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Manawatu Times, Volume X, Issue 1263, 7 August 1884, Page 2

TO THE EDITOR OP THE MANAWATU TIMES. Sir, — The letter m to-night's issue on the Smallpox Scare (contri* buted) is full of inaccuracies and inconsistencies. For example, the writer says, •' If there is any virtue m vaccination, the colonies should not dread the advent of whole shiploads of patients." !For a glaring piece of nonsense this would be hard to beat. There may be great virtue m vaccination and still not perfect immunity from infection. A shipload of smallpox patieots, evon as a figure of speech, is puerile and unworthy of a commonssense man writing on a practical question. Again, your writer states that vaccination has been forced on by enactment, and that every child born m Kew Zealand must be vaccinated. 7 ' As a matter of fact the Act has never been carried out, pro&ably at least one fourth of the children born m the last twenty-five years m this colony are either unvacoinated or insufficiently protected.. Medical Science has never in* sisted on the protective power of a. single vaccination. On the contraiy over and over again it has been plainly stated that vaccination must be repeated every seven years, or about that, and then its power is sufficient to prevent dangerous at* tacks of smallpox m almost every case. Beyoud this no medical authority has every gone as regards facts, though a strong probability exists that if properly carried out there would be perfect immunity m a few years. Of the virtue of vaooination properly performed, take one single instance which is, I think, founded on sufficiently good authority : — To the Editor of the Lancet. Sir, — In your at tide m last week's Lancet on the protection from smallpox afferded by revacoination, you refer to the evidence given by my predecessor, the late Mr Mar son, before the Select Committee of the Voccination Act (1867), on April 28th, 1871, m which he states . that m the thirty-five years during which he had been surgeon to this hospital he had never had a nurse or servaut take smallpox. He further says :"I revacciaate them when they come, and they never have smallpox, al« though they are exposed to infection every day." (See Blue Book, Ans. 4208.) You proceed, however, to suggest that, this evidence may now be thought somewhat antiquated Allow me to remind you that the same practice of irevaccinating ser«« j varits and nurses, upon entering on their duties here, has been continued to the present time, and with a like result. So that we have now an unbroken record of forty-eight years during which no nurse or servant of the hospital has contracted smallpox even m a modified form. The culy exception to this rule that I am aware of, was m the case of an as« sistantf gardener, who was hired m 1881 ; this man refused to be revac cinated, caught smallpox, and died A comparatively small proportion of the Durses and servants have been protected by a previous attack .of smallpox, and m one or two instances they have eve a been cut for the cow-pox when engaged. 1 make use of this term advisedly, for I cannot but be convinced that many persons m this country, and a still larger number m the United estates of America, who have been cnt for the cew-pox have never thoroughly | passed through the vaccine disease. The experience of this hospital as regards the prqtection afforded by revaccination, extending as it does over so many years, is, I venture to think, absolutely unique m the his» tory of the disease, and cannot be too widely published. The curious immunity enjoyed by the employes of this hospital is, m my opinion largely due to the fact that the surgeon here only make use of lymph obtained from subjects which he has himself vaccinated, and of the ex* cellence of which he is consequently well assuredf I have to apologise for encroaching on your space to such an extent, 1 but the importance of the subject, especially at the present moment, when we are threatend with another, epidemic of smallpox, must be my excuse. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, Herbert Goude, F.R.C.S. Edin,, Resident Surgeon. Smallpox and Vaccination Hospital, Highgate-hill, N. April 28th, 1884. * We rejoice that our article on Revaccinaiion has called forth the letter of Mr Goude, who succeeds Mr Marson at the Highgare Smallpox Hospital, and is able to cany forward the famous demonstration of the virtue of revaccination. We had no misgivings on the score of oftho autiquat.ion of tho results, which, like all Mr Marson's work, remain authoritative and convincing to those who are capable of weighing evidence, W© commend to all serious people the sentence m Mr Goude's letter—'* We have now an unbroken record of forty-eight years during which no nurse or servant of the hospital nas contracted smallpox, even m a modified form." Your correspondent who thinks that quarantine should be unnecessary when there is a law for compulaory vaccination, by the same rule ought not to insure his house against fire because there is a law against arson. Yours truly, Common Sense. August 5, 1384.