VACCINATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1899, 16 February 1870, Page 4

VACCINATION.

To the Editor of the Heeald. Sin, —As I feel that the advantage of compulsory vaccination, as instituted by the legislature of this colony, is not generally understood by the people, perhaps you will permit me to offer a few remarks in elucidation of the subject. The law is part of that colonial legislat'on that is passed in Wellington under the influence, and by the direction of what is termed Responsible Government. The vaccination law directs the Superintendent of this province to appoint a paid public vaccinator; consequently it requires that a sum of money be placed upon the Estimates to be sent down to tlie Provincial Council to pay the expenses of this officer. if the Council does not think the appointment judicious, or the mode of doing the work consonant with the public good, tliey are coolly told that it matters not; they must p?.y the bill whether they like it or not; for if tliev do not pay, it will be stopped out of the share of colonial revenue due to this province. Such was the argument used the other day by the lion, the Provincial Secretary in the case of the Provincial "Vaccinator and a vast number of other provincial officinals. This is one of the phases of Responsible Government (a contradiction in itself) that many declare to be a curse, a snare, and a delusion to this colony. It is a polite way of putting their hands into your pocket and making you pay, whether you are willing or not. It has long been an axiom in imperial legislation, that uot ix could be imposed without the consent of the people; but in these Responsible Government so fixed it that we must cash up at their bidding and do the w.>rk as they direct. X am happy to find that the gentleman who has been appointed to the office of public vaccinator, agrees with me in showing the enormous danger to which the public in this colony may at any moment be submitted u> from the sudden advent of small-pox anionjj us. "Without doubt, the hideous disease would carry off thousands of the Anglo-S lion race, disfigure almost all that it attacked, and cause blindnesi in a multitude of cases; while, in all probability, it would nearly cause the extinction of the Maori race—a condition which, according to the last number of the " Medical Times and Gazette " is fully exemplified in some parts of India where vaccination has not been practised. Tlienythe most loathsome scenes present themselves, where blindness, or injury of. tlio eyes, from the malady, exceeds eighty per cent., with a multitude of sequences that leave the marks of this horrible disease on almost all its victims. This surely should be a warning to the people of this colony, and induce them not to neglect vaccination. Such a view of the case should certainly induce us to submit to compulsory vaccination —compulsory, I say, for no man should be exempted, be he rich or be he poor. The law should operate alike on all. Individual* living in a civilised community are required to yield tip, for the public good, part of that liberty and license, they would exercise in a savage state, when their condition or actions would be dangerous to their neighbours; they must submit to restraint for the public good—upon the same principle that no man can now build a wooden house in some parts of this city, for fear that if on fire, it destroys his neighbour's property. Hence, it is plain that in case of small-pox, no man should go unprotected, for fear that if he should get the complaint, it -would spread to his neighbour's family. Without doubt, very many persons object to vaccination as now practised, and if we take a proper view of the subject, 1 am certain that all will be convinced that there are ample grounds for the objection. It has been said by the public vaccinator that " the public have no real grounds for objection to the preseilfr"mode of vaccination, tliat it was only some exploded or fanciful theory of their own" that they- advocated. . Now this is certainly not correct, and argues , a great want of observation in the party making it, or a woeful deficiency in the appreciation of medical progress in the present day. That many have. objected to the operation on erroneous data, and have laid themselves open to animadversions on this subject is true, but it is the privilege and necessity of progressing civilisation that the public be educated in this matter. The days of forcible compulsory vaccination have expired; but when science points to the truth, no false delicacy should obscure or hide the danger, but by appealing to the reason and good sense of the public, we shall find a compulsory law in this matter, made for the public good, to; be fully supported by the intelligence and good sense of the people, who would readily agree to vaccination devoid of all the dangers with which it it now surrounded.

To ask why vaccination is positively dangerous is a declaration of that ; want of intelligence and medical knowledge on this subject that must woefully diminish the efficiency of any individual appointed to the office of public vaccinator. It must be a striking proof that he does not keep pacc with the progress that is so rapidly taking place in the matter of vaccination in England and on the Continent of Europe. He says: " I am not aware of any single instance in England in which lymph lias been taken from the cow by a public vaccinator." Surely he has not read " The History and Practice of Animal Vaccination" by Dr. .Blanc, in the "Medical Times and Gazette," or seen an account of the meeting of the British Association for tho advancement of science iu the same journal, or can he know that annual vaccination is the law in France, Germany, and Russia; or can he from time to time have seen the accounts detailed in your journal, so aa to ignore the fact that anuual vaccination is practised in England and on the Continent of Europe generally. If he has seen these accounts, and has not heeded them, we must conclude with the aphorism that " none are so blind as those that will not see." That prejudice still lingers in the mind, and that the sooner he discovers tho trutli, and practises its results, the better for the public good. He also says, " bufc why vaccination, as now practised, should be positively dangerous, lie is at a loss to discover." If such ij the fact, it is an open acknowledgement that he has not kept pace with the times iu this matter, and if he is not alive to the dreadful dangers which arc known to have occurred on the Continent of Europe, in England, and not unfrequently happens in New Zealand, most certainly he is not a. proper person to occupy the position of pub" lie vaccinator iu this province. Surely ho should be required to know the nature, symptoms, and consequences of that heinous malady, which all the best authorities agree has been, and may be again introduced into I the human system, by vaccination. If he does know it, as now pointed out by the most scientific surgeons of England and the Continent, ho would fetl satisfied that he could not always declare that an otherwise healthy looking infant had not the horrible virus lying dormant in its system—a condition that would be aroused by cow-pox vaccination and would certainly contaminate the child into which it was introduced. Wa3 it possible in any any to produce such an accident, and I-say it is not uncommon, I maintain it is a sufficient reason against the practice of vaccination when the matter is taken from tho human subject. I feel convinced that the most erudite and careful practitioner cannot in many cases distinguish the infected from tho non-infected subject. This is not my solitary opinion, but the sound and unbiassed judgment of some of tho best London surgeons. Perhaps I.may be permitted an illustration: —When last in London, some two or three years since, 1 was at the Monilelds Dispensary for Diseases of the Eye. A fine, healthy looking girl, about eighteon years of age, with ruddy complexion, and abundant development, was led into tho room totally blind. After examining her eyes, I was asked with the students if I understood the complaint ? I declared her blindness was the result of chorodites. " Truly; but what produced that complaint ?" demanded Mr. Hutchinson.

Jq pointed ont that she •was thesubject of lereditary syphilis,-as indicated by the second e t of teeth, and that this blindness resulted jom that constitutional condition. . " Had be not been, blind, or you had not known tho lisgnostio mart of her condition, you would mre declared that she was one of the healthiest romen in London. , Now, had she been vaceiUlted, tho matter taken from her arm would urely hare infected any child that waa vacciiated from her." ,If this is true, and it is by 10 means a solitary example, I would ask, in be name of common sense, who can have ufficient 'powers' of discrimination in this natter bo as "surely to avoid propagating his horrible disease and committing a Teat national crime—-nay, did.jthe.intiridual in question' understand tlie. nature if this complaint, or the laws wliicli regulate ts ■action he would not venture upon tho issertion that he could know pure vaccine ymph when he saw it, or would he be certain, is he affirms, to' ; flnd 5 it- a sufficiently safe and. jffectual remedy against the small-pox and the lereditary disease. Perhaps I may be per i-itted here to illustrate these facts, aud to point out that the cause which produces this hereditary disease has been shown, by Salisbury and' others, to be i vegetable organism—a kind of alge—fwhich is known as the crypta syphilica, is- propozated by sporales, or. seeds of tho most minute kind, appreciable inly to a microscope' of the iighest_pawer, which_seeds, deposited on the surface of the body,, produces a sore, and trhen introduced intd the human blood, lives, grows, 'fltpfl, is, propogated" in that fluid. Haying oncQ, entered ,tfie circulating system of man (for it can exist in no other being) it will product a vast variety of symptoms, at intervals attacking every tissue structure of the human -body,—thethroat - the skin—the bones—the .viscera^thp. brain—the eye .'and, ear; indeed, its "presence and effects m»y be universal, or ifc%may only be confined for a, time to a particular location, while ofte;i for a considerablejj'or'iqd it may remain dormant, and the flatter himself that he has been cured, "but, ajas, upon any accidental or debilitating r cause occurring, the hideous malady again' presents ?itself ; 'what is more, the same minute; cause iaemplanted in the offspring, and may continue to show marks:of it 3 influence for generations to come, often producing- '- 'disease and death UiO tlfts" young;.' ofC aQi) obscure a character,' "that the cause is . not apprehended by the medical ' practitioners.. It is certain that" wh'an '."oneeK the blood, is; saturated with -it,- 60 minute is ■ the-causo : least atom t of. the v ; fluid cmay ;.?J»iiopagßte the disease,, r and,* or'J debilitated 'constituting y.may' the . very worst symptoms of this malady; nay, it difficult to shake off the seedsof the complaint", in..future generations, y we find ,it ultimately ends in constimption ! 'or some kindred complaint, after the lapsdwf -five or sbt years. . ;Suoh are the markingsAof, science of the present day, and if such i£\the itanith,- : and- these are its results, I be KS).ny^nc^ that these' rem^ks-.are. .simply intended for the p_ublic_ good^Jbnat' I have no' 1 desire to embarrass ; Jta^cial. Xfromtive, but I must demafefi in the' name of common sense ; " and the light of. science, a proper method of Taccination -fromthe heifer be Adopted in the province-'of Auckland. 'ThaV- tlie ; public" fee admitted to the'dperation, abas to : convince tie mind of the true-source of the matter, and of its purity; when I feel convinced that the peoplewill readily consent to compulsory vaccination. "We have -only to convince the mind-pf .the public advantages of y lhe, operationjand itsfreedom frorn danger, and all \*ill readily acquiesce''iiil'its performance, fall short in their d'nfrjr to the. pußlici' aii& the" small-pox arrive amongst us, .great, will be theirresponsibility.—l am,■*&€.,'' S. 'Jv Sxbastobd. - Parnell, ,2 4th, Febr 0py,1870.