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158
1903]
adopted compulsory vaccination and revaccination, with the result that smallpox
is a rare disease now in their country. The diagram given on the
opposite page depicts more plainly than words can do, what has been
effected in Prussia, and ought to convince those who doubt that vaccination
and revaccination are a great, if not a complete, protection against small-pox.
Well might Professor Martens, of Rostock, with the facts which this diagram
describes, before him say, "That terrible pestilence, small pox, has almost completely
disappeared from among us; not because we have discovered and
destroyed the exciting cause of small pox—which, indeed, is still unknown—
and have thus prevented its spread in the world, but solely because we have
succeeded in making every individual personally proof against this pestilence."
He further explains the presence of the very few cases that arise as follows:
"Cases of small pox which occur now and again have always been traced to
infection brought from abroad, especially from Russia, where compulsory protective
inoculation (vaccination and revaccination) against small-pox has not been
introduced."
Since these words were put in type, the Local Government Board have
issued a report, written by one of their Medical Inspectors (Dr. R. Bruce
Low), "On the arrangements made in Germany for the isolation of Small
" Pox cases."
This report shows that he visited ten towns where he found that the usual
custom was to treat patients on the sites of the infirmaries used for general
diseases; and that, with one or two exceptions, "the small pox pavilion is shut
"off in no way from the rest of the hospital."
His concluding observations convey so great a lesson as to the efficacy
of vaccination and re-vaccination that they are quoted. They are as
follows :—
" From the account above given of the methods employed in
" Germany for isolating Small Pox, it will be obvious that the general
" plan followed differs markedly from that employed in this country.
" Almost always, in Germany, small pox cases are isolated on the
" site of the general hospital, and, as often happens when the occur"
rence of Small Pox in a given place is rare, the small pox pavilion
" is not allowed to stand empty, but is used for the accommodation
" of other cases, infectious or non-infectious. Untoward results to
" other persons, from bringing Small Pox to the site of the general
" hospital for purposes of isolation and treatment have been seldom
" observed, and this, in Germany, is with one consent attributed to
" the protection which is conferred on the population by statutory
" vaccination and re-vaccination. Without these the German method,
" it is unanimously admitted, would break down.