VACCINATION AND HEREDITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10563, 9 January 1896, Page 4

VACCINATION AND HEREDITY.

TO TEE EDITOB. Sir, —Tho practical immunity from smallpox afforded by vaccination is a fact too substantial and well 'established to bs.weakened by the trifling percentage of cases trotted out now and again in seeming, evidence to the 'contrary; neither need more than a feather weight of value be given to mere academical theories tbat would fain 'shake public conviction in tbe efficacy of vaccination. Man believes himself to be a rational being, and he does not change bis belief when it is significantly pointed out to bira that yonder building is devoted to the reception of idiots. Of courss, one ia reminded of Carlylt's classification of the race; but we

THE PLACE OP RESIDENCE Has a lot to do with, health. However, if the system be , toned occasionally with Wolfe's Schnapps, \>?._ climate ia rendered less harmful. ..

m^T take it that the Scotch prophet's reflection will bear somewhat of modification nowadays, pth cwise would his message have been in yam, end to think bo would be tantamount to denying tha*. the sun's rays have any effect upen ths sodden ground or that the lightning flash can pierce the gloom. To the thoughtful mind vaccination has an obvious bearing upon tbat other and grefttel question of heredity—all-pervading and ultimate, making, on the whole, a progress that is upwards and beneficent, though weighted with a heritage of. degeneracy dad d«e?,y,— the wreckage saved from tbe ages that have gone. As gravitation controls in the material universe, so does the law of heredity make itself felt in the lives of "»U sorts and condition* of men." No one is outside the sphere of its icflutnee, and we can all use it as a lever towards bettei! things. Ignorance or indifference to its precepts shall not be held blameless, while defiance of its well-ordered principle is a tremendous crime against society. Heredity bas its message of salvation and warning for the judge on the bench, the clergyman in the pulpit, the lawyer at the bar, the merchant in his counting house, the professional man at his desk, the doctor aud hia patient, the farmer at the plough, the workmen at their labours, and more especially does it appeal to the teacher in the school and the mother in her nursery ; and, may I add, the young man or maid who is contemplating matrimony with all its responsibility. Ta these last heredity offers wiae counsel and guidance, which it would be perilous on their part to neglect. Returning to s-oallpox, I remember reading, years ago, a weighty caution against marriage being entswd int.*) by any of those who had ever suffered from the awful scourge. It waa Dointed out tbat ouch unions would probably entail much suffering on some of the off-pring, the reason being that although the parent had apparently recovered from the disease, the system retained somo of the trouble which, sooner or later, developed in the children—not necessarily as smallpox, but in some other form of malady, thus perpetuating disease in the life blood of the race and retarding the work of its eradication. The writer had evidently written under the shadow of the dreaded pest. His pon dipped, as it were, in the blood of the victims, he communicated to his reader an uncomfortable feeling on tbe subject whjch I have never forgotten during all the years. Aud it does -seem proper that the public should regard these and such-like marriages as immoral. They are -out of harmony with the laws of the universe, and are clearly inimical to tha physical wellheing of society.-—I am, &c„ Dnnedin, January 6. N. Suthkrlahd. ;,

CAPTAINS EWAN AND WALLER, TO THE EWTOE.

Sia, —I am sorry to drag the names of these men before ihe public again, but I do so beosuse certain events which have happened during the holidays—the great seriousness cf at least one of which tbe general public does not fully appreciate—have emphasised, in a painful, in very nearly a tragic way, the truth of a remark made by me in a previous letter: tbat instead of [serving tho travelling public by ditmissing tbese captains, the Union Company ha?s done it a serious wrong. It is to be hoped that the company has always intended to put them back into boats again, sad, if bo, I would beg to urge that a sufficiently iorig retirement baa now been imposed. The public sense of justice would be satisfied by a" reinstatement now, and confidence in the skilful, and prudent navigation of the company's .shipu would be increased. Reinstatement would, I am sure, be just, and popular also.—l am, kc, i Dunedin, January 3. Eendeb,.