VACCINATION has undoubtedly proved itself of distinct value in preventing the ravages of smallpox. The following extracts are presented to call the attention of our brethren everywhere, especially our foreign missionaries, to the question of vaccination for typhoid fever as a valuable prophylactic measure in this disease, with the suggestion that it be more fully used.
“Fox discusses the results of preventive inoculation in the British army in India, showing that the number of cases among the vaccinated troops amounted to 8 per thousand, while among the non-vaccinated it was 18.6; the respective mortality being 18.2 and 26.5 per cent. The vaccination of missionaries is stated as being attended with splendid results.” Journal of Tropical Medicine, Dec. 15, 1910.
“Gosman (United States Army Medical Corps), in summing up the Status of Antityphoid Inoculation,’ states that inoculations against typhoid are valuable as a method of preventing the disease, and are perhaps the most valuable single asset which we have in combating an epidemic; that there is no doubt that it should be used in the following classes of persons: nurses, ward attendants, hospital corps, Red Cross assistants, physicians, medical students, and all persons who contemplate a journey into a section where typhoid is known or suspected to exist. Also in communities suffering from an epidemic, and in families in which a case exists.’ He states further: I am convinced of the harmlessness and at the same time of the effectiveness of the procedure.’ “—Journal of the American Medical Association, Oct. I, 1910.
An editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, June 24, 1911, states: —
“The last report of the surgeon-general of the army adds more evidence to the already overwhelming testimony in favor of the protective value of antityphoid vaccination. The figures given for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909, showed an incidence of typhoid fever sixteen times greater among the unvaccinated troops than among the vaccinated troops. Up to Oct. 1, 191o, only 5 cases had developed among the immunized, as against 418 among the non-immunized. Moreover, of these five cases four were so mild as to leave doubt as to the diagnosis, and there were ‘no bad effects of any kind as a result of the vaccination.”
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19121205-V89-49.pdf
Printed in section “News and Miscellany”
— Dr. Victor C. Vaughn, of the University of Michigan, advocates vaccination against tuberculosis. He says he has had success in vaccinating the unaffected members of a household when one or two have consumption. He used the non-poisonous residue of the tubercle bacillus, and urges that it be generally employed.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19121121-V89-47.pdf
Printed in section “News and Miscellany”
— It is stated by Major F. F. Russell, of the American army medical corps, that as the result of antityphoid vaccination that disease has practically been wiped out from the army. He declared that 1,580 deaths resulted from typhoid during the Spanish-American war, but during the army maneuvers in Texas last year only one case developed.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19120606-V89-23.pdf
Partial listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
Current Comment.—” Personal Liberty “— Contaminated Oysters — Overeating Menaces the Race — Smallpox and Vaccination, etc.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19120502-V89-18.pdf
Partial listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
Current Comment.—” Personal Liberty “— Contaminated Oysters — Overeating Menaces the Race — Smallpox and Vaccination, etc.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19120425-V89-17.pdf
Partial listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
Current Comment.—” Personal Liberty “— Contaminated Oysters — Overeating Menaces the Race — Smallpox and Vaccination, etc.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19120411-V89-15.pdf
Partial listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
Current Comment.—” Personal Liberty “— Contaminated Oysters — Overeating Menaces the Race — Smallpox and Vaccination, etc.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19120404-V89-14.pdf
Published in the section “News and Miscellany”
— Vaccination against typhoid fever is to be urged upon all of the 13,50o employees of the Department of Agriculture, in accordance with a recommendation to that effect approved by Secretary of Agriculture Wilson. A committee, which he recently appointed to consider the subject, declared itself in favor of vaccination. Of the 11,000 employees of the department outside of Washington, a considerable number (probably one half, it is estimated) are engaged in traveling, at least during a portion of the year. It is to protect them from the danger of impure water that the vaccination was recommended. Much typhoid fever has been reported among the field workers, twenty-eight cases and five deaths in one bureau occurring during the past ten years. Plans to institute a wholesale vaccination crusade among the employees of other departments are under consideration.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19111116-V88-46.pdf
Listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
Our School System, by F. W. Fitzpatrick. Some Special Exercises for the Business Woman, by Anne Guilbert Mahon. Man’s Struggle for Existence, by George Henry Heald, M. D. Keeping Clean Inside, by William J. Cromie. Guard the Health of Your Children, by A. E. Schelin. Effects of Hydrotherapy, by G. K. Abbott, M. D. The Canning of Fruits, by George E. Cornforth. Preparing for Medical Missionary Work, by H. J. Williams. A Letter From Java, by Lily M. Thorpe. Finding Peace in Jesus, by John N. Herboltzheimer. The Public Health Drug Action and Medical Science — Plague and the National Health Service — The International Hygiene Exhibition at Dresden. Back to the Country Pure Food Law Emasculated by a Decision — Resorcin Disinfection — Play a Science — Alcohol and Tuberculosis — Britain and the Decimal System — Consequences of Overeating Life Insurance and Health — Wisconsin and Pure Food — The Growth of the Playground Movement — Fruit Exposed on Stands — Activities of the Playground Association. The Child’s Start to School, Interesting Advice to Parents From a Medical Standpoint — Hygienic Errors in Rural Schools — The Evils of Mouth-Breathing — Revaccinhtion — Alcoholism and Phthisis — Gardening and Health. The Public School as a Factor in Unhealth — The Training of Janitors in the Sanitary Care of School Premises — The High School and the People — School Hygiene Tuberculin Treatment of Tuberculosis — Open Air for Well Children — Mouth Conditions and Health.
Published in the section “News and Miscellany”
— By order of the War Department, issued August 28, vaccination against typhoid fever was made compulsory for every officer and enlisted man under forty-five years of age in the United States army. The only exceptions allowed by the department order are those who have had the disease, or who have already been vaccinated. This will necessitate the treatment of nearly sixty thousand soldiers. It is claimed that the vaccination secures immunity from the disease for three years,
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https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19110907-V88-36.pdf
Listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
WE call the special attention of the REVIEW readers to the February number of Life and Health, which offers some suggestions on, How to Overcome Constipation; How to Remedy an Unhappy Life; it stimulates faith in Christ’s power to heal; cites some of the evils that come to our children through improper reading and objectionable companions; sounds a note of warning against the tendencies unfavorable to the home and the family; gives a judge’s reasons for the downfall of boys and girls. It contains Questions and Answers on, Alcohol in Candy; Removal of Tonsils; Cough Medicine for Children; Poor Circulation; The Age of Healthful Bread; Jaundice; Ulcer of the Stomach; Shortness of Breath; Diseased Tonsils; Nasal Catarrh; Effect of Cooking Food, etc.: Editorials on, False Claims Made Through Newspapers; Advertisements for the Cure of Special Diseases; Some Enemies of Reform ; Two Reasons for the Use of Alcohol Examined; Sleep for the Children; Changes in Methods of Treatment; What Rheumatic People Should Eat: Current Comment on, The Anti-Alcohol Movement Among Students and Practitioners; Paralyzing the Leucocytes ; A Deadly Fallacy; The Venereal Peril; Unclean Newspapers; Smallpox and Vaccination; A Time for Study and a Time for Sleep; The New Dietary; Reading in Bed; The Earthquake Cure; Some Uses of Cottonseed Oil, etc.: Household Suggestions on Unfermented Bread: reports of the advancement of healthful living in foreign countries, and a large collection of instructive News Notes. This number of Life and Health costs only 5 cents, but its value can not be estimated in dollars and cents. Sample copies free.
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https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19070214-V84-07.pdf
Listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
THE February number of Life and Health is said to be the best number published. The following table of contents will help to give some idea of its value: How to Overcome Constipation; Normal Life; Jesus the Healer; The Anti- Alcoholic Movement among Students and Practitioners; Paralyze Your Leucocytes? A Deadly Fallacy; The Venereal Peril; Unclean News- papers; Smallpox and Vaccination; A Time for Study and a Time for Sleep; The ” New ” Dietary; Reading in Bed; The Earthquake Cure; Some Uses of Cottonseed Oil ; Health Principles in Australia; A Hydropathic Institute, Adelaide, Australia; Rome, Italy; From a Doctor’s Note- Book; Unfermented Dough Breads; The Bright Side (poem) ; Reading and Association of Our Children; The Decadence of Family Life; When Girls Go Wrong; Child Training; A Reformer among Charlatans; Some Enemies of Reform; Two Reasons for the Use of Alcohol Examined; Let the Children Sleep; ” The Swing of the Pendulum; ” News Notes, etc. Subscription price for one year, 50 cents; single copy, 5 cents; twenty-five copies to one address, 2 1/2 cents a copy, or $2.50 a hundred. A liberal commission is allowed agents on yearly subscriptions. Correspondence solicited.
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https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19070207-V84-06.pdf
Listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
THE November number of Life and Health is now ready. The make-up of this issue will be revealed in the following outline of the con- tents: THE WOOING OF SLUMBER, Editorial, giving some practical suggestions to poor sleepers. DIVINE HEALING, For whom 1S it? “THE Gos- PEL OF RELAXATION,” with especial reference to the relief of pain. LET’S BE GOOD. It pays. It rejuvenates the mind, promotes health, and renders one a center of, good forces. CURRENT COM- MENT; The Tomato as Medicine; Breakfast Ce- reals Prepared at Home; Sulphured Fruit; “The Cup That Cheers;” Scrap Tobacco; Drug Slavery; Value of Patent Medicine Testimonials; Insufficiency of Patent Medicines; Care of Wounds; State Pure Food and Drug Legislation Needed; Modern Longevity; Vaccination Protects; Child Labor Legislation; Physical Unfitness in School Children. HEALTHFUL COOKERY AND HOUSEHOLD SUGGESTIONS: Preparation of Hominy; Order in the Home’; Nuts and Nut Foods; Recipes for Hygienic Dishes; Practical Suggestions for the Housewife. Fox THE MOTHER: Pitfalls of Our Boys, a timely talk to mothers, by Mrs. M. C. Wilcox; Bad Beyond Belief, cautions to mothers regarding the appetite in little ones. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS; Diabetes; Chronic Ulceration of the Throat; Sore Mouth and Throat; Cold in Head; Gastric Juice and Germs; Saccharin; Yellow Lumps in Tonsils, Pain in Shoulders, etc. EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS: An English View of Nutrition; The Limitations of Mind-Cure; Hygiene of the Voice; American Meats, how they are received in Europe; Bee Stings for Rheumatism; Where Sanitation Is Unhealthful; Civilized Football. NEWS NOTES, giving information of the progress of the world along health lines. REPORTS OF MEDICAL WORKERS IN FOREIGN LANDS.
Subscription price for one year, so cents; single copy, 5 cents; twenty-five or more copies to one address, 2 ½ cents a copy, or $2.50 a hundred. A liberal commission is allowed agents on yearly subscriptions. Correspondence solicited.
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Listing of articles published in the Life and Health Magazine
THE April number of Life and Health is just out, and sparkles with life-giving principles applied in treatises upon, Individual Mental and Physical Co-operation in Divine Healing, Restoring and Maintaining Health and Happiness Through Mental Reform —” A ‘Change of Seein’, ‘ Promotion of Health by Proper Dressing, The Effect of Personal Influence in Combating Disease, Fresh Air as a’ Cure for Cold’s’, The Plague, Imagination as a Remedy, Interesting Facts for Patent Medicine Users, The Curative Value of Work, Protecting Milk, Infant’ Feeding, Filthy Restaurants, Continued Food Studies, Suggestions to Housekeepers, Simplicity of Life Needed, What “Dirt Pies” Mean. to Children and Parents, The Kind of Girl Wanted by Mothers, Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, and All; Questions and Answers on, Tender Feet, ‘Deceptive Anesthetics, Weak Eyes., Pneumonia, Fruit Juice, Constipation, White Skin, etc.; Comments upon, Candy, Vaccination and Drugs; News Notes upon, Pure Foolish, Patent ‘Medicines, Frauds, Communicable Diseases, Hygienic Reforms in Railway and Street Cars, Public Health Endangered’ by Migration, etc. Twenty-five or more copies of any one issue of Life and Health to one address cost only 63 cents, post-paid. Circulating this excellent health journal is good missionary work.
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https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19060322-V83-12.pdf
Article titled “Trying Times in South America” in Section “General Articles” by JW Westphal
DURING the three years I have been in South America, there have been abundant evidences that this continent is sharing in the general restlessness characterizing the world to-day.
Within this time there has been war between Venezuela and Colombia, and trouble between Venezuela and some of the European powers, and between Colombia and the United States, both of which verged onto a war. War was threatened between Colombia and Panama, between Argentina and Chile, between Brazil and Bolivia, and between Brazil and Peru. There have been serious revolutions in Uruguay and Paraguay, the latter of which is at this writing still continuing. There are serious disturbances which border onto a revolution in Brazil, over compulsory vaccination. Besides the usual quarantines against yellow fever and smallpox, Argentina, Paraguay, northern Chile, and Ecuador have been quarantined against the bubonic plague, while there have also been many local quarantines for the same reason. There have been labor strikes here in Buenos Ayres and other places.
Chief among the things that are agitating the public mind is compulsory Sunday rest. What seemed an impossibility in these countries three years ago, is now an accomplished fact. Both national and local Sunday laws are being made and enforced. Even in the smaller villages, business has entirely ceased on Sunday, or is carried on only in the fore-noon. The ministers and the workmen are especially agitating this question. The latest developments have been a general strike in the city of Buenos Ayres in behalf of a national Sunday-rest law. Other issues, as shorter hours and a better wage, have been added, but the original and principal issue is Sunday rest. The government has been willing to grant a weekly rest law, and let the employer and employee mutually arrange the day. But this is not sufficient; it must be Sunday, the token of papal authority and power. The general disturbances, the destruction of property, the effort to get the employee to break his word and contract with his employer, the resulting losses, and the general stagnation of business — all this is even quite laudable in a Christian (?) enterprise.
When all these and other elements already strained to intensity break loose, as they surely will, what a rushing stream there will be to meet! Truly we have only a short time in which to work.
Buenos Ayres, Argentina.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19050309-V82-10.pdf
Extract from Article titled “Conditions in Barbados” in Section “The World-Wide Field” by WA Sweaney
CONDITIONS here are simply appalling, and are becoming worse every day. With a. population of more than twelve hundred to the square mile, you can imagine that an epidemic of smallpox is not a desirable thing to contemplate. The poverty, hardship, and suffering of the masses, even in ordinary times, are pitiable, but now they are simply beyond description. How the people live at all is beyond my comprehension.
For years the price of sugar, the chief and almost the only product, has been declining, until it is now below the cost of production, and ruin stares the planters in the face, and has already overtaken many of them. Imperial grants and loans have served for a time to postpone the crisis that now seems inevitable. Should the sugar industry collapse, which will no doubt be the case, many thousands of plantation laborers who now eke out a miserable existence on two or three days’ work at ten or twelve cents a day will be thrown entirely out of employment, to join the already immense number of idlers, and then there will be trouble such as we have not seen yet, bad as it has been and as it now is.
The smallpox epidemic, with the accompanying quarantine regulations, has greatly intensified all these unfavorable and disagreeable conditions. Nearly all provisions and supplies of every kind come from abroad, and of course the stoppage of commerce is followed by an immediate rise in prices, which greatly increases the suffering and hardship of the middle and lower classes, who are barely able to .exist under the most favorable circumstances. Then the interruption of commerce throws thousands of men out of employment, such as stevedores, lightmen, boatmen, cartmen, porters, and common laborers in general; it also works havoc among the merchants and other business men.
The present epidemic, although preceded by a warning one last winter, found the authorities totally unprepared to grapple with such a visitation. Hospital accommodations are totally inadequate, and the disease is increasing and spreading by leaps and bounds. As many as fifty cases in a day have been reported. No one knows how many have not been reported, nor how many have even been concealed. Of the six hundred cases which have been reported, more than half are still in their homes, with no possibility of proper isolation, care, or treatment. In the slums, where, of course, the disease reaps its greatest harvest, from six to twelve persons live in huts about eight by twelve feet in size. These huts almost touch one another; they stand on either side of narrow lanes, or halls, which fairly swarm with goats, pigs, poultry, and people. However, in view of the conditions, it would seem that the sanitary authorities do their work in a very thorough manner. The streets are kept cleaner than one would expect under the circumstances.
When the epidemic broke out, the people refused to be taken to the isolation stations, concealing their sick, and mobbing the sanitary officers and doctors in the performance of their duties. This feeling was intensified by the practice which prevailed at first of throwing the smallpox corpses into the sea. The masses of the people rebelled at this, as they set great store by the privilege of following their friends to the grave; in fact, funerals and weddings are gala events here. Among the masses long lines of people on foot follow the hearse to the grave. The higher classes, of course, ride in their carriages, as elsewhere. The business of fishermen, a large class,’ was also ruined by these burials at sea, so the authorities were forced to abandon that practice.
At first the people entirely refused vaccination; but the government, the ministers, the school-teachers, the newspaper people, and sensible and influential people generally engaged in a crusade of education, and now thousands are daily baring their arms for vaccination, which has been made free at government expense.
Many of the people are fatalists, and believe that if they are to have the disease,’ there is no use of trying to avoid it; and so when a case develops, a curious crowd, sometimes numbering hundreds, will surround the house. Frequently persons go to the public buildings to report themselves whIle covered with smallpox. Sometimes they are sent to a hospital, and sometimes turned away for lack of room. They are always surrounded by a curious throng.
None of our people have taken the disease, add we are trusting in God for protection. O ur work is making advancement, despite the unfavorable circumstances. The church is alive and active, and all our meetings are well attended, interesting, and helpful. On Sunday night the church is filled, and even surrounded. Many are interested, and some are preparing for baptism at the soon-coming quarterly meeting.
We are planning a temperance program for the near future. There is great need that something be done in this direction, and we expect success.
The work of the school is encouraging, despite the meager facilities. We are having a three weeks’ vacation now, owing to the intense heat and smallpox and vaccination. We are of good courage, and glad we are here; for the need of humanity surely cannot be greater anywhere than in this place, and we want to be where we are most needed. Our health is good, for which we daily thank God.
If we had a strong, earnest, energetic, and consecrated couple, possessing ‘some knowledge of nursing, business methods, cooking, etc., we would start the health food business at once. There is a great demand for it, and I think that it would be self-supporting from the beginning, and would develop into treatment rooms later. Are there not persons among our people who are willing to place all on the altar for service? I know there are, and we pray that God will send the proper persons. They would need to be patient, humble, true as steel, and willing to forego ease and comfort for the sake of the Master, who sacrificed all for us. They would need to come depending on God and their own energies, and not on the Mission Board, for support. We often wish that our brethren who have means could see and hear the sights and appeals that greet our eyes and ears continually. We have helped many of our dear people who are destitute, having no means of support. We are glad to share our means with them, but it is only a drop in the bucket compared with the need. Some of our own dear people go several days with nothing to eat, at times, and never complain or tell of their sufferings, and then there are thousands of others, not of our faith. How much we long for a little of the plenty that many of our brethren enjoy in the States! A little goes a great ways here. A penny a day will keep a person from starving, but many do not have that much. Pray for us.
Bridgetown.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19021209-V79-49.pdf
Printed Article titled “THE SMALLPOX” in Section “The Physician By the Fireside” by Frederick M. Rossiter, MD. (From February, 1902, Good Health, by permission of the author.)
SMALLPOX means small sacs which first contain serum, and later, pus.
Smallpox has prevailed in India and Africa for thousands of years. It is said to have invaded China in 200 A. D., and Galen tells of a marked epidemic in Rome in 16o A. D. Its progress from east to west has been slow. It entered England in 1241, Iceland in 1306, the West Indies in 1507, Mexico in 1520, and Boston in 1649, from Europe. The Indians were decimated ‘by the disease. It traveled westward with the slow onward march of emigration, reaching Kansas in 1837, and California in 1850s.
From 1700 to 1800, the century preceding vaccination, it is estimated that fifty millions of people in Europe died from smallpox. In a very short time after the Spaniards invaded Mexico in 1520, more than three and a half millions of the native Mexicans were swept off by the disease.
Macaulay, in speaking of the smallpox, called it the most terrible of all the ministers of death.
But since the introduction of vaccination in 1798, by William Jenner, and also in consequence of improved sanitary regulations, the disease has lost much of its former horror.
To-day there are many other diseases that are to be feared much more than smallpox. The number of deaths from smallpox reported in the United States last year was 2,385; from tuberculosis, 150,000; diphtheria and croup, 44,411; from typhoid fever, 13,284; scarlet fever, 9,211; measles, 6,424.
Smallpox is feared because of the rigid quarantine regulations, while tuberculosis and diphtheria go stalking through the land with but little thought
from any one except those who are directly afflicted.
CAUSES.
The, real cause of smallpox is not known. It spares no age, and is most common between one and forty years of age. Children are more susceptible to it than adults. Smallpox is the most contagious of all diseases. More individuals, if exposed, and unprotected by vaccination take the smallpox, than take any other disease as the result of like exposure. Filth and unhygienic living favor the spread of the disease. It is more common during the colder months of the year.
As to the element of contagion, Dr. Osler says: “The contagion develops in the system of the smallpox patient, and is reproduced in the pustules. It exists in the secretions and excretions, and in the exhalations from the lungs and the skin. The dried scales constitute by far the most important element, and, as a dust-like powder, are distributed everywhere in the room during convalescence.”
As a rule, one attack protects against subsequent attacks of the disease.
During the last four years there have been frequent epidemics of smallpox in the United States, the disease having been brought from Cuba by the soldiers. It has been exceedingly mild in most cases, and with a very low death rate. In many epidemics it was at first diagnosed as chicken pox by the physicians because of its mild nature, and this partly accounts for its rapid spread.
SYMPTOMS.
Smallpox appears in several forms. In one type the pox are scattered all over the body, with healthy areas of skin between them. This is called the discrete type. In a more severe form the pox run together, especially on the face. This is the confluent type. Hemorrhagic or black smallpox is almost always fatal, and may appear in both the types mentioned.
There is also a mild form of the disease, called varioloid, that may appear after one has been vaccinated. Varioloid and smallpox are one and the same
disease. A mild case in one individual may give rise to a very severe attack in another.
The time intervening between exposure and the first symptoms is called the incubation period, and is usually from twelve to fourteen days.
The first symptoms of smallpox are very much like those of la grippe. The onset is sudden, with chills, rapid elevation of the temperature to 103° or 104°, often vomiting, aching all over, with a very severe headache, and intense pains in the small of the back. These last two symptoms are prominent in smallpox, even in mild forms, and disappear when the eruption appears. The respirations are rapid, and the pulse is from one hundred to one hundred and twenty a minute. If the fever is high, the face is flushed, the patient is very nervous and restless, and delirium may be present.
ERUPTION
This usually appears at the end of the third day or on the fourth. It appears first on the forehead. Little red spots, looking like flea bites, are noticed near the border of the hair. A few hours later they may be noticed on the wrists, and later on the body. Within twenty-four hours these little spots are raised, and feel like shot under the skin, and are called papules. By the sixth day of the disease these little papules are filled with a clear fluid forming blisters, or vesicles, or sacs. They are distended, and, if noticed carefully, a little depression will be seen on the summit of each. This is called umbilication. By the eighth day the vesicle is filled with pus, and forms the pustule. It is tense, surrounded by a red ring, smarts, burns itches, and is tender and sore. If these run together, the patient suffers
intensely. These pustules form under the thick skin of the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, and ache like boils. About the tenth day the pustules break, discharge, and dry up. Scaling begins about the fourteenth or fifteenth day.
The temperature drops when the eruption appears, and if the eruption is severe, it rises again on the eighth day, when the pustules form. If the disease is mild, the secondary fever will not appear.
In the confluent form the face is very much swollen, the eyes are closed, and the patient suffers intensely. The pox may appear in the mouth, throat, and breathing tubes.
In mild forms of the disease, the scaling is complete by the twenty-first day; in severe forms it may take several weeks.
If the pox extend down into the true skin, there will be pitting. Pitting is increased by scratching the pox, and opening them, and by intense light.
Mild forms of smallpox are often mistaken for chicken pox. ‘ In chicken pox the onset is mild. The eruption appears on the first or second day, is more pronounced on the body than on the face or limbs, is not shot-like, passes quickly through the vesicle form, and dries. The vesicles are not umbilicated. It is only in severe cases that pus forms in chicken pox, and then the pox is not surrounded by the red ring. There is no secondary fever. Chicken pox almost always occurs in children.
TREATMENT
When an epidemic of smallpox appears in any neighborhood, those who have not been vaccinated within two or three years should be vaccinated at once. To sanitary reform as well as to vaccination is due the credit for stamping out the terrible epidemics of this. disease. Infants three months old may safely be vaccinated. According to the best authority, vaccination is useless three or four days after exposure to the disease.
There are probably some objections to vaccination, and it certainly does not represent the true principle of preventing disease; but until we know of a better means of preventing the disease, it should be resorted to. Many valuable lives have been lost because of the prejudice against vaccination. If repeated vaccinations from a pure source do not work, you probably will not take smallpox if exposed.
The room where the patient is confined should be stripped of all needless furniture, carpets, rugs, chairs, pictures,— in fact, it is better for the community if all smallpox cases are confined in one house, or in tents, if the weather is warm enough.
Before the eruption appears, the patient should be given a hot-blanket pack two or three times daily for ten or fifteen minutes, immediately followed by a cold wet-sheet pack, continued for twenty or thirty minutes. The sheet should be wrung out of water at 65°. During this treatment, towels wrung out of ice water should be kept on the neck and head. The first day the patient should have a hot enema, and during the next three days, if it is difficult to control the fever, an enema at 75°may be given every four or five hours. The fever may also be controlled by placing cold compresses over the heart, with frequent changes, for twenty minutes at a time, three or four times a day, afterward sponging the patient with cold water, and following this by light, rapid friction.
The great pain in the head and back may be relieved by placing an ice bag to the back of the head, by cold compresses to the neck, and a hot leg bath or pack continued for ten or fifteen minutes. Hot treatment will bring out any eruption quicker than cold treatment.
When the eruption appears, the fever goes down, much of the pain disappears, and the patient needs but little treatment aside from attention to the eruption. After the eruption appears, no friction of any kind should be given. For a mild fever, simple cold sponging is all that is necessary.
Compresses made of several layers of cheese cloth, and wrung out of cold water, should be kept on the face, and changed frequently. In one or two hours apply a hot compress for three minutes. This will relieve the pain and reduce the swelling. The eyes should be watched carefully, and washed several times a day with a saturated solution of boracic acid. The face may be oiled with simple vaseline, carbolated vaseline, or with an ichthvol ointment,—one part of ichthyol to three parts of vaseline,— and the cold compresses may be applied over this. The windows, or the exposed parts of the patient’s body, should be shaded with red cloth if the light is bright. If the mouth or nose is sore, use a wash of listerine,— one part in four parts of water.
If the eruption is severe, and the secondary fever appears, the prolonged bath at 95° will be of great benefit. If this treatment is impossible, give cool sponging, or the cold wet-sheet pack. The patient should have a light diet. Fruits may be eaten freely. For thirst, give water, fruit juice, barley water, or oatmeal water. Gruels and toasted breads, and milk and soft-poached eggs may be eaten.
During convalescence the patient should be careful to avoid exposure to cold or drafts, for pneumonia or inflammation of the kidneys might result.
When scaling begins, the patient should have a soap bath daily. The bath should be followed by the application of a carbolated ointment.
DISINFECTION
This should be rigid. For disinfection of the house, formaldhyde gas is the best disinfectant. This is used under the direction of the health officer. Sulphur is also good. Three pounds should be burned to every thousand cubic feet of room space. After sealing up the windows and cracks, place a tub or large pan partly filled with water in the room. Place in this an iron kettle, in which are live coals; place the sulphur on the coals, and leave the room, which should be kept closed for at least twenty-four hours. The woodwork should be washed with bichloride of mercury, one part to one thousand parts of water, and the walls should be repapered.
Linen and towels may be soaked in a bichloride solution (I to 5,000), and then boiled. Quilts and blankets are better burned, but after being subjected to the sulphur fumes, they may be hung out in the sun for several days. Bedticks should always be burned.
When a case of smallpox is in a private home, all other members of the family, excepting the attendant, should be excluded from the room. A sheet kept constantly moist with a weak carbolic-acid solution should be hung at the door. All the dishes used by the patient should be scalded and washed alone.
All other members of the family should bathe frequently, eat lightly, take plenty of sleep, and avoid exposing others.
Smallpox is rapidly spreading through Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and many other States. It doubtless will continue to increase through the remaining portion of the winter and throughout the spring. Mild forms of the disease are often not reported, or detection is avoided, and so the disease spreads.
For this reason it doubtless would be a wise plan to see that all the camp-meetings this coming season are under careful sanitary inspection. One or more cases of smallpox in a camp-meeting will mean much inconvenience and delay. If each individual is conscientious in this matter, all large assemblies of our people may be free from this disease.
Printed in section “News and Notes”
— The United States federal reports show that “smallpox has invaded twenty-three countries and every quarter of the world,” Germany, the best- vaccinated country in the world, being also included.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19020211-V79-06.pdf
Extract from Article titled “Gangrene of the Soul”
THE magistrates seem to be having a difficult task on hand, in trying to decide questions of conscience,” observes an exchange published in London, England. – ” The law allows the ‘ conscientious objector’ to vaccination to receive a certificate of exemption, but it scents that a man’s statement to that effect is not sufficient. J1c prove, to the satisfaction of the magistrate!t1 I.i he is conscientious. Of course the thing is irr possible, for in a case of that kind no one can do more than solemnly declare his conscientious convictions. The result is that the granting of the exemption depends wholly upon what the magistrate believes in the case, and not on what the applicant believes. The worst feature about the matter is the precedent that is set, that a man’s conscience may be a subject of legal examination. The Inquisition was built upon that.”
Printed in section “News and Notes”
— A Camden, N. J., dispatch of the 16th inst. states that ” the eighth death from lockjaw, due to vaccination, has been reported. Citizens are up in arms, and are openly defying the school authorities, who are trying to compel vaccination of all school children.”
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19011119-V78-47.pdf
Printed under the section “News and Notes”
— Vaccination is now compulsory in Cuba.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19010709-V78-28.pdf
Printed under the section “News and Notes”
– The system of vaccination is so perfect in the German army that smallpox has been reduced to six or seven cases annually. All recruits are re-vaccinated, and there must be at least ten punctures in each arm.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18990627-V76-26.pdf
Personal testimony printed under heading HEALED BY PRAYER. BY ALICE M. AVERY-HARPER. (Laingsbuy, Mich,)
BELIEVING it to be a duty I owe to God, and for the encouragement of those who know me, I cannot refrain longer from praising my gracious God through the pages of our dear REVIEW.
For some ten years in the past I had been afflicted with erysipelas and eczema in my face. For thirty years it had troubled my hands and arms. It was caused by my having been vaccinated from impure matter. I suffered most excruciating agony ; it cannot be described. I used almost every remedy, and employed many doctors, but without any benefit. The last one said that if the disease was caused through vaccination, I never would get well, but it would grow worse as I grew older. Indeed it was growing worse, despite the many washes and remedies, until last spring, after much thought and prayer, I decided to call for the elders of the church, to have them pray for me according to James 5. 5. But first I went to our Sanitarium in Battle Creek, as I, with others, thought best to do all in my power before calling for the elders. But the good doctors there, after having conversed with me, gave me no encouragement, either to come there for treatment or that I would ever be well ; yet I had faith that the Lord would work for me, and I knew that no remedies from any physician would cure me, and had no faith in them. I had said and felt for some time that if the Lord failed me, there was no help for me.
The requirements of James 5 were followed in my behalf, and to- day I praise the Lord for what he has done for me. I am well, and the pain in my ” face is all gone. For many years I had suffered much with rheumatism at times, especially in my right arm. This was entirely removed. Before prayer, my general health seemed all broken up. I was discouraged, nervous, and very weak ; my stomach troubled me much, and I was scarcely able to be around. But praise the Lord, my health has been good ever since, and I have been able to attend to all my housework, and am happy, trusting in God. In the silent watches of the night I joyfully praise my God. 0 he is so precious to me ! My soul magnifies the Lord my Redeemer. He has loved me so much that he has died to redeem me. Praise his great and reverend name ! The hope of eternal life is precious above all things. I love the Saviour, and henceforth by his grace I consecrate myself: anew to him and his service. I bless his precious name ; for he has been very gracious and merciful to me ; and it is he who redeemeth my life from destruction, and crowneth me with loving-kindness and tender mercy ; yea, it is he who has healed my diseases. Great and tender is the good Shepherd of Israel !
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18961201-V73-48.pdf
Extract from THE DOCTOR AND HIS PATIENTS, FROM SANITARIUM PARLOR TALKS BY J. H KELLOGG, M. D. (Reported bp David Paulson, MD)
Q.—Is vaccination a good or bad practise ? Please explain.
A.— Vaccination with pure bovine virus is a good practise. Vaccination with human blood not a good practise, because it is not so pure as bovine blood. We have more faith in calves’ food than in human blood. Calves or cows ave purer blood than human beings, because they have a purer diet.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18960407-V73-14.pdf
Extract from section titled “The Home/Sources of Danger of Contracting Diseases”
Small-pox. Small-pox is a contagious disease ; it spreads by means of particles given off from the surfaces of the body. By vaccination and revaccination, small-pox may be and should be, almost wholly prevented. One vaccination or once having small-pox, does not protect for life. Revaccination should be had once in about five years, also whenever small-pox is prevalent, and certainly immediately after one has been exposed to the disease.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18950806-V72-32.pdf
— The prevalence of small-pox in Chicago, and its presence in three places in Michigan, has caused the board of health of this State to advise all the local health boards to recommend general vaccination and re-vaccination of all persons not successfully vaccinated within five years
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18940529-V71-22.pdf
—Riots have been of almost daily occurrence the week in Montreal, some of which have assumed a very formidable character. Monday night a furious mob attacked several public buildings, including the central police station, East End branch of the health office, and the County House, smashing windows and causing general destruction. The military was ordered out, and after a hard fight police succeeded in restoring quiet. The chief cause ls Canadian aversion to compulsory vaccination, which is being enforced by the Board of Health.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18811220-V58-25.pdf
Extract from section titled “News of the Week”
— The city vaccinator at Montreal has been sued for $10,000 damages for causing the death of two children by using impure vaccine. The official alleges that the children died from measles
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18850609-V62-23.pdf
Selection from an article titled “Electricity As a Factor In Happiness”
…And these things gained, what will be the addition to human happiness? It is always necessary to ask that question; for, as a rule, the grand prizes of human intelligence, the additions to human knowledge of which we are so proud, have added little to the happiness, of the millions who, and not the few rich, constitute man. It would be difficult, indeed, to prove that any great scientific discovery, except the lucifer-match, which made light and heat, as it were, portable, chloroform, which extinguished some forms of pain, and vaccination, has ever done very much to reduce the mighty sum of human misery…
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18811220-V58-25.pdf
” Rev. M. Cohen Stuart of Rotterdam spoke for Holland, and said:
— “Nearly four-tenths, it is true, of the population belong to the Roman Catholic church, and nowhere, perhaps, has the pope more pious devotees and zealous adherents. Neology, unbelief, and religious indifference, have sadly served the cause of the Roman, See, its church daily increasing, if not in relative numbers, at least in power, boldness, and influence.” This is not a very flattering view for a Protestant to contemplate. After three hundred years’ contention with the Romanists, the Catholics are now rapidly gaining on the Protestants. The speaker continues :—
” No, it is not the church of Rome, however daring and dangerous, which is :the most dreadful enemy of Christianity in Holland. There is a tide of neology, a flood of unbelief, which no dykes or moles can keep back. Thousands, it is true, of the lower and middle classes, and these undoubtedly the best and soundest part of the people, steadfastly and stanchly cling to their old Bible faith, often with a strongly marked, ultra-dogmatic tendency, and with a narrow-minded stubbornness in some secondary points (an inveterate aversion, for instance, to hymn singing and to vaccination), still with a piety, on the whole, solid and sound. But a great many, a sadly increasing number, are more or less forsaking the gospel and becoming estranged from Christian truth. Materialism and irreligion are slaying their tens of thousands in the ranks of so-called Christians. So it is everywhere in Europe, so in Holland especially.”
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18740310-V43-13.pdf
Printed in “News Notes”
Canadian Recruits Must Be Vaccinated.— The order has been issued that all recruits must be revaccinated if it is thought necessary by the medical examiners. Those who refuse vaccination are to be rejected.
Printed in “News Notes”
Vaccination Bill Signed.— The governor of New York has signed the bill making vaccination compulsory in cities of the first and second class in both public and parochial schools. In cities of the third class and in rural communities the school authorities are required to bar all unvaccinated pupils when there is an outbreak of smallpox.
Printed in “News Notes”
Vaccination Law Upheld.— In reply to an inquiry as to whether there were exceptions to the compulsory vaccination law of 1911, Attorney-General Webb of California held that exception existed in the case of pupils whose parents had conscientious scruples against vaccination, but that the State law requires dismissal from school of all unvaccinated persons whenever a case of smallpox is reported in a school. The law has also been upheld in the case of a student who was excluded from the State University because he refused to be vaccinated.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19150601-V30-06.pdf
Printed in “News Notes”
Antityphoid Vaccination.— The French secretary of the navy has issued a circular stating that since the authorization of antitoxic vaccine by the French navy, 3,652 men have been vaccinated, that no bad results have followed in a single case, and that not one of the vaccinated persons has had typhoid fever. It would have been more convincing had he told us what percentage of unvaccinated persons under the same circumstances had fever. For aught we know, there may have been no fever in the navy.
Printed in “News Notes”
Typical Vaccination Scars Rare in Smallpox Patients.— Dr. C. A. Harper, of Madison, Wis., as a result of studying some eight hundred cases of smallpox, says that of this number only two had typical vaccination scars. The others were either unvaccinated, or else had scars indicating infection. He believes that it is extremely rare for a person who has been successfully vaccinated, that is, who has a typical vaccination scar, to contract smallpox.
Printed in “News Notes”
Vaccination Does Protect.— Dr. P. M. Hall, of Minneapolis, in his experience of about twelve years has seen about five thousand cases of smallpox, and some very virulent epidemics, but he never saw, so he says, a death from smallpox in a person who had been vaccinated.
Printed in “News Notes”
Vaccination and Smallpox.— Dr. C. N. Hensel, of St. Paul, Minn., says that he has examined about one thousand cases of smallpox, and of this number only four had been successfully vaccinated, and these four had not been vaccinated for periods varying from twenty to twenty-seven years. Such testimony as this is significant in view of the claim so often screeched from the housetops that “vaccination does not afford protection against smallpox.”
Printed in “News Notes”
Advises Vaccination for Vacationists.— Dr. Lederle, commissioner of health of New York City, has advised all persons going on a vacation to submit to antityphoid vaccination, which is administered free of charge by the health department.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19131101-V28-11.pdf
Article titled “PREVENTIVE VACCINATION AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS” by H. J. Achard, M. D.
In 1903 Dr. Friedmann published four articles in Germany relating to the discovery of tubercle bacilli in the lungs of a turtle which had died of spontaneous tuberculosis in the Berlin aquarium. The germs were found to be “acid fast” and to grow best at a temperature of 98.6°, and to be more like the human and bovine than the avian tubercle bacilli of Koch. As a result of inoculation experiments with this bacillus, all the cold-blooded animals succumbed, but none of the warm-blooded animals except guinea-pigs, and they only when injected with enormous doses.
Friedmann’s fourth article mentioned that the turtle bacillus is especially advantageous for producing immunity. Articles by him appeared in 1904 and 1905, partly in answer to criticisms, but with no new developments. From 1905 until 1912 it appears that no new articles were published over his name, at which time his now-famous article in the Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift (Berlin Clinical Weekly) appeared and attracted wide-spread attention.
At the time of this writing, his cure is being investigated by the Public Health Service, who are according him all the courtesy that seems prudent under the circumstances. Meantime there is manifested a little hysterical haste, as in the case of the congressman who attempted to have a bill passed to grant the German doctor special privilege to practise in the District.
As with all good things, this, if good, can afford to wait until it has been tried out thoroughly. If the doctor is only a hair-brained enthusiast, or if he is trying in this remedy to build up a fortune on the woes of humanity, and is taking this way to advertise himself, we shall have cause later to congratulate ourselves if we have not jumped too hastily at the supposed cure.
The preventive treatment proposed in the following article, and suggested by Dr. Karl von Ruck, is in no way connected with the Friedmann treatment, and is given here rather by way of contrast. This treatment is now under investigation by the Public Health Service, and also by Medical Inspector E. R. Sitt, U. S. N., for the Navy Department.— En.]
AT the meeting of the North Carolina Academy of Science, held in Greensboro, April 25, 1913, Dr. C. A. Julian, of Thomasville, N. C., presented a report of some work done in the Baptist orphanage under his medical charge, which is of far-reaching importance, and the results of which I desire to communicate to the readers of LIFE AND HEALTH as concisely as may be done.
Permit me to say at the outset that the results of the present international struggle against tuberculosis are necessarily as yet unsatisfactory. I say necessarily, because it is only thirty years since the cause of tuberculosis was discovered, and it is little more than twenty years since the general warfare against the disease was initiated. Small wonder, therefore, when the end of the crusade is not by any means in sight! With the tremendous prevalence of consumption and the many ways in which consumptives can infect others, even unintentionally, it is practically impossible for the well to guard themselves and their children against infection; and because of this fact a great fear has developed in the minds of many, which leads them to shun consumptives. The warfare against tuberculosis has degenerated into a warfare against the tuberculous. This is as wrong as it is futile.
Since it is manifestly impossible to isolate all consumptives and to eliminate all possible sources of infection (even if it were well to do so), the only other way, and indeed a far superior way, is to protect the well against the disease, against the consequences of the unavoidable infection (of course, infection can develop into disease only if certain conditions are given), that is, to immunize, or vaccinate, the well against tuberculosis by producing in their blood the power of destroying the tubercle bacilli as they are introduced into the organism.
It is with a remedy which accomplishes this object that Dr. Julian’s report is concerned, a remedy which was worked out after many years of investigation by Dr. Karl von Ruck, of Asheville, N. C.
We understand by immunity the power of the organism to render disease germs harmless, either by killing them or by neutralizing the poisons which they develop or which are formed out of the dead germs, or both. The most satisfactory manner in which germs can be killed is by destroying them so that they are at first broken up into granules and then dissolved without leaving a trace. However, it is necessary that the solution which contains these dissolved germs should no longer be toxic, or poisonous, in order to obviate all further possibility of harm. All these requirements are fulfilled in the prophylactic remedy prepared by Dr. von Ruck, and this can be shown in the following manner: —
If we take a small amount of blood from a non-tuberculous person, and allow the serum (blood water) to separate, and then add to the serum a number of tubercle bacilli, many times more than would be sufficient to kill a guinea-pig, and if we “incubate” this mixture by keeping it at body temperature for several hours, we can then, by examining under the microscope, find all tubercle bacilli un-harmed, and if the mixture is injected into a guinea-pig, the animal will become tuberculous and die in from six to ten weeks, sometimes as soon as four weeks, after infection.
Now suppose we immunize, or vaccinate, that same person with Dr. von Ruck’s remedy, and five or six days later, or ten months later for that matter, take a few drops of blood from a needle prick in the finger, allowing the serum to separate. If we add to this serum the same amount of tubercle bacilli as before and incubate, it will be impossible to find any of them under the microscope after about ten hours. They have been broken up into granules, which, in their turn, are dissolved. And if we inject this mixture into a guinea-pig, it will not become tuberculous. If killed and cut open after three, six, or twelve months, it will be impossible to find any trace of tuberculosis. This means, of course, that the blood serum of the immunized person has killed and destroyed these tubercle bacilli, and it stands to reason that, if this person inhales tubercle bacilli, or if any of them enter his body in any way, the blood will destroy them just as promptly and just as certainly inside the body as we have seen it destroy them in the test-tube.
This is actually what did happen to Dr. Julian’s children. In October, 1911, Dr. von Ruck vaccinated, or immunized, two hundred sixty-two of the children in Dr. Julian’s charge, and in 1912 the latter administered the same treatment to one hundred thirty-one other children. In by far the most cases this was done by a single injection, under the skin of the arm, of a small amount of the remedy; in only a few children who showed evidences of active tuberculosis it was held advisable to give several much smaller doses at intervals of five days, so as to make sure that the children should not become harmed by any reaction that might occur.
It was found that after five days the blood of these children invariably had acquired lytic power, which means that it was capable of dissolving tubercle bacilli and of destroying their virulence, or their power to cause tuberculosis even in so susceptible an animal as the guinea-pig. In other words, the children were actually immunized, and they were found to have retained their immunity many months later by actual examination. The scientific proofs of this experience are published in medical literature.
In regard to the clinical or practical proofs, which anybody can understand, Dr. Julian gives the comparative weight of one hundred nine of the children immunized in 1911 and of one hundred ten of those treated by him in 1912.
Of the former series the records were taken before vaccination and again fourteen months later.
Sixty-six tuberculous children had gained an average of 20 pounds each, or 26.5%.
Twenty probably tuberculous children had gained an average of 13.8 pounds each, or 24.2%.
Twenty-three normal children had gained an average of 8.8 pounds each, or 12.9%
Of the series of 1912 the records were taken before and again three months after vaccination.
Thirty-six tuberculous children had gained an average of 10.1 pounds each, or 16.1%.
Forty-eight probably tuberculous children had gained an average of 13.8 pounds each, or 13.9%.
Twenty-six normal children had gained an average of 3.6 pounds each, or 4.3%. This shows of course that the tuberculous and the probably tuberculous children were not only protected against the further progress of their disease, just as the normal children were protected against its acquirement, but that in the former the nutrition was improved so materially that a curative effect was evident. And, indeed, those children who had had fever, cough, and other symptoms of consumption had lost them entirely; in those in whom the glands on the neck or in the armpits had been enlarged, showing tuberculous changes to have occurred, these glands had either become very small and firm or they could no longer be felt at all. The very much greater gain in weight in the tuberculous and probably tuberculous children over that in the normal children shows that the increase in the former was not only that which we naturally expect in growing children, but that it made up for a loss that had been sustained through previous disease.
Dr. Julian’s report contains many more points that would be of interest, but the space at my disposal is short. What I have said will, I believe, prove the remarkable fact that we have in Dr. von Ruck’s remedy a means by which we can, with a single injection under the skin, and without danger, with almost no pain and without any sore arm, immunize children and adults so that they are protected against tuberculosis.
We can further, by means of a single injection, or at the most by a very few, so increase the resistance and nutrition in early cases of tuberculosis that the disease will promptly be arrested. While in the latter class of cases there will be some sore arms, some redness and swelling, on account of the unavoidable reaction, there are no abscesses and no pustules as in vaccination against smallpox. In most cases the children had nothing at all to say about pain.
I may add that Dr. von Ruck’s remedy does not contain tubercle bacilli, either living or dead, but that it is made from the bacilli by extraction, by a process the particulars of which are published in medical literature.
What this remedy means, not only to tuberculous patients, but to the well, to parents, to children, to the whole world, is difficult to appreciate. In my opinion it is one of the most remarkable, one of the most beneficial, discoveries that has ever been given to mankind.
Printed in “News Notes”
Two Ways.— There are two ways to prevent conflagration: (1) Absolute fire-proof construction; (2) fire departments. If the former is adopted, the latter will not be needed, and billions will be saved in property, as well as thousands of lives. There are two ways to prevent the spread of smallpox : (1) Universal vaccination; (2) quarantine of smallpox cases. A word to the wise, etc.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19130601-V28-06.pdf
Printed in “As We See It”
Smallpox Epidemics
IN view of the fact that there have been recent outbreaks of smallpox in severe form in California, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, it is well to give attention to an editorial article in the Cleveland Medical Journal of January, protesting against the fact that there are now 20,000 unvaccinated children in the public schools of that city. This journal says: —
“The memory of man is truly brief. It is only ten years since the close of an epidemic costing the city over $3oo,000, and incidentally resulting in some 250 deaths. It is only two years since the close of a smaller epidemic, which would have reached larger proportions but for the prompt and vigorous action of the board of health, and yet in spite of these examples, the presence of this large unprotected population is apparently looked on with equanimity, not to say cheerfulness. Let us refresh our memory as regards these two epidemics. In 1901 there was an extensive outbreak of a mild type, during which there was no serious attempt at general vaccination. As a result the people were not protected and in 1902 a far more serious epidemic occurred.”
Then follows a report of the health officer of the city for 1902, describing a recent epidemic of 1,248 cases, of whom 224 died, a death-rate of 17.95 per cent. Owing to the strenuous opposition to vaccination, the school council had to make vaccination a compulsory prerequisite to attendance at school, and a physician was placed in each school to attend to it. Employers urged vaccination upon their employees, and advised them to have their families vaccinated. The city paid for 195,000 vaccinations, paying only for those that were successful. The epidemic disappeared, and during the next two years there were less than 15o cases.
No epidemic followed until 1910, when an outbreak in the southeast threatened the entire city. By isolation and vaccination of 55,000 children, this epidemic was checked. Since then no serious outbreak, but with the presence of new accretions of unvaccinated persons, the Journal has some reason to fear the consequences in case of another outbreak.
Printed in “News Notes”
Unvaccinated Children Barred.— Because they failed to observe the order for vaccination, 2,40o pupils were recently barred from the schools in Berkeley, Cal., and 500 in Evansville, Ind. It seems hard, but not so hard as a smallpox epidemic.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19130501-V28-05.pdf
Printed in “As We See It”
The International Hygiene Congress
THE congress consisted of nine sections and two subsections. The first section discussed the relationship of germs and parasites to disease, and considered such diseases as infantile paralysis and hook-worm disease, and other topics less familiar, though no less important, to the layman. The second section, Dietetic Hygiene and Hygienic Physiology, was devoted quite largely to physiology, and so far as a hygiene congress is concerned, most of the papers considered in the section were of only academic interest.
Another and important section was that devoted to the Hygiene of Infancy and Childhood, and School Hygiene, and under this was the subsection on Mental Hygiene, to which was devoted only one forenoon, though the general interest in the subject indicates that in future congresses it may be thought advisable to devote an entire section to this topic.
The fourth section, Hygiene of Occupations, or, as we sometimes call it, industrial hygiene, received attention commensurate with its importance.
The fifth section, on the Control of Infectious Diseases, while apparently over-lapping the work of section one, in reality dealt with the administrative features, the what-to-do and how-to-do-it, whereas the work of the first section was rather in the nature of a laboratory inquiry into bacteria, serums, vaccines, and the like.
The sixth section, State and Municipal Hygiene, as its name would indicate, had to do with the work of the health officers.
The seventh section related to the somewhat neglected but very important subject of the Hygiene of Traffic and Transportation. It dealt with the sanitation of cars, and the prevention of the transmission of infection by rail or water.
The eighth section, on Military, Naval, and Tropical Hygiene, was related to the problem of making inhabitable those parts of the earth which have in the past been familiarly known, because of their extreme unhealthfulness, ,as “the white man’s grave,” and of improving the sanitary conditions wherever our men may be sent. This section represented the work we have done and are now doing in Panama, in the Philippines, in Porto Rico, and the South, and what we have done in Cuba, to make all these countries more inhabitable.
Section nine had to do with vital statistics. In this section was considered the importance of adequate laws providing for the compulsory reporting of all births, deaths, etc., without which it is impossible to prepare adequate statistics, and to compile figures from which to study the effects en masse of various conditions of living. It is a matter not to be proud of that the United States is behind all other civilized nations in the matter of its vital statistics. In this respect, we stand on a level with Turkey and China. It is true that a certain proportion of States have adequate registration laws, and the statistics from this registration area are valuable as far as they go; but every State should have such laws.
Printed in “As We See It”
Vaccination Versus Smallpox
THIS nasty virus that the cowpox doctors put into our helpless children is a terrible thing, if we may believe the testimony of some well-meaning persons; but it is well enough once in a while to consider the other side. For some months there had been in Los Angeles, Cal., a mild epidemic of smallpox, similar to that existing in many other parts of the country; but recently the disease took a malignant form, the mortality reaching twenty-four per cent. One case in this epidemic, mentioned in Public Health Reports, August 3o, is significant. To quote : —
“In one family in Los Angeles the father and three children, none of whom had ever been vaccinated, were attacked. Three of these cases ended fatally. The mother, who was the only member of the family who had ever been vaccinated, was the only one who did not contract the disease. None of the other fatal cases in the city were in persons who had ever been successfully vaccinated.”
A few lessons may be drawn from this epidemic. First, we should not, on account of the present mildness of the disease, come to think that smallpox is a disease that we need no longer protect ourselves against. A disease which is capable of showing a mortality of from twenty-four to sixty-seven per cent is not entirely harmless. Second, it is sometimes very fortunate for a person that he has been “poisoned” with some of that “terrible and nasty virus,” the very mention of which is to some people what a red rag is to a mad bull. We showed in a recent issue the pictures of some children, protected by vaccination, who remained in contact with others not protected, who had contracted smallpox, the vaccinated ones escaping the disease, which ended fatally with some of the unvaccinated ones. Such incidents have a significance for people who think and who are not carried off their feet by epithets.
Extract from “The Medical Missionary at Work” by Mrs. Ella Camp Russell
A Day At the Soonan (Korea) Dispensary
… Then there came a woman with a cataract on each eye; a man who had cut off the end of his thumb; and a baby girl, three years old, suffering from tubercular hip. A young man looking very sick and weak came in, saying he had indigestion. Cong Pong Ho removed his jacket, that I might use the stethoscope. Placing the instrument over his heart, I noticed a bad rash over his chest, arms, and face.
“What is this?” I asked, thinking it might be itch.
“Smallpox.”
“Indeed! when did it commence?”
“This week.”
“Well, you go out quickly, and stay in your house.”
The next few moments were spent in fumigating and vaccinating ourselves. During the day I saw twenty-six patients at the dispensary, and made three calls, returning from the last one by twilight.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19121201-V27-12.pdf
Printed in “Current Comment”
Vaccination
A PICTURE printed the other day on the Weekly’s comic page about the ferocities of the vaccinating doctors brought us in a remarkable grist of letters from readers who welcomed us, on the strength of that picture, to the ranks of antivaccination. The warmth of the welcome has been somewhat embarrassing, especially as it is necessary to disclose to these good friends that the picture which they had approved appealed to us only on its comic side, and was not intended as an expression of editorial opinion. The argument against vaccination is a glorious structure, fit to convince any unprejudiced person who believes all that the antivaccinators say, but for our part we must be prejudiced or incredulous. Anyhow, we hold, as yet, with the doctors, and favor vaccination, albeit we much prefer that it should not be compulsory. —Harper’s Weekly.
Printed in “News Notes”
Antityphoid Vaccination.— Major Russell, of the United States Army Medical Corps, recently published a paper on antityphoid vaccination based upon army experiences. Among his conclusions are: (1) Antityphoid vaccination in healthy persons is a harmless procedure; (2) it confers almost absolute immunity against infection; (3) it was the principal cause of the immunity of our troops against typhoid in the recent Texas maneuvers; (4) the period of immunity is two and one-half years, perhaps longer; (5) in only exceptional cases does it cause appreciable personal discomfort; (6) it apparently protects against chronic disease carriers, and at present is the only known means by which a person can be protected against typhoid under all conditions; (7) all persons whose duties involve contact with the sick should be immunized; (8) the general antityphoid vaccination of an entire community is feasible, and could be done without interfering with general sanitary improvements, and should be urged wherever the typhoid rate is high.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19120801-V27-08.pdf
Printed in “As We See It”
Antityphoid Vaccination
A COMMISSION appointed by the Paris Academy of Medicine has reported:—
“There are grounds for recommending the voluntary employment of antityphoid vaccination as a rational and practical method of diminishing, by a sensible proportion, the frequency and gravity of typhoid fever in France and in the French colonies. This recommendation is addressed to all whose profession, whose usual or accidental methods of alimentation, whose daily or frequent association with the sick or with bacillus carriers, expose them to direct or indirect contagion by the bacillus of typhoid fever.”
Public Health Reports, in quoting this recommendation, is careful to state that though vaccination is useful under certain circumstances,—
“it should not lessen the precautions at the bedside; the disinfection of typhoid excreta in the household; the keeping of water-supplies, both private and public, free from contamination; the purification of public water-supplies where indicated; and the supervision of the production and sale of milk and other food-stuffs.”
Printed in “News Notes”
Smallpox in the United States.— A notable fact regarding smallpox in the United States during the last ten years, is its unusual mildness; but in 1910 there was a marked increase in the number of cases in many of the States, and in some of the States the disease assumed the virulent type. From this fact it is reasoned that the mild type of the past ten years is not due to the protective effect of vaccination, but to a milder type of “germ.”
Printed in “News Notes”
Antityphoid Vaccination. — Major-General Leonard Wood has issued an order making compulsory the vaccination of all officers and privates under forty-five years of age in the United States army.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19120101-V27-01.pdf
Printed in “Editorial”
Vaccination or Smallpox?
IN Public Health Reports, March Io, 1911, Passed Asst. Surg. Victor G. Heiser, chief quarantine officer and director of health for the Philippine Islands, gives an official report on “Smallpox and Vaccination in the Philippine Islands,” which should be food for thought for all persons who prefer fact to fancy and reason to opinion.
Much has been said to the effect that vaccination does not protect against smallpox, and that it is followed by frightful results. As to whether vaccination protects against smallpox, this report certainly gives very convincing testimony: —
“Since completing, in 19o7, the systematic vaccination of the six provinces near Manila, which have an approximate population of one million, and which from time immemorial had an annual average mortality from smallpox of at least 6,000 persons, not one person has died of smallpox who had been successfully vaccinated, and only a few scattering cases have occurred. During the past two years some deaths have been reported, but careful investigation shows that not one death took place in a vaccinated person.
“In May, 1904, the United States army transport ‘Liscum’ left Manila with 26 cabin passengers, 170 steerage passengers, 16 officers, and 8o members of crew, or a total of 292 persons on board. During the first week smallpox broke out aboard the vessel in an unvaccinated child in the steerage. An examination of the personnel on board showed that three members had never been vaccinated. Within a period of two weeks these unvaccinated persons were stricken with the disease, and not one of the 289 remaining persons contracted it.
“During October, 191o, information was received that in the remote town of Baler, with a population of 2,417, situated on the east coast of Luzon, smallpox had broken out among the unvaccinated children. There were 100 cases, and 27 persons had already died. An average of 35 new cases was occurring daily. Through the efforts of the Hon. Manuel Quezon, delegate from the Philippine Islands to the Congress of the United States, the people were induced to submit to vaccination. The number of new infections decreased rapidly, and fourteen days after the last person in that town had been vaccinated, about October 20, no further cases of smallpox occurred.”
There is a lady physician, Dr. Mary, whom we all admire for her courage, yet we can not help smiling at her freakishness. The estimable lady who has always insisted on wearing trousers, has recently given the harem skirt her unequivocal endorsement, and has started a campaign against vaccination, asserting that the use of onions is a better preventive of smallpox than vaccination.
If her assertion is so, it would indicate that the smallpox germs have a keen sense of what is “correct ” in the way of odor. If onions are not handy, one might try asafetida.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19111101-V26-11.pdf
Printed in “As We See It”
Denies Bad Effect of Vaccination
BECAUSE of a continual cry in certain quarters against vaccination, the Washington Times had an investigation conducted by Dr. M. S. Iseman, who visited twenty-four public schools and personally examined one thousand children who had been vaccinated, the larger part during 1909 and 191o. The average age of those vaccinated was five years.
Dr. Iseman characterizes the cry against vaccination as a “survival of the great-great-grandfather days brought over from England, and, in spite of the progress of the age, cropping every now and then in their descendants.”
The doctor sees a rehearsal of those scenes in Italy and Russia to-day, where, in time of a cholera plague, “the peasantry resist the efforts of the doctors to stay infection, and accuse them of poisoning the people.”
Dr. Iseman carefully examined one thousand pupils, making inquiry as to mortality rates, detention from school on account of vaccination, general health of the children, and knowledge of any permanent disability resulting from the vaccination.
If, as the antivaccinationists claim, disastrous results follow the inoculation, there should have been some sign of it in some of these one thousand children, and there should be a decided increase of mortality among the vaccinated; but, as a matter of fact, the doctor reports that he was unable to discover a single child suffering from any apparent disease or affection, and that, for health, vigor, and alertness, these vaccinated children can not be surpassed by an equal number of unvaccinated children on earth.
We look upon the peasants in Italy and Russia who attempt to prevent the efforts of the officers to stay cholera, as ignorant and only semicivilized. How is it when this spirit breaks out in a country where there is more opportunity for obtaining knowledge regarding these matters? Is civilization any proof against the promulgation of superstitious beliefs, such as these which have prevented in other countries effectual work against plague and cholera?
Printed in “As We See It”
Antityphoid Inoculations
IT would seem that these inoculations are pretty well beyond the experimental stage. An article by Major Gosman, of the United States Army Medical Corps, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, October 1, reports that of 8,510 United States Army medical officers inoculated up to June, 1910, not one has developed typhoid fever, in spite of varied exposure, though there have been in the same time in the army among unprotected persons more than two hundred cases of typhoid. The same favorable results are reported by others; for instance, the Massachusetts General Hospital reports that since the beginning of inoculation of all persons coming in contact with typhoid patients, there has not been a single case of typhoid among the nurses and ward tenders, although heretofore there has never been a year in which there have not been such cases.
Major Russell, of the United States Army Medical Corps, in a paper giving results of three thousand six hundred doses of the antityphoid vaccine, says: “It is in some ways a matter of surprise that a method which promises so much has been used so little. It may be said that it has scarcely been used outside of the English, German, and American armies.” In conclusion, he states that vaccination against typhoid undoubtedly protects to a very great extent against the disease.
The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in June made the suggestion that those whose occupation or vocation would subject them to a special risk of typhoid, should be inoculated. In view of the statistics, this advice would appear to be sound.
Printed in “News Notes”
The Antivaccination League Declining.— The antivaccination cause in Europe is experiencing hard times. Yearly its support from the public is growing less, and there are no signs of rejuvenation. In 1907 the monthly receipts of the society were over eighty pounds; in 1908, over sixty pounds; in 1909, over forty pounds; in 1910, barely twenty pounds. The British Medical Journal comments: “This is a source of uneasiness to the headquarters,— a very natural state of affairs,— seeing there is less money to share among those who have made the antivaccination cause a sort of profession.” But the troubles do not end there; there has been dissension among the leaders, and their leading paper has a number of times been forced to offer profuse apologies to physicians it has maligned.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19110101-V26-01.pdf
Printed in “Current Comment”
Is Vaccination Beneficial?
A SINGLE statement is sufficient to prove to the unprejudiced mind the value of vaccination as a preventive of smallpox. Germany, which, since 1874, has had not only compulsory vaccination at the end of the first year of life, but also compulsory vaccination at the age of twelve, since that year has suffered not a single epidemic of smallpox. From 1893 to 1897 there were in the whole German empire only 287 deaths from smallpox. During the same period there died from this disease in the Russian empire 275,502 persons; in Spain, 23,000; in Hungary, 12,000; in Austria and Italy, 11,000. In Philadelphia alone, from 1901 to 1905, 5,000 persons had the disease, and 500 died. There was no death of persons who had been successfully vaccinated within ten years.
The stamping out of smallpox, therefore, requires not only vaccination soon after birth, but revaccination at least once, and better twice, at intervals of ten or twelve years. A single vaccination can not be expected to protect an individual indefinitely. In fact, experience shows that it does not.— Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.
Printed in “Editorial”
Typhoid Carriers in the British Army
A REPORT recently issued by the director-general of the British Army Medical Service has to do with the case of seven typhoid convalescents from India who were “carriers,” that is, they were still capable of transmitting typhoid-fever germs to others. They were admitted to the Millbank Hospital, where they were subjected to various lines of treatment, and were placed under observation. Some of them were given cultures of lactic-acid bacillus. These seemed to cause the disappearance of the typhoid germs in one case, but not in another. Three cases were treated with antitoxic vaccine; two cases with sodium benzoate and acid sodium phosphate. The results from the treatment were not very brilliant.
The board recommends, ” since arrangements are being made for the treatment and discovery of these cases, that it is desirable that any man ascertained to be a ‘carrier ‘ should, after a period of observation in England, not exceeding three months, be discharged from the service, unless he elects to remain in the hospital for treatment.” The army council approved the recommendation.
The Lancet, commenting on this report, makes the suggestion that such a procedure, while good for the health of the army, would work ill in two ways: the discharged men might, in the spirit of resentment, do considerable in the way of preventing the enlistment of new recruits; and the man who might be under comparative observation and control in the army, if discharged, is free of all control, and becomes a serious menace to non-medical people. The Lancet questions whether it would not be better for the army to retain these “carriers ” and keep them under as good observation as possible, for certainly they can not do any more harm under army discipline than they could under no discipline whatever.
This favors the opinion which is forcing itself upon many, that much of the unexplained typhoid fever is probably due to ” carriers ” who may work in bakeries, groceries, and other places, and unknowingly infect the food which they handle. It is known for a fact that bakers and cooks have in this way transmitted typhoid fever in a good many cases.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19100301-V25-03.pdf
Printed in “News Notes”
ACCORDING to one correspondent, the success of the Liberal party in England is apt to be the forerunner of a smallpox epidemic. In the Liberal party the anti-vaccinationists are particularly strong, and there is good reason to expect that with this party in power, compulsory vaccination laws will be abolished.
Printed in “News Notes”
THE Minnesota State Board of Health has broken new ground in passing the resolution not to enforce quarantine against smallpox after Jan. 1, 1908. The reason for the resolution appears to be that many persons, trusting to quarantine regulations, neglect or refuse to be vaccinated, and the health officers believe that with universal vaccination and no quarantine there would be practically no smallpox, whereas quarantine succeeds but poorly in repressing the disease. It is said that where vaccination is universal, as in Prussia, even the milder type of varioloid is unknown. The resolution does not necessarily contemplate the abolition of placards, yellow flags, and warning notices. All it provides is that personal liberty shall not be restricted. This resolution has probably resulted from the activity of the anti-vaccinationists who seem to fear smallpox less than they do the milder disease, vaccinia.
Printed in “News Notes”
THE anti-vaccination bill, introduced into the California Legislature, has been defeated. At the last session a similar bill (if I remember) passed both houses, and was vetoed by the governor, Dr. Pardee. The anti-vaccinationists hoped that Dr. Pardee’s retirement from office would remove all obstacles to the passage of the bill; but it seems that the members of the legislature have meantime been learning a few things.
Printed in “News Notes”
THE anti-vaccinationists made a vigorous fight in Pennsylvania in favor of the anti-vaccination bills. Lectures were given in which stereopticon views were shown of babies who are said to have died as a result of vaccination. Against the bills, Health Commissioner Dixon called attention to the fact that by means of vaccination smallpox is practically wiped out of Germany, and related from his own experience a number of examples showing how readily smallpox spreads among the unvaccinated. Other physicians gave the results of thousands of cases treated in the hospitals, showing that vaccination does protect against smallpox.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19070501-V22-05.pdf
Extract from article “Only Two Kinds” by GH Heald, MD
YES, there are just two kinds, normal and abnormal. You are one or the other. The normal can do rational things and avoid irrational things ; the abnormal can not. It is rational to be happy. It is decidedly irrational to be unhappy. Just think of it ! Unhappiness can do you no good ; it can do no one else any good. It can do harm, a great deal of it, and nothing but harm. No one ever felt better for being unhappy. No one ever gained a point in that way. No one ever made life easier for himself or his friends by a long face. Unhappiness is always and absolutely bad. It has no reason for existence any more than the smallpox, and should be vaccinated against, or quarantined against, or stamped out in some other way.
Printed in “Current Comment”
Smallpox and Vaccination
BEFORE the introduction of vaccination, smallpox was the worst scourge in existence. It was conservatively estimated that in Europe alone over two hundred thousand died each year from it, and that great numbers were left blind or otherwise maimed for life. It was a disease of childhood, and few attained to adult life without having had it. The protective influence of vaccination was first made known in 1798, and more or less extensively adopted during the next few years. Immediately following this there was a sudden decrease in the extent and mortality of the disease. This has often been credited to the improved sanitary conditions; but the fact that other contagious diseases, and especially filth diseases, decreased only in a very limited degree, proves this ground to be not well taken. Indeed, in cities where the growth was large and sanitary conditions worse, the mortality from smallpox decreased in the same ratio as in places where better sanitation prevailed.
Fortunately, careful records were kept in various countries, and from these it is easy to prove the effect of vaccination.
In Sweden, during the twenty-eight years preceding vaccination, 2,050 died annually from smallpox in every million population; during the forty years following vaccination, only 158 per million. In Prague, for the seven years before vaccination, one twelfth of the total deaths were from smallpox; during the thirty- five years after, the ratio was only i to 457. In Copenhagen, for fifty years before vaccination, the smallpox death-rate was 3,128, and for the fifty years after, 286. In Berlin, for twenty-four years before, the smallpox death-rate was 3,422, and for the next forty years only 176.
Figures might be multiplied, but it is useless, for the experience of almost all physicians and all hospitals proves the protecting power of vaccination. That the protection in all cases extends throughout a long life is not claimed, but even if later in life the disease is contracted, it is much lighter, and is seldom fatal. Every one, however, should be revaccinated, when the protection is almost perfect.
The danger attending the operation is very small, and when compared with the danger attending the disease, sinks into insignificance.—Bulletin, Cal. State Board of Health.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19070201-V22-02.pdf
Printed in “Current Comment”
Care of Wounds
EVERY wound, no matter how slight, may become infected with disease-producing germs unless proper care is taken to prevent such an occurrence, and it is almost entirely from this cause that deaths occur after vaccination. In Germany Voight estimated but one death in sixty-five thousand vaccinations, and in his own practise of five years he vaccinated one hundred thousand people with but one death. Compare this with the death-rate before vaccination, when from one in every twelve to twenty died with smallpox, and the life-saving effect of vaccination will be evident.— Bulletin. Cal. State Board of Health.
Printed in “Current Comment”
Vaccination Protects
SINCE the reform of vaccination by the department in 1895, and the establishment of its standard of a protective vaccination, there has been in the intervening eleven years only one case of smallpox among the hundreds of thousands of children in attendance on genuine certificates of vaccination in the public and parochial schools of Chicago. Prior to 1895 there were frequent cases of the disease among children who had been vaccinated in the old method and with the old-time infected vaccine “points.”
On the other hand, there have been a score or more cases — some terminating in death and the remainder in hideous disfigurement — among unvaccinated school children admitted to school attendance on certificates falsely asserting that they had been ” successfully vaccinated.” On examination — as in the cases of the Brown School children — the only positive proof of a “successful vaccination,” namely, the presence on the child’s person of the typical vaccinal cicatrix, was never found in a single instance. — State of Chicago’s Health.
Excerpts printed in New Notes
THE cholera epidemic in the Philippines seems to be losing its force. None of the natives who were inoculated with the vaccine prepared by the government contracted the disease.
Excerpts printed in New Notes
ATTORNEY-GENERAL CORSON, of Pennsylvania, has stated his opinion that according to Pennsylvania law, all school children, whether attending public or private school, must either be vaccinated or leave school. Perhaps, later, they will not allow unvaccinated children on the streets. But here is a poser for those who favor radical measures: Vaccination either protects, or it does not. If it protects, the unvaccinated can not be a menace to the vaccinated. If it does not protect, it is useless. If the unvaccinated is only a menace to himself and others who rather run the risk of smallpox than those of vaccination, it is his privilege as an American citizen to remain unvaccinated. The Declaration of Independence asserts the right of the individual to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If remaining unvaccinated and contracting smallpox is a part of his program for securing happiness, it is his privilege — or should be — so long as in the exercise of that privilege he does not menace others.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19061101-V21-11.pdf
Printed in Editorial section
WE quote below a statement taken from the Bulletin of the Chicago Health Department. We have no reason to doubt the correctness of the statement, and there are many statements confirmatory of this, coming from men whose honesty is unimpeached, and whose practise gives them ample opportunity to observe: —
“Last year a few entered school upon false certificates of vaccination signed by doctors. Some of these contracted smallpox, and a few died as the result of this criminal practise. One child permitted by the principal to enter school without any certificate of vaccination remained in school two weeks, contracted smallpox and died of that disease a week later. No vaccinated school child contracted the disease, though exposures to smallpox were numerous.”
Facts speak louder than theories.
Excerpts printed in New Notes
Schools
PHILADELPHIA school inspectors have barred six hundred and seventy-five pupils from the schools, either because of the presence of transmissible disease or because of insufficient evidence of vaccination.
THERE is trouble in a Pennsylvania township over the vaccination of school children. The directors of the township threaten to discharge teachers who attempt to enforce the State vaccination law. The State health commissioner has directed the teachers to go ahead and enforce the law under pain of prosecution, and has given notice that if the school directors attempt to resist the enforcement of the law, they will be arrested.
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19051201-V20-12.pdf
Printed in section “News Notes”
Communicable Diseases
OF twenty-two new cases of smallpox which occurred in Chicago during a recent week, none had been revaccinated since childhood, and seventeen had never been vaccinated. Of the five who had been vaccinated in childhood, the youngest was twenty-six years old.
IN a recent editorial article, The Journal of the American Medical Association urges that in all acute infectious diseases, the urine, feces, sputum, and nasal discharges should be disinfected, as all may contain infectious germs capable of carrying infection to others.
Two German professors, at a recent meeting of the German Medical Society, stated their belief that cancer is not contagious, and that the reason it seems to be rapidly increasing is because more cases are recognized than formerly. Others are not prepared to accept these views.
THE State Board of Health of Pennsylvania has issued a circular on The Early Diagnosis of Tuberculosis, which they have sent to all the physicians of the State. This will give physicians, in brief, the latest and best information regarding the early and accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis.
Dr. GEORGE T. MOORE, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, has issued a report showing that copper, properly used, is of inestimable value in purifying large bodies of water infected with typhoid germs. According to the doctor, the amount of copper necessary to destroy the typhoid germs is absolutely harmless to human beings.
A BILL has been introduced into the Pennsylvania Legislature, empowering the health authorities to make rules for the care and control of all persons having acute infectious disease, and for the control of the sanitary condition of premises where such diseases exist, and for the burial of all persons who have died of some acute infectious disease.
THE death-rate from cerebrospinal meningitis in the city of New York has increased from eighteen the last week of December to one hundred and thirty-one the last week of March. As a result of this alarming increase, a commission has been appointed, which is studying the disease not only in New York, but in ether places where the disease is prevalent.
“THE Danish government has issued a new stamp of the value of half a cent, the proceeds from the sale of which are to be used to augment a fund for a sanatorium for tuberculous children. The stamp has a picture of the late queen, and is affixed by those charitably inclined, to all postal matters, in addition to the regular postage. Twenty-seven thousand dollars has already been raised in this way. The plan has found a favorable reception among the Danes, and is being considered for adoption in other European countries.”
“No case of plague has existed in California for over a year. During all that time a force of inspectors has been constantly at work; basements have been torn out, and concrete flooring laid, war on rats waged, and the whole area repeatedly disinfected. Recognizing the danger that all coast cities with large commerce are in, now that plague is so wide-spread throughout the world, the State will continue the work of inspection, so that if, by any means, it should again appear, we shall be there with an organized and experienced force.”
THE Anti-Tuberculosis League of Cleveland, Ohio, aims to increase public interest, so there will be an intelligent support of public measures directed against the disease. It is proposed: —
To support and increase sanitoria, dispensaries, and visiting nurses.
To preserve children from infection by assisting in fresh-air camps, vacation schools, and children’s societies.
To investigate dangerous trades, and see that proper health devices are used.
To investigate unsanitary houses, and urge their proper disinfection and repair.
IN Los Angeles sixty-three deaths occurred in February from tuberculosis. Of these, nine were natives of the Pacific Coast; ten had lived in Los Angeles less than three months; eight between three and six months; seven between six and twelve months, and nineteen between one and five years. What is true of Los Angeles is also true of other places. That so large a proportion should die in a short time after reaching here shows poor judgment on the part of those sending them, to call it by no harsher term. Our climate, glorious as it is, can not save the lives of consumptives coming here in the last stages of the disease, many of them without friends or means to provide the necessaries of life, to say nothing of the comforts so much needed. It is cruel to them and unjust to us.— Report, Cal. State Board of Health.
A BILL abolishing compulsory vaccination of school children passed both houses of the California Legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Pardee. In his message, the Governor, who is a physician, said: “Before the discovery and application of vaccination by the immortal Jenner, smallpox was nearly universal, and it was considered a grave disadvantage not to have had the disease in childhood. Severe and terrible epidemics have gradually but surely become things of the past except when, from any cause, vaccination has been neglected. That accidents of many kinds, even death, may follow vaccination is not and can not be denied. But that the number of these accidents, compared with the many, many thousands — even millions — of times which this beneficent procedure is practised, is anything but infinitesimal is not borne out by the facts. When vaccination is compulsory, and the law is well administered, there is but little smallpox; so that those protected by vaccination soon lose their fear of the dread disease; and turning our attention to the lesser evils of the vaccine virus, many of us conjure a fear, not warranted by facts, against the very thing that saves us from a much worse fate.”
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LH/LH19050501-V20-05.pdf
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