Compulsory vaccination, antivaccination, and organized vaccination / by George Dock.

  • Dock, George, 1860-1951.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Compulsory vaccination, antivaccination, and organized vaccination / by George Dock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    no proof for this, and it may be a very dangerous idea if followed out. Against it may be said: (1) Vaccination in the United States has not been as widespread as this contention assumes. (2) In some localities where there were severe cases there is no reason to think the parents were relatively or absolutely less protected. So in Cleveland, in 1901, there were 1230 cases of smallpox with 20 deaths, or 1.6 per cent.; in 1902, 1298 cases with 224 deaths, or 17.3 per cent. Vaccination protects the individual, as small- pox does, but the latter does not make immune the children. It is probable that the mild type of the recent epidemic is due to causes partly separate from vaccination and not profitable to discuss at this time. As the death-rate has been low, the total deaths are hardly enough to give the public much concern on that score. A country that sees its citizens killed off in their best years by typhoid fever without making a move to prevent the disease; that is so indifferent to accidental deaths and homicides in all forms, is not likely to pay much attention to the loss of a few hundred people a year from small- pox. Much more serious to a larger number are the sick. Through these discomfort and inconvenience affect many people, and the mild character of recent smallpox has not greatly lessened the horror traditionally associated with it. It is true that patients in well- managed smallpox hospitals often say they would rather have small- pox than be vaccinated. Many people, especially the ignorant in isolated districts, often have smallpox epidemics without paying particular attention to them. But most people have a fear that is justified by the painful symptoms, dangerous sequels, and high infectiousness of the disease in the unvaccinated. The newspaper account of the treatment of George Francis Train may not have been true, but its publication in journals not of the yellowist kind indicates the general feeling. It also shows how much that is irrational and absurd can be attributed to the medical profession. I have taken the following account from a city paper, where it appeared in double column, with picture, scare-heads, and display type: Make a Row when Disinfected. Stamford, Conn., June ]7, 1903. Kicking and shouting and resisting with all his might, ' Citizen' George Francis Train was carried from the smallpox pest-house in Stamford yesterday—and laid in sheets beneath the open sky. Then the physicians made a bath of hot bichloride of mercury, into which the old gentleman was lifted. As soon as his nose was shoved into the bath, Mr. Train burst forth into loud protests against the treatment he had received, bemoaning especially the destruction of the beloved manuscript of his autobiography. Pinned in sheets soaked in bichloride of mercury, he was carried to a closed carriage, in which he was conveyed to the residence of his daughter. The physicians and attendants left immediately. While this may be overdrawn, we usually see general alarm,