A summary of statistics relating to vaccination and smallpox : as observed in the cases admitted to the City of Glasgow Smallpox Hospital, Belvidere, between 10th April, 1900, and 30th June, 1901 / by R.S. Thomson and Robert Fullarton.

  • Thomson, R. Stevenson.
Date:
1901-1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A summary of statistics relating to vaccination and smallpox : as observed in the cases admitted to the City of Glasgow Smallpox Hospital, Belvidere, between 10th April, 1900, and 30th June, 1901 / by R.S. Thomson and Robert Fullarton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    a second attack of this disease. The details of these are given in the following list:— Age. Date of First Attack. Character of Case. No. i.—50. Precise date of first attack not known, Fairly abundant. „ 2.—50. 9 years ago, - - - Abundant, but ran rapid course. t> 3.-32. 10 years ago, - - - - Very sparse. ,, 4.—50. 40 years ago, - - Very sparse. ,, 5.—50. 46 years ago, Sparse. „ 6.-54. In early infancy, ... - Very sparse. It may be stated that these patients, with the exception of the last, had been vaccinated in infancy, that the second on the list was an inmate of the Hospital nine years ago, when he passed through a very sharp attack of smallpox, and that in the first two cases the disease ran a course of considerable severity, in spite of the immunity which was presumably conferred by their former attack. None of these died. In addition to the cases enumerated in this list, several others stated they had passed through an attack of smallpox in earlier life, but as the historical evidence was not regarded as satisfactory, they have been omitted from our list. It is almost certain that at the commencement of the outbreak of smallpox in 1900, there were more revaccinated individuals in our midst than there were persons who had already passed through an attack of smallpox, and yet we find that only eight of the former contracted the disease, while six incurred a second attack. Two of the cases passed through the second attack within ten years of the first, an experience comparable with that observed on studying the list of revaccinated persons, where, if we omit the last case in whom the date of revaccination is doubtful, we find that in the first two cases the period which elapsed between the date of revaccination and the attack of smallpox was in the one six, and in the other eleven years. In other points the two lists resemble each other pretty closely. It would be unwise to dogmatise with regard to the relative immunity conferred respectively by revaccination and a former attack of smallpox, yet the experience of the outbreak would suggest that a revaccinated person is quite as safe from smallpox as one who has already passed through an attack of the disease. During every epidemic of smallpox, more especially in the first few weeks of its course, a considerable number of more or less unprotected persons are brought into contact with others suffering from the disease, before the true nature of the illness is recog-
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