The Cleveland Medical Gazette, Vol. 1, No. 4, February 1886Various
History
The Cleveland Medical Gazette, Vol. 1, No. 4, February 1886
Various
Medicine -- Periodicals; Surgery -- Periodicals
Dr. Hart said that thirty years ago, in a country region of
western Pennsylvania, he met an epidemic of smallpox. Over thirty years
earlier, under a State law, the whole community had been vaccinated.
Out of about fifty persons exposed to the disease the most were adults
who had been vaccinated at the time referred to, or earlier. Referring
to an article on the epidemic prepared at the time, he finds that
fully half had the disease in some form, from the mildest varioloid to
confluent smallpox, one case of secondary smallpox occurring. While
he believed that fifty per cent. of those vaccinated in infancy are
protected for a lifetime, still he regards the presence of the most
distinct cicatrix as no criterion by which to determine who are thus
secure. From twelve to twenty years of age, probably, fully one-half
will have a more or less perfect result from revaccination, and will
in most cases be thenceforth protected from all ordinary exposure
to smallpox. But in the presence of the varilous atmosphere of an
epidemic of the disease, revaccination is the only absolute safety.
He has always revaccinated himself as often as exposed, and advised
the same course for others. While smallpox prevailed here, say from
1865 to 1873, where patients were not removed to a pest house, and the
only precaution enforced was the notice on the house, he attended a
considerable number of cases. He always insisted on vaccinating every
exposed person, and although there were often unvaccinated children and
adults who had a thorough effect from revaccination, he never had a
second crop of calls in the same house.
He referred to the complete revaccination of the Forty-first Regiment,
O. V. I., before going South. Many of the men with a fair cicatrix had
a perfect revaccination, while two hundred or three hundred had more or
less result. Humanized virus was used. During their term of service,
while repeatedly exposed to smallpox, and where other regiments about
them suffered severely from the disease, they entirely escaped. This
immunity could only be referred to their revaccination, and certainly
affords the strongest proof of its prophylactic power.
While frequent renewals of the humanized virus is desirable, he
regarded it, when selected with the care which ought to be observed, as
milder in its effects and much more certain than cowpox. In vaccinating
with cowpox he has had severe effects follow much more frequently than
when he made use of the humanized virus.
Dr. Dutton did not believe that the profession should insist
on compulsory revaccination, at least until it was proven that
revaccination was absolutely necessary. A second vaccination often
produces a serious inflammatory sore, quite unlike the true vaccine
pustule, and an ulcer sometimes follows.
Dr. Preston stated that, as he had observed, a large
percentage of those who were not revaccinated were liable to have
varioloid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account