T H E VACCINATION SUPERSTITION
Prophylaxis to be realized
through the attainment of health, not by the propagation of disease.
Can vaccination produce syphilis?
by John W. Hodge 1902
[Sourced]
OF NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y.
(Read before the Western New York Homoeopatblc Medical Society In Buffalo April
2, 1902)
Introduction By Bernarr Macfadden.
A City Freed from Smallpox By Dr.
Friedrich.
The Vaccination Superstition By J.
W. Hodge, M.D.
Comparison
Between Smallpox, Cowpox and Syphilis By Dr. M. R. Leverson.
Dr. Rodermund's Experiment
INTRODUCTION
Throughout the civilized world at the present time the vaccination delusion is
almost everywhere in full sway. The Health Boards of the various cities demand
it, and usually do everything that they can to enforce it. Rarely are they able
to give even an ordinarily
reasonable excuse for vaccination. They do not know why they vaccinate, further
than their belief that vaccination will prevent smallpox. This belief is not
based on any particular theories of their own that they may have deduced from
personal experience, but has been secured from their medical colleges, or the
physicians who preceded them in authority on the Health Board. It has always
been supposed that vaccination would prevent smallpox, and why should it be
questioned? is their argument.
This condition of affairs has induced me to publish in full, with some
additions, the address given by Dr. J. W. Hodge, at Buffalo, April ii, 1902.
The facts herein presented can be vouched for in every instance. They are not a
mere accumulation of wild theories, and anyone with reasoning powers who will
carefully consider them without prejudice, can hardly fail to condemn the
vaccination delusion in most emphatic terms.
There is no need of mentioning the baneful, and often hideous results, from this
superstition. Lockjaw, blood poisoning and bodily distortions, are only a few of
its frightful results.
Vaccination means the poisoning of the blood. It is the introduction into the
circulation of the dried pus poison that exudes from a running sore. Those
vitally strong are able to resist its influence, and, apparently recover,
without noticeable harm, but many suffer severely, and pneumonia, diphtheria and
scarlet fever are only a few of the diseases that are often produced as an
after result of the lessened vital strength and polluted blood that vaccination
frequently causes.
Though vaccination may, while the inflammation of the sore remains, tend, to
lessen the danger of smallpox, it certainly does lessen the general functional
vigor, and every disease accompanied by inflammation, especially of the throat
and lungs, is extremely liable to result.
Smallpox is only possible to those who clothe heavily, bathe infrequently, eat
very heartily and exercise rarely. It is the accumulation of impurities in the
blood, and the inability of the inactive pores of the skin to assist in their
elimination that gives this disease its victims.
We are a virulent enemy of vaccination :
(i) Because it does not prevent smallpox ;
(2) Because it lessens one's vital strength and power to resist internal
inflammatory diseases ;
(3) Because smallpox itself, when treated properly, is easily and quickly
curable.
That those who are interested in crushing this superstition may have an
opportunity to distribute books of value along this line, in addition to this
pamphlet we have published a ten-cent edition of Dr. Felix Oswald's book,
entitled "Vaccination a Crime;" former price of this book was $1.00.
A CITY FREED FROM
SMALLPOX
To Dr. Friedricli, in charge of the Health Board of Cleveland, Ohio, is due the
credit of furnishing the civilized world with an example of a large city being
absolutely free from smallpox, and it would be well to note that one of the
first means that he adopted in producing this result was to abolish vaccination
absolutely.
The methods adopted by Dr. Friedrich in accomplishing these results are of such
vast importance that I herewith give to my readers in full his recent report
giving in detail the methods adopted by him in abolishing this disease.
" It affords me great pleasure to state that the house-to-house disinfection
freed Cleveland from smallpox. Since August 23, 1901, to this very hour of
writing, about April I, 1902, not a single case has originated in this city, but
seven cases were imported. The disease raged here uninterruptedly since 1898. We
relied upon vaccination and quarantine as the most effective weapons to combat
it, but in spite of all our efforts it doubled itself every year and was in a
fair way of repeating the record of last year, as in 1900 we had 993 cases, and
from January I St to July 21,1901, the number amounted
to 1,223 On this date I was called to take charge of the health office with
seventeen cases on hand. I had been in the city's employ ever since 1899 and it
had fallen to my lot to investigate and diagnose most of the cases of smallpox
that occurred in Cleveland. During that time I observed that, after disinfection
with formaldehyde of a house in which we had found smallpox, never another case
could be traced to this house. On the other hand vaccination had given us
many untoward symptoms. Frequently it did not 'take- at all. One-fourth
of all cases developed sepsis instead of vaccini, SOME ARMS SWELLED CLEAR DOWN
TO THE WRIST JOINT, WITH PIECES OF FLESH AS BIG AS A SILVER DOLLAR AND TWICE AS
THICK DROPPING RIGHT OUT, LEAVING AN UGLY, SUPPURATING WOUND, WHICH TO HEAL TOOK
IN MANY CASES OVER THREE MONTHS. Finally, four cases of tetanus developed after
vaccination, so that the people became alarmed, and rightly so,
"I laid these facts before Mayor Johnson and proposed to stop vaccination
entirely, and instead of it disinfect thoroughly with formaldehyde every section
of the city where smallpox had made its appearance; also to give the city a
general cleaning up. The Mayor not only consented to my plan, but also gave me
all aid needed. I formed two squads of disinfectors, preferring medical students
for the work. Each squad consisted of twenty men, with a regular sanitary
patrolman at their head, and each man was provided with a formaldehyde
generator. Thus equipped they started out to disinfect every section of the city
where the disease had shown its head, and every house in this section, no matter
if smallpox had been within or not, and every room, nook and corner of the
house, special attention being paid to winter clothes that had been stored away,
presumably laden with germs. It took over three months to do the work, but the
result was most gratifying. After July 23d seven more cases developed, the last
one August 23d.
As a result of it, Cleveland is now free from smallpox, and from the worst
infected city it has now become the cleanest.
T H
E VACCINATION SUPERSTITION
FREEDOM FROM SMALLPOX TO BE REALIZED THROUGH THE ATTAINMENT OF HEALTH, NOT THE
PROPAGATION OF DISEASE.
In view of the fact that a bold attempt has recently been made by a
representative of the self-styled "regular' profession to place upon our statute
books a compulsory vaccination measure, the provisions of which mark a height of
brazen effrontery which medical despotism has never before reached in the Empire
State; and, inasmuch as the public mind is largely
occupied with the questions of smallpox and vaccination at the present, the
discussion of some phases of these subjects seems timely and appropriate.
I desire to treat this important topic, not in a spirit of contentiousness, but
with a sincere desire to get at the truth even though in so doing some unwelcome
facts are disclosed and some cherished ideals are dispelled. My aim is to
consider facts as I find them and not as I wish they were.
The advocates of vaccination unhesitatingly assert that the vaccine disease
protects its subjects from smallpox, but the facts, so far as we know them, do
not warrant this assertion. Indeed, the theory which assumes to conserve health
by propagating disease has always had a formidable array of facts to oppose it.
From the days of Jenner to the present time, cases of smallpox have appeared
among those who were supposed to be protected by vaccination, and these in no
small numbers. When Jenner began the practice of vaccination in 1798, he rashly
assumed that one "successful' vaccination was a preventive of smallpox for an
entire lifetime.
This, it is readily seen, was a mere hypothesis on his part, because in the very
nature of the case it was not possible to determine at that time that the
artificial production of one disease would surely prevent, forever afterward, in
that subject, the occurrence of another disease (smallpox).
Assumption is not law, and Jenner lived to witness the folly of his error.
I here present a few examples, out of many thousands which are at hand, to
warrant the affirmation that vaccination does not protect its subjects from
smallpox.
The London Morning Advertiser of Nov. 24, 1870, reports:
"Smallpox is making still greater havoc in the ranks of the Prussian army, which
is said to have thirty thousand smallpox patients in its hospitals." These were
all vaccinated and re-vaccinated.
Dr. G. F. Kolb, of the Royal Statistical Commission of Bavaria, officially
states: "In the Kingdom of Bavaria, where no one for many years, except the
newly born, escaped vaccination, there were in the epidemic of 1871 no less than
30,742 cases of smallpox, of whom 29,429 had been vaccinated, as is shown by the
documents of the State
Department."
The Lancet (London) of July 15, 1871, editorially states:
"The deaths from smallpox have assumed the proportions of a plague. Over 10,000
lives have been sacrificed during the past year in England and Wales. In London,
5,641 deaths have occurred since Christmas. Of 9,392 patients in the London
smallpox hospitals, no less than 6,854 had been vaccinated
i. e., nearly 73 per cent. Taking the mortality at 17
1/2 per cent, of those attacked, and the deaths this year in the whole
country at 10,000, it will follow that more than 122,000 vaccinated persons have
suflfered from smallpox. This is an alarming state of things. Can we greatly
wonder that the opponents of vaccination should point to such statistics as an
evidence of the failure of the systenai? It is necessary to speak plainly on
this important matter."
Statistics of similar import might be quoted by the page, chapter and volume,
but time and space forbid. One such fact is as good as a thousand, because it
effectually destroys the foundation of the theory of preventive vaccination.
In the annual report of the Health Department of the City of New York, 1870-71,
it is stated:
"This extraordinary prevalence of smallpox over various parts of the globe,
especially in countries where vaccination has long been efficiently practiced;
its occurrence in its most fatal form in persons who gave evidence of having
been well vaccinated, and the remarkable susceptibility of people of all ages to
revaccination, are new facts in the history of this pestilence, which must lead
to reinvestigation of the whole subject of vaccination and of its claim as a
protecting agent."
A. M. Ross, M. D., A. M., an eminent old school physician of Toronto, in writing
about the Montreal smallpox epidemic of 1885, said:
"Whoever closely watched the course of the epidemic in Montreal must conclude
that vaccination is utterly useless as a protection from smallpox. Much of what
transpired in our smallpox hospitals was suppressed, especially whatever was
likely to operate against the progress of vaccination, which proves a golden
harvest to the vaccinators. But notwithstanding the conspiracy of silence, a few
official reports came out, pregnant
with proof against vaccination, and demonstrating beyond question that a large
proportion of the patients admitted to our smallpox hospitals had been
vaccinated, and that many of them died, some with two and others with three
vaccine marks upon their bodies."
The New York Medical Journal, edited by
Frank P. Foster, M. D., in its issue of July 22, 1899, contains an article,
entitled "Vaccination in Italy," written by Charles Ruata, M. D., Professor of
Hygiene and of Materia Medica in the University of Perugia, Italy, in which he
demonstrates by the presentation of the most trustworthy official statistics,
that preventive vaccination in that country has been a complete and certain
failure.
Prof. Ruata prefaces his article with the following affirmation:
"Italy is one of the best vaccinated countries in the world, if not the best of
all, and we can prove that mathematically." He says: "Our young men, with few
exceptions, at the age of twenty years must enter the army, where a regulation
prescribes compulsory vaccination." After having
quoted the official statistics of the Italian Government as proof of his
assertion, he says:
"For twenty years before 1885, our nation was
vaccinated in the proportion of 98.5 per cent. Notwithstanding, the epidemics of
smallpox that we have had have been something so frightful that nothing before
the invention of vaccination could equal them."
In Italy, having a population of 30,000,000, 98.5
percent, of whom were officially declared vaccinated, Dr. Ruata goes onto say :
"During the year 1887, we had 16,249 deaths from smallpox; in 1888, 18,100,
and in 1889, 13,413." In referring to the Italian army, in which "vaccination
had been performed twice a year in the most satisfactory manner for many years
past," Dr. Ruata says: "Now we see that soldiers not protected because
vaccinations did not 'take' were less attacked by
smallpox than those 'duly protected' by the good results of their re-vaccination
; and that the deathrate in those vaccinated with good results was greater than
among those in whom vaccination did not take."
In regard to the vaccine material used, Dr. Ruata says:
"I have limited my analysis to the last six years, during which time the only
lymph used in all our army has been animal lymph, exclusively, furnished by the
Government Institute for the production of animal lymph." After having cited the
government statistics, which sustain his conclusion, Prof. Ruata remarks: "The
'duly protected' soldiers were attacked by smallpox in
a proportion double that among the 'unprotected' soldiers.
"As you see, these are official statements, extremely trustworthy because they
were made in a country where and at a time when, no one thought that it was
possible to raise a doubt against the dogma of vaccination. In our country," he
continues, "we have no league against vaccination, and every father thinks that
vaccination is one of his first duties. For these reasons no bias could exist
against vaccination in making these statistics."
The figures of these statistical records presented in the New York Medical
Journal, from the pen of an eminent professor in an Italian University, stand as
unimpeachable witnesses to the fact that preventive vaccination has been a
complete failure in Italy, which we are assured is one of the most thoroughly
vaccinated countries on the globe.
I now call another witness, Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, LL.D., F.R.S., the
co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution, an expert statistician and
one of the ablest scientific men of England. In his latest great scientific
work, entitled "The Wonderful Century," Professor Wallace has devoted a chapter
to the consideration of the most trustworthy statistics, on a large scale, as
relating to. smallpox and vaccination. He tells us that in April, of the year
1889, Queen Victoria appointed a commission of eight of the most distinguished
medical men of England and quite a number of eminent men in other professions,
to investigate the question of the effect of vaccination. This commission, we
are told, spent more than seven years in its investigation, held 136 meetings,
examined about 200 witnesses, and investigated six
epidemics which had occurred in recent years at Gloucester, Sheffield,
Warrington, Dewsbury, Leicester and London.
It is upon the evidence presented in the majority report of this commission that
Prof. Wallace bases his statements and conclusions, some of which I herewith
present. He has critically examined the early tests employed by the advocates of
vaccination to prove the alleged protective influence of the practice, and has
pointed out the fallacy and complete inefficiency of these tests. He has brought
together an array of remarkable test cases which illustrate the utter
worthlessness of vaccination. Of these crucial tests I shall be able to present
but a few:
"The first is that of Leicester, which for the past twenty years has rejected
vaccination till it has now almost vanished, and smallpox is almost unknown. The
second is that of the army and navy in which, for a quarter of a century, every
recruit had been re-vaccinated, unless he had been recently vaccinated or had
smallpox. In the first we have an almost unvaccinated population of nearly
200,000, which, on the theory of the vaccinators, should have suffered
exceptionally from smallpox; in the other we have a picked body of nearly
220,000 men who, on the evidence of the medical authorities, are as well
protected as they know how to make them, and among whom, therefore, smallpox
should be almost or quite absent, and smallpox deaths quite unknown. Let us see,
then, what has happened in these two cases. In both it has been clearly proven
that smallpox increased with the increase of vaccination, and decreased under
sanitation, cleanliness and hygienic living."
After having set forth page upon page of these test cases, Prof. Wallace
observes :
"It is thus completely demonstrated that all the statements by which the public
has been gulled for so many years, as to the almost complete immunity of the
re-vaccinated Army and Navy, are absolutely false. It is all what Americans call
'bluff.' There is
no immunity. They have no protection. When exposed to infection
they do suffer just as much as other populations, or even more. In the whole of
the nineteen years, 1878-96, inclusive, unvaccinated Leicester had so few
smallpox deaths that the Registrar-General represented the average by the
decimal 0.01 per thousand population, equal to ten per
million, while for the twelve years 1878-89 there was less than one death per
annum. Here we have real immunity y real protection; and it is obtained by
attending to sanitation and isolation, coupled with the almost total neglect of
vaccination. Neither army nor navy can show any such results as this."
"Now," says Prof. Wallace, "if there exists such a thing as a crucial test, this
of the army and navy as compared with Leicester, affords such a test. The
populations concerned are hundreds of thousands; the time extends over a
generation; the statistical facts are clear and indisputable; while the case of
the army and navy has been falsely alleged again and again to afford
indisputable proof of the value of vaccination when performed on adults."
Prof. Wallace produces official statistics which verify his affirmation that,
'The town of Leicester is, and has been for the past twenty years, the least
vaccinated town in the kingdom.
Its average population from 1873 to 1894 was about two-thirds of that of the
army during the same period. Yet smallpox deaths in the army and navy were
thirty-seven per million, those of Leicester under fifteen per million."
Prof. Wallace justly declares: "It is not possible to have a more complete and
crucial test than this is, and it absolutely demonstrates the utter uselessness,
or worse than uselessness, of re-vaccination."
" Before leaving Leicester, " says Prof. Wallace, "it will be instructive to
compare it with some other towns of which statistics are available. And first,
as to the great epidemic of 1871-72 in Leicester and in Birmingham. Both towns
were then well vaccinated, and both suffered severely by the epidemic.
Thus :
Per 10,000 population
Leicester
Birmingham
Smallpox cases
327
213
Smallpox deaths
35
35
"But since then Leicester has rejected vaccination to such an extent that in
1894 it had only seven vaccinations to 10,000 population, while Birmingham had
240, or more than thirty times as many, and the proportion of its inhabitants
who have been vaccinated is probably less than one-half of that of Birmingham.
The Commissioners themselves state that the disease (smallpox) was brought into
the town of Leicester on twelve separate occasions during the recent epidemic,
yet the following is the result:
1891-94.
Per 10,000 population
Leicester Birmingham
Smallpox cases
19
63
Smallpox deaths
1 1-10 5
"Here we see that Leicester had less than one-third the cases of smallpox and
less than one-fourth the deaths in proportion to population than well vaccinated
Birmingham; so that both the alleged protection from attacks of the disease and
mitigation of its severity, when it does attack, are shown not only to be
absolutely untrue, but to apply, in this case, to the absence of vaccination."
The last quotation from "The Wonderful Century" which I shall here present is
the following :
"But we have yet another example of an extremely well-vaccinated town in this
epidemic Warrington, an official report on which has been issued. It is stated
that 99.2 per cent, of the population had been vaccinated, yet comparison with
unvaccinated Leicester stands as follows :
Epidemic of 1892-93.
Per 10,000 population
Leicester
Warrington
Smallpox cases
19.3
123.3
Smallpox deaths
1.4
11.4
"Here, then, we see that in the thoroughly vaccinated town the cases are more
than six times, and the deaths more than eight times, that of the almost
unvaccinated town, again proving that the most
efficient vaccination does not diminish the
number of attacks, and does not mitigate the
severity of the disease, but that both these results
follow from sanitation and isolation."
The history of smallpox in Leicester, England, has, as pointed out by Prof
Wallace, furnished conclusive testimony to the world that smallpox can be
confined within very narrow limits without any assistance . (?) from the vaccine
operation.
In 1872, when Leicester was a wellvaccinated city, it was visited by a smallpox
epidemic and suffered a heavy mortality. The doctors had so overdone the
business of coercive vaccination, and public prosecution, that the people arose
en masse in open revolt against the propagation of the vaccinator's
poison. This emphatic protest had the effect of checking vaccination and of
diminishing the percentage of vaccinations to the number of
births. From page 209 of "The Wonderful Century" I quote the following:
"But immediately after the great Leiester epidemic of 1872, which was worse than in London, the people began to reject vaccination, at first slowly, then more rapidly, till for the last eight years (1890-98) less than five per cent. of the births have been vaccinated. Durng the whole of the last twenty-four years smallpox deaths have been very few, and during twelve consecutive years, 1879-89, there was a total of only eleven smallpox deaths in this populous town."
Thus, we see the history of Leicester presents one of the best object lessons
of the past thirty years; for since its smallpox epidemic of 1872 its citizens
not only arose in open revolt and rid themselves of the incubus of vaccination,
but also instituted as thorough a system of sanitation as their crowded
population of nearly 200,000 would admit of. Leicester, therefore, under the
guidance of a creed, the main articles of which are founded on the teachings of
sanitary science and obedience to the laws of hygiene, stands out clear and
distinct above all other cities in England, both as a rebuke to the vaccine
practice, and as a testimony that salvation from the contagion of smallpox lies
in the direction of sanitary regulations and hygienic habits of life. In defence
of the Leicester system, which is simply a system of thorough sanitation, the
report of its medical officer for 1893 tells a story which should be
emphatically and repeatedly impressed upon the mind of every health-board
official throughout the civilized world.
Addressing his townsmen, the Leicester health officer said: "You are entitled to
great credit, more especially in the case of smallpox, which, by the methods you
have adopted, has been prevented from running riot throughout the town, thereby
upsetting all the prophecies which have again and again been made. I need only
mention such towns as Birmingham, Warrington, Bradford, Walsall, Oldham, and the
way they have suffered during the past year from the ravages of smallpox, to
give you an idea of the results you in Leicester have achieved results of
which I, as your medical officer of health, and
justly, I think, proud."
The foregoing are a few of the hundreds of demonstrations that can be cited
of the utter worthlessness of vaccination as a preventive of smallpox. If
protection is good for anything, it should be effective during the prevalence of
an epidemic; but, as we have seen, that is just where the unvaccinated enjoy the
greater immunity from the variolous infection. Can any one explain why it is,
that the vaccine practice continues to be perpetuated, and the contagion of the
cowpox disorder to be propagated by the medical profession in the face of such
evidence as this?
The statement of such demonstrations as these puts the advocates of vaccination
in a very awkward predicament, to say the least. A knowledge of such clean-cut
facts should be sufficient to destroy in unprejudiced
minds all belief in the efficacy of so-called preventive vaccination.
The ancient theory which ignores the laws of hygiene and sanitation by teaching
the absurd doctrine that the propagation of the contagion of disease by
ingrafting it into the bodies of healthy people can be advantageous to the
well-being of a community, should find no favor with the sanitary rationalist of
the twentieth century and, in my humble opinion, deserves the open condemnation
of every scientific physician.
Belief in this curious dogma has tended to foster a disregard for cleanliness.
By leading people to overlook the real cause and to neglect the true preventive
of smallpox, it has done much to obstruct the progress of truth and to retard
the evolution of hygiene and sanitary science.
Instead of having been instructed by their family physician to observe the laws
of health and to avoid the causes of disease, people have on the contrary been
taught, for a century, to rely upon a fetich for immunity from a filthdisease.
The only measure which has been found competent to cope with smallpox and other
zymotic diseases is cleanliness. As people learn to keep their dwelling
apartments clean and well ventilated, their streets and alleys free from the
accumulation of filth, their water supply pure, their food free from injurious
adulteration, their bodies free from the accumulation of effete tissue, by
taking plenty of exercise in the open air, they
rise superior to the thraldom of zymotic disorders.
There is no exception to this rule.
Whom do these diseases attack? The untidy and unclean. What neighborhoods do
they visit ? The filthiest. What cities do they select? Those in which sanitary
conditions are most neglected. Note the smallpox epidemic of Montreal of 1885,
in which 3,400 people died of the disease. Who were
the victims? The very lowest class of society, children who were filthy,
neglected and ill-fed, who were living in houses that were overcrowded,
destitute of proper ventilation, and in courts and alleys reeking with filth and
where sanitation is a term unknown.
So-called " successful " vaccination is nothing less than the implanting into
the healthy organism the virulent products of diseased animal tissue, with the
effect of inducing actual disease. The performance of such an operation, in the
very nature of the case, violates every principle of modern aseptic surgery, the
legitimate aim of which is to remove from the
organism the products of disease and never to introduce them.
The chief aim of the modern surgeon is to make and treat wounds aseptically.
The careful operator employs every means at his command to clear the field of
operation of all bacteria, and he uses every available resource of the
marvellously minute and intricate technique of asepsis to prevent the entrance,
through wounded tissue, into the organism of any germ or morbific agent before,
during, and after an operation. He fears sepsis as he fears death; and yet,
under the blighting and blinding influence of an ancient and venerated
superstition, he will intentionally inoculate into the circulation of a healthy
human being the virulent animal poison, vaccine virus, the infective products of
diseased animal tissues, under strictly aseptic conditions.
Think of the unparalleled absurdity of deliberately infecting the organism of a
healthy child, in this era of sanitary science and aseptic surgery, with the
poisonous matter obtained from a sore on a diseased calf, under the pretense of
protecting the victim of the ingrafted disease against the contagion of another
disease! Can inconsistency go farther than this? Inoculating an indeterminate
lot of microbes into a healthy organism under aseptic precautions! ' Ladies and
gentlemen of this society, just think of it!
In considering the subject of preventive vaccination the question arises: What
is vaccinia? And what is it that the vaccinator
implants into the healthy human organism? Into this part of the subject time
forbids me to enter, except to point out a few brief quotations from high
authorities on this subject.
From the American Text Book of Diseases of Children, article Vaccination, by T.
S. Westcott, M. D., (p. 192) I quote the following:
"The exact nature of vaccinal disease is a question which has been the
subject of repeated theorizing and experimentation since the time of Jenner, and
even at the present day no concensus of opinion has been reached." Many pro-vaccinal
authorities aver the belief that vaccinia is smallpox modified or attenuated by
passing through the system of a cow. This theory, however, rests on very
inconclusive evidence and must soon be relinquished.
Dr. Chauven, in his notable address before the French Academy of Medicine,
October, 1891, after detailing his elaborate experiments, which had continued
for years, concludes:
(i) "Vaccine virus never gives smallpox to man;
(2) "Variolic virus never gives vaccinia to the cow;
(3) "Vaccinia is not even attenuated smallpox."
Vaccinia is, in all probability, a the theory of the great antiquity of man on
the earth), which table formed the basis of his thesis read before the American
Association of Physicians and Surgeons at Indianapolis, in January, 1896, and
which has been now for more than six years unquestioned by the profession. This
table, a copy of which I now present you, is a condensed statement in parallel
columns of the primary and secondary symptoms of smallpox, cowpox and syphilis,
from the separate descriptions of the most renowned authorities upon these
several diseases. It shows an almost complete
likeness between the two latter and a total unlikeness of each to smallpox. Thus
we come face to face with the gravest and, at the same time, the most disgusting
aspect of the whole vaccination problem. Here we have some of the highest
authorities who have produced the clearest evidence showing that vaccinia is
modified syphilis. The chronic and prolean manifestations which at times follow
vaccination must have impressed us all with their close analogy to syphilitic
lesions.
Prof. Alfred Russell Wallace has proven by the testimony submitted in the
Majority Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Vaccination, that the
cowpox practice instead of protecting its subjects from the contagion of
smallpox, actually rendered them more susceptible to it. This conclusion, based
upon facts, is in harmony with the physician's daily observations and
experiences. Health is the ideal state to be sought for and attained, not
disease. Disease should always be avoided. Every pathogenic disturbance in the
infected organism wastes and lowers the vital powers, and thus diminishes its
natural resisting capacity.
This fact is so well known and so universally conceded that it seems superfluous
to cite authorities. Nevertheless, at the risk of being considered redundant, I
shall mention a couple.
The American Text Book of Surgery, one of the latest standard works (p. 59,)
says:
"The healthy body is intolerant of bacteria and will resist the invasion of a
mass of organism which an inflamed or diseased part may be unable to withstand."
Another of the latest works, The International Text Book of Surgery (Vol. I. p.
263), is authority for the following statement:
"Persons weakened by disease or worn out by excessive labor yield more readily
to infection than healthy individuals."
If this is true, it explains why, in variolous epidemics, smallpox always
attacks the vaccinated first, and why this disease continues to infest the
civilized world while its allied "filth diseases" have
disappeared before the advance of civilization, through the good offices of
sanitation, hygiene and isolation of the sick.
In conclusion, I venture to think that I am warranted in maintaining that an
impartial and comprehensive study of vital statistics, gleaned from every
reliable source, proves that the extension of the practice of vaccination cannot
be shown to have any logical relation to the diminution of cases of smallpox.
After a careful consideration of the history of vaccination and smallpox, and
after an experience derived from having vaccinated more than 3,000 subjects, I
am firmly convinced that Edward Jenner saddled a legacy of disease and death
upon the human race, and incidentally made $150,000 by the transaction ;
That the practice of vaccination has been the means of disseminating some of the
most fatal and loathsome diseases, such as leprosy, cancer, syphilis,
tetanus and tuberculosis;
That vaccination is not only useless but positively
injurious,
That instead of protecting its subjects from the
contagion of smallpox, actually renders them more susceptible
to it by depressing the vital power and
diminishing natural resistance;
That vaccination was introduced at a time when
smallpox was a diminishing factor, and, by checking smallpox inoculation,
withdrew a fertile source of variolous propagation;
That the discontinuance of variolous inoculation, therefore, rather than the
practice of vaccination, accounted for the diminished prevalence of smallpox
during the first three decades of the last century;
That previous to the introduction of vaccination, variolous inoculation was
unanimously believed in and generally practiced by the doctors of the self-styled
"regular" profession in multiplying smallpox cases by
spreading the contagion ;
That there is no evidence worthy of the name on record
to prove that vaccination either prevents or mitigates
smallpox ;
That many thousands of healthy children
have died from the effects of vaccination;
That millions of vaccinated
people died of confluent smallpox while having the
plainest vaccine scars on their bodies;
That smallpox epidemics invariably attack the
vaccinated first;
That smallpox is a filth-disease
which ever follows closely upon flagrant
violations of the laws of hygiene and
sanitation ;
That the occurrences of all the
great epidemics of smallpox have coincided with
periods of sanitary neglect;
That cowpox and venereal pox have
much in common;
That the analogy between the
manifestations of vaccine and those of syphilis is so
close that several of the most eminent pathologists of
the world regard cowpox as a modified form
of syphilis;
That the condition set up by
vaccinia is often chronic and as protean in its manifestations as is syphilis;
That the identity of cowpox and
syphilis was first clearly pointed out by Dr. Hubert Boens-Boissan in 1882;
That so-called "spontaneous cowpox"
is a myth;
That cowpox is a disorder not
natural to the cow; that it never occurs in bulls or steers, nor in young
heifers that have never been milked; that it is a disease of milch cows which
has been communicated to them from sores on
hands of milkers who were suffering from the "bad disease;"
That when these facts are fully
realized by the medical profession and the public it
will not take long to put end to the crime of
compulsory vaccination;
That the community that has sanitary
surroundings, a pure water supply, wholesome food,
good health and freedom from the blood-poisoning
incident to vaccination, need have no more fear
Smallpox than of measles;
That Leicester stands out clear and
distinct above all the other cities in
England, both as a rebuke to the vaccine
practice, and as a testimony that salvation from the
infection of zymotic diseases lies in the direction of
sanitary condtions and hygienic habits of life;
That the legitimate function of the
true physician is not to propagate disease,
but to restore health and prevent disease ;
That the attainment of health is
the great desideratum;
That a state of health is the ideal state to be sought after and attained;
That no man can be truly said to be susceptible to the contagion of smallpox
or to that of any other disease so long as he is in a state of
perfect health;
That such a state resists and repels the assaults of all morbific influences and
is therefore the best protective against disease;
That it is never necessary to actually set up one disease in a healthy organism
to protect against another; that such a procedure is an appalling violation of
the basic principles of hygiene and sanitary science;
That immunity . from the contagion of all diseases is to be realized through the
attainment of health, not by the propagation of disease;
That the performance of the vaccine operation, in the very nature of the case,
violates the cardinal precepts of modern aseptic surgery, the aim of which is to
exclude from the economy pathogenic bacteria and to remove the products
of disease from the organism, and never to introduce
them;
That vaccination has utterly failed to fulfill the flattering promises made
for it by Jenner and his followers;
That a portly volume could be filled with the records of these failures;
That compulsory vaccination has been abolished in Switzerland and England, while
laws sanctioning this crime still disgrace the statute books of "free" America ;
That compulsory vaccination ranks with human slavery and religious persecution
as one of the most flagrant outrages upon the rights of the human race ;
That the vaccine operation, which consists in abrading the epidermis and
implanting an indeterminate lot of microbes into the organism of a healthy
person, is opposed to the laws of hygiene and to all the teachings of modern
surgical practice;
That immunity from the contagion of smallpox is to be realized through the
attainment of health, not by the propagation of disease ;
That attention to hygiene and sanitation, supplemented by segregation of the
sick, have robbed smallpox of all its terrors;
That enlightenment on these subjects is sure to bring the conviction that the
propagation of disease under the pretext of preventing disease has
been a malefaction instead of a benefaction to
the human race.
COMPARISON BETWEEN SMALLPOX, COWPOX AND SYPHILIS.
For a continuation of the comparison of cowpoz and syphilis see
page 55.
SMALLPOX.
1. Eruption general, superficial.
2. Constitutional or general symptoms precede the eruption and are relieved on
its appearance.
3. Eruption first felt as a No. 8 bird shot beneath the skin, it then appears as
a papule ; then a vesicle, becoming pustular about the 5th
or 6th day, is from one to three lines in length; but the pustules are of
various kinds, irregular, elevated, generally perforated by a hair, induration,
if any, very slight, no tendency to a gnawing ulceration of the skin.
4. The fluid is contained in two chambers a superficial and a deep, which
communicate around the edges of the separating membrane. The infective material
(if any) is carried in the air.
5. The smallpox pustules leave no scar if properly treated.
6. The smallpox eruption does not affect the lymphatic system.
7. Infectious.
8. Inoculable.
9. The smallpox is epidemic taking its rise in filthy localities.
(VACCINATION) COWPOX.
Primary Lesion.
1. Eruption local, deep, in the corium of skin or
subcutaneous tissue, or in the mucous membrane.
2. Constitutional symptoms do not precede but follow
the eruption in all cases.
3. Pustule* always the same, first a papule, then a vesicle, becoming pustular
about the 8th day, 7 to 10 lines in diameter, round, centrally depressed, margin
indurated and not perforated by a hair, has a cellular membrane at floor,
tendency to a gnawing ulceration.
4. The fluid is contained in a single chamber, reticulated, is non-volatile, and
the infection is communicated only by immediate contact with an abraded surface.
5. The cowpox leaves a foveated scar.
6. The cowpox poison permeates the lymphatic channels and ganglia, causing
inflammation, buboes, and abscesses.
7. Not infectious.
8. Inoculable.
9. Cowpox is independent of time and place; communicated only by direct
inoculation.
GREATPOX OR SYPHILIS.
1. Eruption local, deep, in the corium of skin or subcutaneous tissue, or in the
mucous membrane.
2. Constitutional symptoms do not precede but follow the eruption in all cases.
3. Pustule* always the same, first a papule rapidly becoming pustular without
perceptibly passing through a vesicular stage, 7 to 10 lines in diameter,
scooped out, deep funnel-shaped with sloping edges often elevated, not
perforated by a hair, has a fungoid membrane at floor, tendency to a gnawing
ulceration.
* I. e. The Chancre
Smallpox cured no further symptoms manifested.
4. Absolutely the same as the cowpox.
5. Similar to the scar of cowpox, but varies in character.
6. Absolutely the same as the cowpox.
7. Not infectious.
8. Inoculable.
9. Absolutely the same as cowpox.
The smallpox patient, upon recovery, is free from the disease even if he is
marked by scars. Smallpox will not beget either cowpox or syphilis. On the
contrary, there are various subsequent manifestations in vaccination, or cowpox,
which are remarkably like those that appear in what are known as secondary and
tertiary periods of syphilis. We have tabulated in parallel columns some of the
many manifestations that appear in both these diseases, and a glance will reveal
their striking similarity.
|
COWPOX |
SYPHILIS |
|
Phagedenic sores. |
Phagedenic sores. |
|
Nodes in the head. |
Nodes in the head. |
|
Ophthalmia |
Ophthalmia |
|
Dentition delayed in children, with production of the so-called syphilitic teeth. |
Dentition delayed in children, with production of the so-called syphilitic teeth. |
|
Eczema of all kinds. |
Eczema |
|
Herpes |
Herpes |
|
Ready fracture and difficult healing of bone, also probably caries in some cases. |
Caries of bone |
|
Insanity, probably. |
Insanity |
|
Scrofula |
Scrofula |
|
Mucous patches on tonsils, tongue and lips tending to ulceration. |
Mucous patches on tonsils, tongue
and lip tending to ulceration. |
|
Bronchitis |
Bronchitis |
|
Tuberculosis, probably. |
Tuberculosis |
| Arrest of development. | Arrest of development. |
DR. RODERMUND'S
EXPERIMENT
On Monday, Jan. 21, 1901, about 11.30 A. M., I entered the residence of Mr.___
, where Miss Stark was confined with the smallpox.
As I entered the house Mr.__ jumped from his chair and
said: "We are not allowed to let anyone enter this house."
"Never mind' I said, "I am not anybody, so perhaps you have made no mistake."
I then stated that I came to see the smallpox patient.
"There she is," he said, pointing towards a young woman, in a far corner of the
room. Mrs___ sat by the window sewing, while a child
about two years old ran about the room.
"Are you not afraid of taking smallpox from the girl?" I asked.
"No," replied the mother, "we are not afraid."
"But the doctors say this disease is very contagious; are they not very
careless and negligent in not keeping this patient
away from the rest of the family? This is a
genuine case of smallpox, just see the large pustules full of pus. Of
course I know you can't take the disease from another."
Then to show them that this was true, I broke open several of the large pustules
on her face and arms and took the pus out of them and smeared it all over my
face, hands, beard and clothes, and at the same time remarked that I would now
go home to dinner.
I mentioned nothing of the affair to my family during the meal and went directly
to my office without telling anyone. The first person who came in the office was
an old friend, Rev. T., who has a parish at North Milwaukee. We shook hands
heartily ; in fact, I had entirely forgotten that I was covered with smallpox
poison. I presented him with one of my books and, according to our scientific
and wilful deceivers of the public, I must have covered the book and gentleman
with smallpox germs, and he in return must have exposed many people in Appleton,
those he met on the train, and finally his whole congregation. The germs on the
book, I suppose, are still enjoying themselves in the spiritual home of the
reverend gentleman.
During the same afternoon I touched the faces of several persons in my office
while treating their eyes and fitting glasses. From 4 to 6 and from 8 to 10
o'clock the same afternoon I was at the Business Men's Club, where I mingled and
played cards with the members.
In the evening the conversation drifted to the smallpox case I had visited in
the morning. After discussing the subject for a while, one of them asked me if I
would visit a smallpox patient and then go home to my family. I quietly remarked
that I would just as soon do it as visit a patient with a common cold.
Finally, Mr. Dickinson, cashier in one of our banks, remarked rather
sarcastically: "Now, doctor, what's the use of talking such nonsense, you would
no more think of visiting a smallpox patient and then go home and sleep with
your family than you would go home and shoot one of your children. You are too
sensible for that."
The reader can imagine the state of my mind at that time, as none of them had an
inkling that I was at that very time covered with smallpox pus, and that the
cards we were playing with were being loaded with this poison. Still, I never
once mentioned my visit to them. Further, I would never have gone to the
club-rooms if I had had the least idea that my actions would ever be known, as I
knew the sentiment of these gentlemen and I also had too much respect for them
and myself, to impose upon their feelings, even if I did know that their belief
was a foolish superstition. I have done similar acts dozens of times during the
past fifteen years and have in each instance watched the results and not the
slightest harm has ever been done to anyone.
To return to our subject, after leaving the club-rooms that evening I went home,
slept with my family, and the next morning took the train to Green Bay, without
washing my hands or face, and wearing the same clothes. I took breakfast at
Green Bay and then went to the store of Mr. M__ , who
had engaged me to fit glasses for his customers on that day. I handled the faces
of twenty-seven persons during the day, besides those I exposed on the streets
and in the train when on my way home.
The next morning (Wednesday) I washed my hands and face,
the first time since they had been smeared with pus 46 1/2
hours before. When I arrived at my office I found
several reporters waiting to ascertain if the report were true that I had
visited the smallpox patient and had smeared myself with pus. In the beginning I
neither affirmed nor denied the accusation, because I did not want it known, but
upon inquiry I learned that one of the neighbors had seen me come out of the
house and asked the health officer if the family had changed doctors, as she had
seen Dr. Rodermund come out of the house on Monday.
Consequently there was nothing for me to do save tell the exact truth, which I
did. The newspapers, however, mixed untruth with the truth in such a way as to
mislead the public. Among other things they stated that I had personally bragged
of what I had done, when they knew that I never intended it to become known to
the world until the people were ready to consider such revolutionary truths for
their own benefit.
I was allowed my freedom about the city all day Wednesday, but on Thursday, the
fourth day, I was quarantined and a guard of policemen stationed around the
house. The people had been so aroused by the health officer,
doctors, city officials, and the newspapers, that one of the policemen told me
that it was a good thing I was protected by a strong guard, otherwise my life
was in danger.
Saturday I broke quarantine in spite of five policemen, drove forty miles to
Waupaca, took the train for Chicago, from there went to Terre Haute, Ind., and
on my way back home was arrested in Milwaukee and held for four days in the pest
house. This is a brief outline of the whole episode which created such a
sensation.
The sanctimonious frauds and deceivers of the public (doctors) tried in every
way, shape and manner, to trace a case of smallpox to my actions, but
with no avail. Even after I had exposed 50,000 people,
and rubbed my pus-covered hands over thirty-seven faces, they could find nothing
against me. In the near future I will publish a few similar incidents which have
happened to me the past years, and which are far more interesting than this one.
Why is not one out of the thousands of these medical scoundrels, murderers, and
deceivers, ever turned up to win the prize which reads as follows:
One thousand dollars will be given to anyone who can prove that disease is
contagious; also ten dollars for each day it takes him to prove it.
The doctors know that by superstition the people can best be held. Then, I want
to ask you, are not the people more to blame than the doctors ?
More than half the public do not believe in contagion, but they lack the courage
to say so. Discussion and argument will never change the present conditions.
They never settle a question where a powerful body of men have law and money of
their side. A powerful public sentiment, combined with true knowledge, is the
only remedy. As long as you drowse in your old superstitions, these murderers
will continue to ruin your constitutions for the money there is in it.
Does any sane man believe that God created such laws which, if disobeyed at any
time by one person, would spread a loathsome disease over a whole nation? This
superstition is a blasphemy upon Almighty justice. Dr. Rodermund in The
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