Sanitation
"I shall now pass on to other means for prevention which I
have seen adopted in the Army. As you know, in the Great War we had inoculation against
enteric (typhoid), chlorinated water, and last, but not least, wonderfully improved
sanitary conditions in the field. We had, so to speak, three horses pulling the coach, but
no one ever advocated finding out which horse was really pulling the waggon. If all the
good results were due to inoculation why not let us live with our pigs, and drink any
water we could swallow? If, on the other hand, the improved health was due to chlorinated
water, we could have dispensed with inoculation, and if the troops had been supplied with
leather linings to their stomachs as well as gas masks they would have been happy.
I have given up betting for many years, but I was always prepared to
lay 20 to I on improved sanitation against all other competitors. (Cheers.) For years I
wallowed in enteric fever, and though never inoculated against it I, as you see, survive.
I hope you will not think me egotistical if I say that for years I saw as many cases in a
day as one in general practice would see in a year; fully 40 or 50. I hope you won’t
consider I am competing for the Baron Munchausen prize when I say that I have seen as many
as 700 cases in a day, but when I mention the place—Ladysmith under siege
conditions—I can picture-those who had intended making me a presentation putting
their money back in their pockets."---Lt-Col Donegan
"I am myself perfectly convinced that all zymotic diseases arise from and are intensified by insanitary conditions and surroundings; that the abolition of the latter is the only radical method of stamping out this class of disease, that to put out one by a special prophylactic, while the conditions which produce all abound, is as illogical as it is impracticable; and that further, when that prophylactic is fraught with risk which, though it may be small, is yet not certainly avoidable, compulsory vaccination becomes cruel as well as ineffectual."---Dr Collins Bournebridge & Capetown
[1923] The Fraud of Vaccination, Sanitation v. Vaccination, The Birth of the Vaccination Fraud by Dr Hadwen (From "Truth," 1923)[1881] SANITATION, NOT VACCINATION THE TRUE Protection against Small-Pox By WILLIAM TEBB.: