Variola; its causes, nature and prophylaxis, and the dangers of vaccination.

  • Spinzig, C. (Carl)
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Variola; its causes, nature and prophylaxis, and the dangers of vaccination. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    therein engaged. The second class or division comprises the faithful believers in the dogma of specific infection, and pursuant to which small-pox could only be produced and spread by the conveyance of a specific contagious-infectious poison, from person to person, against which the general prophylaxis was to be found in disinfection and the susceptibility to infection was to be extinguished by vaccination, re-vaccination and repeated vaccination.1 In support of the views entertained by the first-named class of writers or investigators, abundant proof of irre- futable potency has now been gathered, by which the tenability of the doctrine of the specific and infectious nature of va- riola will not only be placed in doubt, but will directly be dis- proved ; so also the admissibility of those measures, designated prophylactic, insisted on in conformity with that doctrine. With the progress of science or positive knowledge derived from modern investigation, unreasoning faith, miracles and mys- teries must retire from the theatre of the operations of nature and be confined within the sphere of conceit and ultimately be buried in oblivion. Upon a solid foundation the doctrine of evolution, gradual de- velopment and transmutation have set forth the evidence that there is nothing specific, strictly speaking,- upon the earth's surface; everything being subjected to variations, characterized by the nature of physical influences, and that healthful or physio- logical activities may thus be converted into morbid processes, which assume type and form according, also, to the nature of ex- ternal influences bearing upon the individual.3 (i) Yet in defiance of these artificial efficient (?) preventive means, common logics in this wonderful philosophy have demanded the introduction of immunity and excep- tions to rides. (2) From whence the small-pox poison originates, and what it is, no infectionist knows. In reference to it, the same inability of comprehension is manifest as was the case in an- cient times with reference to the wind, expressed by the proverb From whence tile wind comes and whither it goes is not known. But since the barometrical minimum is under- stood and laws of storms are recognized and comprehended, the fact is now clear that there is no specific North, East, South or West wind; nor any specific storm-wind ■ that the wind comes from the colder and more condensed periphery of the Storm-centre and goes to the warmer and more rarified section for equalization. • (3) This view is well illustrated by the fact that acclimatization is essential for every individual, whether man, animal or plant (with apparent exception of the condor), to enable it to hear a change of climate. Also the changes as to type in the animal world exhibit a parallel variation corresponding to latitude ; from the robust Malay ot the equato- rial region to the dwarfed Samoiedsot the polar region. In the world ol vegetation they arc even more characteristically exemplified, from the giant trees from the region of the equator to the mere moss vegetation of the snow line. Comp. Humboldt, {Cosmos, Vol. II, p. 30, et scq. Berghaus, Physicher Atlas. (iriesebach, Die Vegetation der Hrde, Vol. I, p. 76, et seq. Ileclus—Ule Die Erde, Vol. II, pp. 301, 31S, et seq. Armand, Climatologie generale du Globe, pp. 69, 76.