Inquiry into the probable cause of the continued prevalence and fatality of small-pox / by James Stark.

  • Stark, James, 1814-1883
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inquiry into the probable cause of the continued prevalence and fatality of small-pox / by James Stark. 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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    I regret that I have not been able to procure the returns from the whole of the provinces for any one complete year. The above were all the returns for these years published in the journals referred to. b rom this review, then, of the mortality from small-pox in many of the kingdoms of Europe we see that it is still a very fatal and pre- valent disease ; and that in several of them, particularly in our own land, it has been rather on the increase of late years. Every one, therefore, will see the importance of ascertaining the true cause of this fatal prevalence ; as, unless the cause be ascertained, we can- not hope to apply the remedy. It is from having completely mis- understood the cause, that so many fanciful theories have been started to account for its prevalence ; and that physicians have al- most always attributed it to some assumed fault of the vaccine lymph, as if it were from some failure in its protective power that the small-pox continued to rage. I trust I shall be able to prove by unquestionable facts what the true cause is, and thus enable all to apply the remedy. 2dly. Is the prevalence and mortality of small-pox owing to fail- ure in the protective power of vaccination ? Scarcely was vaccina- tion introduced into general practice, and its decided efficacy proved, than a few individuals were fouiid so wedded to old prejudices, so averse to open their eyes to facts in medicine, that they asserted its virtues were merely temporary, and would wear out of the system in a few years, leaving it as unprotected from small-pox as*if no vaccination had taken place. Others not only used this argument, but also stated that, within ten years after its introduction, the vac- cine virus was visibly decreasing in protective power, and that in a few years thereafter it would no longer be able to produce that change in the system which should enable it to resist an attack of small-pox. A period of forty-five years has now elapsed since vac- cination was generally introduced, not only to Britain, but to almost all countries of the globe, and I shall endeavour very shortly to show how far the theoretical fears of these disbelievers of its anti variolous powers have been fulfilled. In endeavouring to estimate the antivariolous powers of the vac- cine lymph, we must endeavour to ascertain the exact state of the population with regard to vaccination, or at least of that portion to which we refer for proofs of its protective powers. It is there- fore perfectly apparent that we cannot refer to the general popula-- tion of any country, seeing that we do not possess any accurate sta- tistical tables of the number vaccinated and unvaccinated ; and from this circumstance the occurrence of cases of small-pox among the general population, of itself neither proves nor disproves a single point connected with this subject. We have, however, even thus an approximative proof that the vaccine virus neither wears out of the constitution, nor yet degenerates by its numerous transmissions through the human subject. The tables which we have given above demonstrate that the mortality from small-pox has most materially decreased since vaccination became general. If, however, the pro-
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