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Show AS TO VACCINATION. SOME FACTS ABOUT ITS DISCOVERY BY DR. EDWARD JENNER. i Lie Was Obstructed and Ridiculed, and Foolish Stories Were Told About the Effects Ef-fects of Vaccination Recognized at Last and Honored by an Epitaph of Jj'ralse. Vaccination, as performed at the present day, is an operation pf comparatively compar-atively recent origin. Preventive inoculating in-oculating with smallpox virus, however, how-ever, was known for many years previous pre-vious to the discovery of vaccination. For several centuries smallpox was considered con-sidered more than any other pqstilence the foe of mankind, statistics showing that about one-sixth of those attacked died, and that many survivors were left blind, deaf and disfigured. , When Edward Montagu was appointed appoint-ed English embassador to Turkey, in 1716, his wife, Lady Mary, called attention, at-tention, in one of her letters, written in 1717, to the custom of "ingrafting" smallpox. Upon her return to England Eng-land she at once undertook thJ introduction intro-duction of the art into that country, showing her absolute faith in the operation oper-ation by having her young daughter inoculated. in-oculated. In 1721, scientists having questioned the expediency of the operation, oper-ation, tho government extended remission remis-sion to several prisoners under sentence sen-tence of death on the condition that they would submit to inoculatic y The experiment proved successful, .and tho prisoners were released. UJf.on the strength of this experiment tho operation opera-tion was received with royal favor, the Princess of Wales having two of her daughters "infected" after the 'Turkish 'Turk-ish method." Tho efficiency of tho operation in mit- igating tho severity of smallpox was great, the mortality averaging but three ' in 1,000. But there was one drawback which was considered fatal. However light the ingrafted disease might be, it was still smallpox, and the more it was conveyed in this way the more wpre centers cen-ters of infection multiplied fronfcbich those not protected were " riftblril contract con-tract the disease in ita most virulent form. Dr. Edward Jenner was the son of an English clergyman, born in May, 1749, at Berkeley, a village in Gloucester. Glouces-ter. The confident assertion of a young country woman that having had "cow-pox" "cow-pox" she was proof against smallpox, made a lasting impression on ais mind. In his twenty-first year he went to London to finish his medical education under Dr. John Hunter. Returning after aft-er two years, he began practice in hia native village of Berkeley. On renewing renew-ing his acquaintance with the dairy people of the district, the belief of an existing antagonism between cowpox and 6mallpox was again brought to his attentiou. By degrees he accumulated sufficient evidence to convind him that there was something in it. On May 14, 1796, Jenner made his first vaccination on a boy of 8 years, named James Phipps. Several weeks afterward the boy was inoculated with smallpox matter, mat-ter, and, as Jenner had predicted, no result followed. Within one year from the first announcement of the discovery 70 of the leading physicians of London signed a declaration of their absolute confidence in it. In spite of this the discovery was not generally accepted without much opposition. oppo-sition. Jenner, his system and all who adopted it were made the butts of attacks at-tacks hardly equaled in extravagance by any in th8 history of medicine. When he persisted in pressing the consideration con-sideration of vaccination on a medical society of which he was a member, he was threatened with expulsion. Jenner and his followers were denounced as quacks. The so called school of orthodoxy ortho-doxy consisted of those practitioners who still adhered to inociilation. A mother complained that since her daughter had been vaccinated she coughed like a cow and that hair had grown all over her body. It is also said that vaccination had been discontinued discon-tinued in one country district, because those who had been inoculated with vaccine virus "bellowed like bulls." In 1800 the practice was introduced into this country, and six years after it was first made public the knowledge and practice of this operation had spread over the entire world. In Russia the empress gave the name of "Vacci-noff, "Vacci-noff, " to the first child vaccinated and made its education a public "charge. Many honors were conferred on Jenner by foreign courts. The anniversary or iiis Dirtn ana tnat or bis first vacci- j nation were for many years celebrated in Germany as feast days. In 1803 parliament par-liament voted him $50,000, and five years later $100,000 more. He died of apoplexy in 1823, and his remains were laid in the parish church of Berkeley. The following epitaph is inscribed on his tomb : Within this tomb hath found a resting place, The great physician of the human race Immortal Jenner, whose gigantic mind Brought life and health to more than half mankind. Let rescued infancy hia worth proclaim And lisp out blessings on his honored name. And radiant beauttdrop one grateful tear, For beauty's truest friend lies buried here. Nowadays the old fashioned method of arm to arm vaccination is no longer practiced, as there is always more or less danger of transmitting disease from one to another. The virus, a3 generally used now, is obtained from young heifers. Quill slips are charged with it, each slip receiving enough matter mat-ter for one inoculation. "Points" of ivory are also used for holding tha virus. The lancet is still used where one vaccination is to be performed. When a large number of people are to be vaccinated vac-cinated new needles are always used, a fresh needle for each case, thus insuring in-suring absolute safety to the person vaccinated. vac-cinated. New York World. |