A Small-pox Scare,

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5167, 28 January 1895, Page 4

A Small-pox Scare,

There was towards the end of last year' an epidemic of smallpox in aootland, . originating in Edinburgh and spreading to Glasgow, Aberdeen and elsewhere. The virulence of the outbreak ia shown by the fact that in one week there were ninety-six deaths ._ from the disease in Edinburgh, As a means of staying the epidem_d--_tbe authorities were gratuitously re-vaooinating all who availed themselves of the offer* A case is cited by way of proving the danger of neglecting this precaution. An old man, employed in the office of . the city medical officer, who had been vaccinated in 'boyhood, deslined to be re-vaccinated, and within a short time both he and his wife took; the di-eaße and died 1 of it. TEtfCira--. troversy as to the efficacy of vaccination as a? preventive ' of smallpox, or .as tending to mitigate its effects, will thus have a striking fact of a kind which advocates of Jenner's process are fond of citing. It is. not forgotten, however, that the town of Leicester, in England, is a standing protest against the praotioe of vaccination, and results seem to justify the people of that town in defying the compulsory vaccination law. Mr Win. Tebb, a well-known anti-vaCcina-bioniat, has quite recently pointed out .that L.icester has had two smallpox epidemics during the present generation. The first occurred when the town was well vacoi-* nated, and the second when it was-prac-tically not vaccinated at all. The respective results were these :— .• Caß63. - Dsathß. ' (1) 1871-73 6000 ... 360 (2) 1892-94 362 ... 21 Ifc will ba seen that both in number of caseß and virulence of attack the facts are all against, the theory that inoculation with the viius of smallpox is benefioial. The advocates of vaccina 1 , ion have claimed that there never was a death from smallpox of "a vaccinated child nnder ten years of ago," but evidence laid before the Koyal Commission on the subjeot has just elicited the fact that in the smallpox epidemio of 1870-72, there were 2240 vaccinatedchildren attacked in Berlin, and 706 vaccinated children under ten years of age actually died. The people of the United States have very strict laws for the suppression of epidemics, as the members of the English "Gaiety. Girl" Company, which was in New York in December last, have had forcibly brought home to them. On a Susday morning the' whole company was summoned to Daly's Theatre, on Broadway, when it waa intimated that owing to Mr Monkhouse, the leading comedian, having developed varioloid, a mild form of smallpox, all the company were required by the Board of Health to be vaccinated. It was explained that Mr Monkhouse had been sent to the Pesthouse at North Brother Island, and that the Board had sent down two doctors, viz., Dr Harrison and Dr Yatter, to perform the work of inoculation. There were indignant protests from some of the actors and actresses, and there was talk of appealing to the British' Consul against the contemplated outrage; but by degrees they all recognised the futility of such a course and submitted with the best grace possible. The account of the proceedings states : — "Some of the actresses treated the matter with levity, but little scream 3 were heard in various parts of the room as the Bharp lances made their incisions. After all the company had been vaccinated, the proporty men and scene-shiftera had to submit to the prooess. One lady threatened to oauterise the incision, so that the operation would be ineffective, but she was told that unless the vaccine 'took' she would have to undergo the process again. It ia probable- that a scene of the kind was never before witnessed in a theatre either in this country or. in America. As Mr Monkhouse had evidently got the infection iv the Statsß, it was suggested by one of Ihe company that the audiences and not tho actors should be vaccinated." Ib certainly _eemß a stupid thing to insist upon the vaccination of a company of artisbes under such circumstances, but when a " smallpox " scaro breaks out anywhere, it is. the only thing, apparently, that is thought of, after isolating the cases. Happily, the disease i - unknown in New Zealand, and there ia no great stringency in administering the compulsory vaccination law; but if a case or cases of the dreaded disease were to be landed on our shores, we doubt not all the symptoms of " scare " would be repeated here. '