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103
made arrangements for affording to parents the option of having
their children vaccinated with calf-lymph at the public vaccination
stations. This option has long been given at the stations
in Kensington, the Guardians having made arrangements for a
supply of fresh calf-lymph weekly, on the days appointed for
vaccination. The Government at present only supply medical
practitioners with "stock" lymph from the calf to enable them
to start a series of vaccinations. The use of calf-lymph is
common on the continent, and the system of animal vaccination
has been carried to great perfection at Brussels, whence
regular supplies of lymph are forwarded to this country,
tubes and charged ivory points being procurable at a moderate
price. Stations, moreover, public and private, have been
established in London, at which persons can be vaccinated direct
from the calf. This direct vaccination is highly successful at
the Government Stations, an average of 988 vesicles resulting
from 1000 insertions of calf-lymph. This rate of success,"
Dr. Buchanan observes, "is nowise to be had when the lymph"
(human or animal) "is used in any preserved condition."
Preserved lymph, indeed, is said to be attended with perfectly
successful results, in the Army Medical Department, in only 40
per cent, of the cases; it follows that the protective influence of
vaccination cannot be fully and universally obtained, excepting
by the use of lymph taken direct from a vesicle, whether human
or animal.