Papers relating to the history and practice of vaccination.

  • Great Britain. General Board of Health.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Papers relating to the history and practice of vaccination. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    So also (as quoted by Steinbrenner) in Copenhagen :—of 659 vaccinated persons who suffered in the variolous epidemics 1823-7, only five died, being at the rate of 1 in 132 ; while of 176 unvaccinated persons who caught the disease, more than a fourth seem to have died; and of 153 others, who professed previously to have had small-pox, there died 31. And similarly in the epidemic of 1828-30, and part of that of 1832-7, it seems that out of 228 unprotected patients 63 had died ; but of 1,373 cases of post-vaccinal small-pox only 14 were fatal. Observations, more or less to the same effect, have been made, I believe, in every country to which vaccination has extended, and at every time when epide- mic small-pox has prevailed. Sometimes the difference has seemed less, some- times more; but difference, and very great difference, in favour of vaccinated persons, as regards the severity of small- pox, if it should happen to befal them, is made certain by the general and strong testimony of innumerable ob- servers. The adjoining illustrations* are selected from various sources, and it would be easy to multiply their number to any desired extent. The largest illustrations are generally least likely to be deceptive: I would there- fore point especially to the case of Bohemia, where (according to obser- vations made for twenty-one years on four millions of people) the risk of death to vaccinated persons, if they happen to contract small-pox, is at the rate of 5^ per 100 patients; but to non- vaccinated persons, when they contract Places and Times of Observation. Total Number of Cases observed. Death-rate pi Among the Unprotected. >r 100 Cases. Among the Vaccinated. France,|| 1816-41 - 16,397 16| 1 Quebec,* 1819-20 - ? 27 If Philadelphia,f 1825 - 140 60 0 Canton Valid,f 1825-9 - 5,838 24 2* Darkehmen,f 1828-9 - 134 18* 0 Verona, f 1828-39 - 909 46§ 5§ Milan,** 1830-51 - 10,240 38* 7§ Breslau,f 1831-3 - 220 534 2* Wirtemberg,ff 1831*-5* - 1,442 27* Carniola,§ 1834-5 - 442 16* 4* Vienna Hospital,f 1834 - 360 51* 12* Carinthia,§ 1834-5 - 1,626 14* 1 Adriatic,f 1835 - 1,002 15* 2* Lower Austria,f 1835 - 2,287 25* 11* Bohemia,^ 1835-55 - - 15,640 29* 5* Gallicia,f 1836 - 1,059 23* 5* Dalmatia,f 1836 - 723 19§ 8* Lond. Small-pox Hospital,^ 1836- -56 9,000 35 7 Vienna Hospital,^ 1S37-56 - 6,213 30 5 Kiel,If 1852-3 - 218 32 6 Wirtemberg,|| no date - 6,258 38** 3* Malta,ff no date - 7,570 21-07 4-2 Epidemiolog. Soc. Returns, f f no date 4,624 19-7 2-9 * Thomson, Small-pox, p. 376. The Quebec epidemic is described to “have “ spread rapidly among the unvaccinated, and carried off many adults as well as “ children. The proportion of deaths in the unvaccinated was from 1 to 3* to small-pox, at the rate of 294 per 100 “ iin 4.” r 1 . f Steinbrenner, op. cit. pp. 105, 110, 231, 232, 280, 281, 283, 295. In the patients ; or to the concurrent testimony Breslau epidemic, one patient is stated to have suffered small-pox for a third time. f Rigoni-Stern, as quoted (p. 50) by Prof. Ilaeser ; die Vaccination und ihre neuesten Gegner, 1854. It is mentioned that of twenty-four persons who during this period suffered second attacks of small-pox, no fewer than eight died. § Med. Jahrb. d. CEesterr. Staates, 1838. •jf Details annexed in Supplement The twenty years’ experience of the Vienna Hospital is detailed in the Report of the College of Surgeons, and in the state- ment of Professor Hebra. || Wunderlich’s Handbuch d. Path. u. Therap. 1855, iv. 201. ** Canstatt’s Jahresbericlit, 1852. ff Heim, op. infra citat. In these epidemics there were reported 57 cases of persons suffering small-pox fora second time; and of the 57, there were 16 fatal. of London, Milan, and Vienna, as show- ing, on an experience of nearly 26,000 cases, that post-vaccinal small-pox, if it occurs, is but a fifth or a sixth as dangerous as natural small-pox. This, however, is only a part of the Case* and I venture especially to beff In the Wirtemberg epidemics afterwards referred to, there were reported 86 cases ’ ' * . ° of secondary small-pox, among which 12 were fatal. yOUl' attention to what remains, as it tt Seaton, on the Protective Value of Vaccination. Dr. Seaton quotes 203 . ,, , , . . , ,. . , cases of secondary small-pox, as reported to the Epidemiological Society. Of IS Ot mucn administrative importance, these 17 were fatal. In Mr. Marson’s paper relating to the London Small-pox When tbo 0lmvp r,nrl civ-nil nr- ctatictinc Hospital there are mentioned 47 cases of secondary small-pox. Of these 8 died >v nen me aoo\ e dim similar siaiisncs frora the diseas6) atid l from an accidental complication. Copenhagen. Numerous other illus- trations. Danger of small pox to persons nomi- nally vaccinated chiefly dependent on badness of vaccination. * It will be observed in the table that the fatality of small-pox, as it occurred in unprotected persons, ranged from under 15 (Carinthia) to 60 (Philadelphia) per cent.: while in persons who contracted the disease after previous vaccination