A few words on "unfortunate results of vaccination" / by Henry A. Martin.

  • Martin, Henry A. (Henry Austin), 1824-1884.
Date:
[1880?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A few words on "unfortunate results of vaccination" / by Henry A. Martin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    A FEW WORDS ON UNFORTUNATE RESULTS OF VACCINATION.' BY HENEY A. MAKTIN, M. D., Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel and late Staff Surgeon, U. S. V. An article in this journal for December 21st records one perfectly normal, one fatal, and two very irregular results of vaccination with one lot of humanized vaccine points, presumably from the same vaccin- ifer; also, entirely negative results from previous inoculation of the same patients with one package of what was said to be fresh cow matter, and quite irregular though unimportant phenomena following the use of a second package of cow matter. All these different lots were obtained from the same reputable vaccine purveyors. There could not be a better text than Dr. Adams's report for a very extended series of remarks on a subject of prodigious importance to the medical profession and humanity, in regard to which the most sin- gular indifference seems to exist, namely, the comparative value and safety of the two varieties of vaccine virus: the animal, or bovine (original spontaneous cow-pox, transmitted by inoculation through a continuous series of young bovine animals), and the humanized virus (cow-pox which has passed through one or more human sub- jects). If Dr. Adams had given the names of the reputable purvey- ors, he would have done a real service in warning his confreres of at least one very unreliable source of vaccine supply. As it is, his report throws a suspicion on all who have devoted themselves to this, in the absence of all state or national vaccine institutions, infinitely impor- tant specialty. Hardly a day passes that I do not receive reports of utter, often-repeated failure and of bad results of virus procured from a firm of reputable vaccine purveyors, not physicians, but traders, totally ignorant of everything connected witli vaccination, who, simply for the sake of a few additional dollars of income, assume a respon- sibility which should never be taken except by a physician thoroughly familiar with human vaccination, with the really difficult details of vac- cination of animals, and personally cognizant of the source and quality of every particle of virus which he issues. I cannot doubt that if phy- sicians would note and report instances of repeated total failure and ill results of vaccine virus, with a distinct indication of the source or 1 la which, for the first time, is publicly ailnounced the entire immunity of true animal vaccination from erysipelas.