View report page

198
for many years, practically insusceptible to a second infection,
and that, in the small percentage of persons who take Small
Pox a second time, the disease is rarely virulent. One attack
of Small Pox does not absolutely prevent the possibility of
taking the disease a second time. But Vaccination, which
induces an attenuated Small Pox, gives to the person vaccinated
the same measure of protection as is given by a previous
attack of Small Pox. In those few cases in which Small
Pox is taken after an efficient vaccination, the disease is shorn
of its virulence as effectively as by a previous attack of
unmitigated Small Pox. The protection afforded by vaccination
is practically all that could be desired, while the risks
and inconveniences of submitting to the operation are trivial.
It is only necessary that the operation be properly done, and
so efficiently as to leave three permanent scars, each such as
would be left by the print of a thimble-end upon a piece of
firm dough. A child so marked may be regarded as safe until
the lapse of years has weakened the protective effect of the
vaccination. It is well therefore to adopt re-vaccination at
twelve years of age, and to have the re-vaccination repeated
at thirty years of age. Practically, a person may then regard
himself proof for life against Small Pox. The extent to
which tbe re-vaccination places "take" is a measure of the
residual susceptibility of the patient to Small Pox. In the
event of the re-vaccination places taking severely the patient
would, if exposed to infection, have had severe Small Pox. In
the event of an efficient vaccination not taking, or taking but
slightly, the patient might have been exposed to the infection
of Small Pox with impunity or almost so. The use of
Glycerinated Calf-Lymph obviates ignorant prejudices which
have been shamelessly fostered with regard to vaccination.
The supervision of vaccination is an important department
of Preventive Medicine. It should not in any way be associated
with Poor Law Medical Belief. It is to be hoped that at an
early day legislation will transfer the Vaccination and the
Vaccination Officers to the Local Sanitary Authorities, and