/> YACCINATM: ITS FALLACIES AND EVILS. ROBERT A. GUNN. M. D. i r 7r~^ i Jis. One person may die from cholera in a few hours, while another may have it severely, and yet recover; and one may feel slightly indisposed from malarial influences, while another may be a great sufferer for months, from the same cause. This being true, is it reasonable to suppose that small-pox should be an exception to the general rule, and only those who have been vaccinated, have it lightly. Certainly not; and, besides, the facts prove that it is the weakly who die from small-pox, whether they have been vaccinated or not. And, besides, it is the rule not to vacci- nate delicate, sickly children, and when such take small pox they are more liable to die, and the want of vaccination is assigned as the sole cause of the disease. One more point under this head and I shall pass on. I claim that the prophylaxis of vaccination alone has never been tested. Ever since its introduction, the most rigid quarantine regulations have been enforced in all small-pox cases, and from the very nature of the disease, it must be admitted, that such measures, of themselves, are calculated to prevent its spread, while superior knowledge enables physicians to treat it more successfully than formerly. In this and all large cities, 13 contagious diseases, including small-pox, prevail most extensively and fatally in the low-lying, badly-drained and ventilated, filthy, and densely populated districts, where contagion cannot be prevented; and in these districts, too, vaccination has been almost universally per- formed, because it has been done without charge. If vaccination and re-vaccination will certainly prevent small pox, why do its advocates insist on the enforcement of quarantine regu- lations. Oh ! they say, to prevent those who are not vaccinated from being exposed. I ask, if they are the only ones who would suffer; would it not be well to compel them to submit to vaccination in this way. The truth is, they are afraid to rely, for protection, on the very practice they are so anxious to make the world believe, will stamp out small-pox if the people only submit to it. THE EVILS OF VACCINATION. Even if there was any evidence to prove that vaccination was a prophylactic against small-pox, the appalling evils that have been and are still produced by it are sufficient to condemn the practice as a crime. Every physician of experience has met with numerous cases of cutaneous eruptions, erysipelas, and syphilis, which were directly traceable to vaccination, and if these could all be collected and pre- sented in one report, they would form a more terrible picture than the worst that has ever been drawn to portray the horrors of small-pox. In 1872, I condensed into a report, the following summary of evi- dence (under oath), taken by a committee of the British House of Commons, in 1871, on this subject. It speaks for itself: Dr. Collins testifies : "After twenty years' experience as a vacci- nator,-during six or seven small-pox epidemics, I have ceased to vacci- nate ten or twelve years ; and gave up at least £500 sterling a year by so doing. I consider vaccination not only useless, but an evil. Have often seen children with syphilitic eruptions, after vaccination, whose parents were free from any taint. Have seen children, hitherto healthy, with no trace of struma, after vaccination assume a scrofulous character, with every characteristic of a strumous habit. Erysipelas and phlegmanous ulcers are also by no means uncommon after vacci- nation. In a particular case I vaccinated an apparently healthy child with lymph from the national vaccine establishment, and on the eighth day, from a true Jennerian vesicle on its arm, I, at the request of the parents, friends of the first, vaccinated another healthy child; and three weeks after both children were brought to me, having decided syphilitic symptoms; when, on examination, it was found that the 14 father of the first child had constitutional syphilis. The parents of the second child were perfectly, healthy, but the syphilis had been con- veyed to it by the vaccine lymph taken from the other. Was once consulted by some young ladies who had been vaccinated from their brother, who had been suckled by a syphilitic nurse, and, on being discovered, it was found that her own child had the usual syphilitic symptoms.'' Dr. Pearce.—" I have given special attention to the subject of vaccination for eighteen years. Returns show a large increase of con- sumption. Knew a lady and her elder brother, unvaccinated, the only survivors often children, the rest having been vaccinated, five of whom died in childhood, and the remaining three at from fifteen to eighteen, of consumption. The mother always attributed the death of her eight children to vaccination. The ancestors on both sides for generations were all healthy country people. There was no defect of nutrition, no re-breathed air of workshops. When vaccinating, as I formerly did extensively, I was astonished to find that I had unwittingly transmit- ted syphilis from lymph supplied by the Jennerian Institution ; I had proved that no taint existed in the parents; had twenty or twenty- four such cases within four years at Northampton." Referring to the 540 practitioners who are reported to have taken grounds against his position, he says : " They are chiefly surgeons of hospitals, who perhaps have never vaccinated or been in general prac- tice ; the answers of such men are of no value." Mr. Whitehead, of Manchester, reports several instances of syphilitic taint, transmitted from a true Jennerian vesicle. This is positive evidence; but men may say that they never have seen what they never had an opportunity of seeing. Dr. Ballard has stated that a true Jennerian vesicle cannot be distinguished from a vesicle containing syphilis. Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson testifies: "I have vaccinated to within the last five years without thinking about it. Vaccination is so entirely secundem artem, the large majority cannot think about it. We are continually coming upon venerable fallacies; but on this ques- tion prestige and interest prevent investigation. Six positive cases are worth 10,000 negatives, which go for nothing." Dr. Siljestrom, a man of great scientific eminence, and a legislator in Sweden, says : "'I have always felt that if vaccination does not stand against small- pox it is nil; if it does so stand, millions to one but what it imparts other and more powerful disorders into the system. My own coach- man's child took erysipelas concurrently with vaccination, and both the child and its mother, who was nursing it, who had had small-pox, died of the erysipelas. Knew a case of an eminent literary man 15 crippled with a skin affection, a kind of eczema of the leg, ever since being re-vaccinated four years since. Have often, almost daily, heard parents say, " my children have never been the same since they were vaccinated." Mr. G. S. Gibson testifies: " I attribute the large increase in infant mortality to their being poisoned in the first year of life, in a greater proportion than formerly, by vaccination. Constitutional diseases may be perpetuated in the same way, and the foundation laid for tubercular disease of some kind." Prof. Ricord says in a French Medical Journal, of March 10th, 1865 : " At first I repulsed the idea that syphilis could be transmitted by vaccination, but to-day I hesitate no more to proclaim the reality." Mr. Emery testifies: " I have seen much suffering, ulcerous sores, &c, from vaccination. Vaccination is matter taken from the cow, put into the arm, and from arm to arm, for thirty years, and all manner of dirt is scraped out of one person's arm and put into another. I had a healthy child, eleven weeks old, vaccinated in May, 1869. On the ninth day it became very ill, the arm, body, and legs swollen, and turned red and green, having no rest night or day till its death, a month after. Have since seen one hundred to one hundred and fifty healthy children suffering, immediately, after vaccination, and parents who have lost their children by it." Mr. Covington mentions the case of a healthy child, twelve months old, in whom syphilitic appearances showed themselves five weeks after vaccination. His own child was taken ill immediately after vaccination, and suffered for nine months, and afterwards from abscesses, etc., for four years. In a third case, a child of four months, immediately broke out with sores, and died in the tenth month. Believes vaccination conveys consumption, syphilis, and many other like diseases. Mr. Adison deposes: "That on the 8th day of September, 1870, he had a sound, healthy child, three months old, vaccinated against his will, to obey the laws; three days after it broke out in a fearful rash, which continued to increase for eight weeks, when it died." Rev. Hume Rothery testifies : " I had a healthy child which suf- fered from a long series of very large boils, coming on three months after vaccination, which I believe to be the cause. Another case, a healthy child, nine months old when vaccinated, was afterwards afflicted with sore eyes for many years, and they are still weak; it being afterwards found that sore eyes prevailed in the family from which she was vaccinated. A third case, a fortnight after vaccination, (at nine months old,) became covered with an offensive eruption all over the 16 body, is now three years old, and has seldom since been free from sores and scabs ; her elder brother, not vaccinated, father and mother, and families are remarkably healthy. A fourth case, now four years old, healthy before vaccination, has never since been so; nine months afterwards foul sores broke out, which continued, and appear likely to continue ; there is a hole in one hand, and the foot probably crip- pled for life. In a fifth case, vaccinated when a babe, the family all perfectly healthy, cancer appeared on the chin, at eighteen months old, and she lost the left breast from cancer at thirteen. A sixth case, exceedingly well before vaccination, was never well afterward. Its flesh rotted on the slightest scratch of a pin, and now and then broke out in scales and sores; it died when twenty months old. Six other children were vaccinated from this child, not one of whom survived. A seventh case, a healthy baby before vaccination, became ever after an indescribable sufferer, and died at nearly eight, his body being literally rotten ; father, mother, and five other children all remarkably healthy. In an eighth case, a healthy boy, four months old, was vaccinated ; three months afterwards the arm began to break out, the head was one mass of sores, which continued for twelve months; believe it was syphilis; there had never been any disease in parents' families. Could mention a considerable number of other cases, eight— ail of deaths—from Rochdale; twelve from Smallbridge, many others from Scotland ; all attested before magistrates, with the understanding that they were to be laid before this committee. Could mention a number of other cases, but the sufferers are afraid to come forward. A child may appear healthy, but no one can say where a latent taint exists. Dr. Nicholson, a pro-vaccinator, writes: If a case can be made out against vaccination, by all means let the law be repealed:" whilst Dr. Blanc, also a vaccinator, says: " Persons who deny such trans- mission are greater foes to vaccination than its declared adversaries."' Mr. Simon testifies: "There is not the least doubt that syphilis has, on several occasions been communicated on the continent by what was purported to be vaccination. Lymph ought not to be taken from a subject who can be reasonably supposed syphilitic. A vaccinator should assume that such would convey syphilis. Practically, Ave should expect lymph taken from a syphilitic child would be syphilitic, as the safe side to err on, without attaching importance to negative experi- ments." Dr. Bakewell testifies: " There is a very strong opinion among medical men in the West Indies that leprosy has been communicated by vaccination. They often apply to me for lymph from England, though there would be an equal chance of English lymph being con- 17 taminated by syphilis; have seen several cases of leprosy where vaccination seemed to be the only explanation; have a case now, a child from India, a leper, both parents being English; saw another, a Creole of Trinidad, also of English parents. Sir Ranald Martin agreed with me that the leprosy arose from vaccination. Have seen several cases of leprosy resulting from vaccination, arrived at the conclusion with reluctance in the face of difficulties. Have no doubt death resulted from syphilis, produced by vaccination, in the Rivalta cases. There are two hundred and fifty-eight such cases mentioned by Lancereaux as having occurred in France, Italy, and Germany. Think there are others of which we have no knowledge." Mr. Hutchinson testifies: " I was asked by the medical man to examine into the communication of syphilis to several adult servants and shopmen who were re-vaccinated, on the 7th of February last, from one child, lent to the operator from a public vaccinating station. Of thirteen so vaccinated whom I saw on the fourth or fifth of April, eleven had on their arms sores characteristic of syphilis—the primary sore of syphilitic contagion; the two who escaped were the first vacci- nated. A few days later saw the child (six months old), from whom the lymph was taken, and though it appeared in good health, I should have no doubt it was the subject of inherited syphilis; it had an eruption on the body, then very slight indeed, and probably not present at the time of vaccination." Dr. Wm. Collins, of London, concludes an article on this subject, in these words: "I am bound to admit that I have no faith in vacci- nation, nay, I look upon it with the greatest disgust, and firmly believe that it is often the medium of conveying many filthy and loathsome diseases from one child to another, and it is no protection from small- pox. Indeed, I consider we are now living in the Jennerian epoch for the slaughter of the innocents, and the unthinking portion of the population." The Lancet of Nov. 16th, 1861, contained an account of the inocu- lation of 46 children with syphilis, conveyed by means of vaccination. And in 1866, thirteen children were similarly affected by vaccination from a child, who had been vaccinated with lymph obtained from the medical authorities. On the same subject the Lancet of Jan., 1866, says: " This highly important subject has been fully treated by the Siglo Medica, a Spanish medical paper. In this article we find statis- tical tables of value. The author, in collecting data respecting instances of syphilitic contamination through the vaccine virus, shows that the disease was communicated in 224 out of 314 vaccinations." Volume twelve of the Union Medicate, a French magazine, contains. 18 a report of the celebrated Rivalta cases in Italy in 1861. In these cases 46 children were vaccinated with virus from an infant that seemed healthy, and seventeen were afterward vaccinated from one of the children of the first series, and of these forty-four were affected with syphilis, and they in turn propagated the infection to their mothers and nurses. Dr. Henry Lee, a great authority in syphilis stated after investigation, that he could come to no other conclusion but that the disease was communicated by vaccination in the Rivalta cases. The Lancet has reported during the last few weeks, ten deaths from erysipelas following vaccination; and this disease is know to be a common sequel of vaccination, while numerous deaths are annually reported as the direct results of this inflammation. Similar cases have been reported from almost every part of the United States, and the individual testimony of physicians in private practice, would fill many volumes without exhausting the horrors that have been developed by vaccination. Prof. Joseph Jones, of Nashville, Tennessee, of the late Confeder- ate army, published in 1867 a pamphlet of 164 pages, in which he gives the sworn testimony of many prominent physicians in the Southern states, proving beyond doubt, that many hundreds of soldiers had died from syphilis and gangrene caused by vaccination. Again, we find upon investigation, that many persons object to vaccination on the ground that it impairs the general health, and induces scarlet fever, measles, dysentery, consumption, &c. All who hold this belief have arrived at these conclusions after careful investi- gation. That disease is directly communicated by vaccination, has, I think, been fully proven ; and, with the investigations that have been made, we cannot but admit that the seeds of consumption may be sown, which may soon ripen and carry off its victim. In short, the conveying to the system of such taints as I have already mentioned, must inevitably, reduce the vital powers, and predispose the sufferer to an infinite variety of disorders. With these facts before us we are often asked why so many have upheld vaccination. It may be replied that there is a vaccination ring in England, receiv- ing millions of the public money. It is their interest to favor the practice at all hazards and to falsify statistics in order to conceal its failures and evils. There are also armies of public vaccinators in every large city all over Europe, who are supported from the public treasury, and every practitioner who does not oppose the practice, derives a considerable yearly income from its continuance. On the other hand 19 there are thousands of medical men, who believe in vaccination, be- cause they have been taught to do so. Indeed I have found but very few, who have ever given it a moment's thought. They have performed vaccination because it was the fashion and they were paid for it. They have supposed that vaccination would prevent small-pox, and have never dreamed of making any investigation for themselves. the metropolitan board of health. It was positively declared by the Metropolitan Board of Health, of the City of New York, in 1872, that the humanized vaccine lymph had never conveyed diseases from one person to another. They were actually forced to abandon that position in less than three years. A bureau was then established in the department for the purpose of supplying bovine virus, and all physicians in the city were notified that they should adopt it in their practice. They asserted that this virus was the genuine vaccine lymph, obtained in France from pustules spontaneously formed on the udders of cattle. Nevertheless it should be borne in mind that this virus has been inefficient in England and has proved a failure in France. Jenner himself pronounced it utterly useless as a protection against small-pox. If the Health Boards are in quest of the pure Jennerian virus they should resort to the pestiferous stables where horses are to be found with heals covered with loathsome ulcers. From these are obtained their boasted prophylactic. Even in free America this infantile contamination is becoming com- pulsory. No child is allowed to attend public school in our cities, without being vaccinated, and the operation is often performed in the school room without the knowledge or consent of the parents. Many healthy children have thus been rendered invalids for life. A case is now pending against the Board of Health of this city, where a child was so vaccinated. The result was that the patient was shortly after afflicted with a distressing cutaneous eruption, followed by abscesses and a total destruction of health. The father first brought a suit against the corporation of the city. He was however non-suited, on the ground that the Metropolitan Board of Health had committed the offense. That board derived its jurisdiction from the Legislature directly, and was solely responsible. He then instituted proceedings against the Board of Health. The trial was adjourned from time to time till the Tweed charter termina- ted the existence of that body. The present Health Department suc- ceeded to its functions. The case now being called for trial a non-suit was ordered on the ground that the former board had ceased to exist, 20 and the new department being a part of the municipal government could not properly be made the defendant in such an action. A third suit was begun this time against the ciiy itself, the issue of which is very uncertain. Our more enlightened physicians are generally opposed to vaccina- tion. If they practice it, they do so reluctantly, and on the responsi- bility of the persons requiring it to be done. The number of such practitioners is increasing. For my own part since the. year 1872, I have positively refused to vaccinate, however urgently revested. % ■'' In conclusion I would appeal to the profession to give this whole matter a candid and thorough investigation. Shall we support a fallacy that is ready to crumble beneath investigation ? Shall we enforce a practice that is opposed by the leading minds of the age ? Shall we contaminate the blood of the next generation as our own has been? These are questions to be weighed carefully, decided wisely, and acted on conscientiously and fearlessly.