Part 15

There is one Government Report on vaccination in the Philippine Islands, which is often quoted by vaccinators to show the utter harmlessness of vaccination, which claims that from three to five millions of vaccinations have been performed on the population of the Philippines, _without a single injury or death_! Now, this reckless report might be made correct if slightly amended by the Goddess of Truth to read as follows: “Three to five millions vaccinated without a single injury or death”--_which has ever been honestly acknowledged_! It is, of course, shamefully false on its face to say that three to five millions of vaccinations were ever inflicted in the Philippines or anywhere else without any injuries or deaths; and the mind which can accept such a statement without a big logical and moral squirm does not understand the real nature of vaccination, the facts of vital statistics, or the first principles of mere mathematical chances, proportions and probabilities, as I will now show.

In the first place, a million is such a gigantic number that any person who has any disrespect for or trifles with it is not fit to discuss this subject. For example: if a man were to live for a million days he would have to be about three thousand years old! Whereas the average life of a man is much less than fifty years or about one-sixtieth of a million days! Now, if a man were to subject himself for the whole average lifetime of fifty years, or one-sixtieth of a million days, to the ordinary, benign, and necessary conditions of breathing air, drinking water and milk and eating food, he could not possibly do this without at some time contracting some disease and possible death from these perfectly normal, necessary, and benign conditions of breathing, eating and drinking, as most of our diseases and infections are admittedly contracted through these three benign sources! Yet our Government-trifler in millions wants us to believe that you could inflict on the human body--millions of times--not a purely benign action, but the purely and doubly malign act of vaccination, which consists in first wounding the body and then injecting into this wound a virulent septicemic infection, without causing a single injury or death! In other words, the doubly malign act--wounding and infecting the human body with a complex pus infection--is utterly harmless and less injurious than the purely benign acts of breathing, eating and drinking, which demonstrably cannot be practised for one-sixtieth of a million days by any human being without a possible serious injury or death!

Here is surely the “reductio ad absurdum” which shows that such a reckless statement of the harmlessness of vaccination by the millions is, of course, a stupid and shameful medical falsehood on its face and is pretty close to being a medical crime on the people, as any honest doctor or intelligent layman must know who has given any serious consideration to this subject, or who has any idea of what vaccination is, or who knows anything of disease infections, vital statistics and the laws of mere mathematical chances and probabilities.

Indeed, every competent doctor knows that you could not subject the human body to a mere pin scratch for a million times without causing several serious injuries or possible deaths from resulting infections. And every competent doctor and student of vital statistics knows also that there are actually more deaths caused every year by mere pin scratches and trifling cuts, wounds and abrasions, resulting in lockjaw, septicemia, erysipelas and other infections than from the dreaded smallpox itself.

Is it not, therefore, rather strange, Mr. President, that vaccination should be reported as so utterly harmless in the distant Philippines, where we can not easily get at the records, when we know it is so deadly in the near-by England and America, where the accessible records show that it causes, frequently, more deaths than smallpox, as I have already proved? For example: the great English Commission on Vaccination found that deaths from vaccination were sometimes as high as seventy deaths per million vaccinated. This is twice as high as the mortality from smallpox in the United States, which for five years, from 1901 to 1905, including our last great epidemic period of 1901 and 1902, averaged only thirty-four deaths per million population! See U. S. Mortality Statistics for 1907, page 40. The Reports of the Registrar General of England for 1906, 1907 and 1908 give a death-rate from infantile vaccination in those years which runs as high as forty-two deaths per million children vaccinated! Here we see that, according to some of our highest statistical authorities, vaccination is not harmless, but is so very harmful that its ratio of mortality per million vaccinated is sometimes twice as great as the ratio of smallpox mortality per million population, and including an epidemic period!

We therefore think, Mr. President, that these points and facts make sufficient answer to, and refutation of, the shocking medical lie that vaccination is perfectly harmless, and, per contra, prove that general vaccination is actually more dangerous to public health and human life to-day than natural smallpox, just as that great medical blunder of a past century--smallpox inoculation--was proved to be more dangerous than the natural disease and was finally prohibited by penal law. And I feel sure that compulsory vaccination will follow the same course and be legally prohibited for the same reason in the present century.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT FALSEHOODS

As a lifelong student of this subject I have become convinced that the whole cult and practice of general public vaccination and particularly all compulsory vaccination, like all great intrenched evils, has originated in falsehood, has continued in falsehood, and now exists on both falsehood and concealment, viz.: falsehood as to its absolute efficiency and certainty in protecting the individual against smallpox; falsehood as to the necessity of general vaccination to prevent smallpox epidemics; and gross falsehood as to its perfect safety and freedom from danger to human health and life.

Now, I do not think that I have ever seen a grosser illustration of the truth of this charge than can be found in the special article on Vaccination published in the _Monthly Bulletin_ or _Health News_ for February, 1914, issued by the New York State Department of Health at Albany, which contains what I believe to be shocking falsehoods, fallacies, and exaggerations which even a tyro in the investigation of this subject could easily refute, as I will now show. All these fallacies have been issued with an air of gospel truth, to instruct the public, and to try to justify the extreme efforts of our department officers and medical doctors to force compulsory vaccination on every child and adult in this State as not only absolutely necessary for public health, but as the only known means to prevent smallpox epidemics, and as being an operation which is wholly beneficial and entirely safe and harmless to human health and life. I shall now give examples of the chief and worst of these medical falsehoods and follow with their refutation, as a duty clearly due to public truth and right.

FIRST FALSEHOOD: This official Bulletin at page 48 tells us concerning the alleged efficiency and necessity of vaccination as follows:

“Nothing but vaccination can save from smallpox.... Cleanliness and general sanitation exert absolutely no influence upon its prevalence.”

This is about as shocking, absurd and false as it can be, and coming from our highest State health officer is certainly not creditable to our public health service, but is so obviously absurd and untenable as to refute itself on its very face. This paragraph tells us, in effect, that dense human overcrowding, with personal and public filth spread everywhere, no sanitation or isolation anywhere, and every case of smallpox left loose and at large to spread by direct contact to every child and adult and thus infect every one right and left, as in the old unsanitary times of big and frequent epidemics--all this, our Health Commissioner coolly tells us, would not make a bit of difference in the spread of the disease! And, per contra, the prevention of all these vile unsanitary conditions of barbarous times, with or without vaccination, would have no effect whatever to reduce the disease!

Now, of course, every person of any common sense or knowledge simply knows that these propositions are absurdly false on their face, and that we need pay no further attention to them, except to show by such horrible examples how foolish and desperate the falsehoods are that are resorted to by some doctors and health officers to try to force this dangerous medical evil of compulsory disease on every child and adult, and that on such falsehoods it is essentially based. Every unbiased student of this subject knows that efficient sanitation and hygiene have been the most effectual means for preventing and reducing all diseases and promoting public health during the last half century and that, as a matter of fact, no serious reduction of smallpox or typhoid fever has been effected in modern times except through general sanitation and hygiene, with or without vaccination.

SECOND FALSEHOOD: The next major fallacy in this State Department Bulletin relates to the alleged perfect safety of vaccination, as follows:

“There is not the slightest risk in the process of vaccination when it is carried out with clean virus (now guaranteed by Government inspection) and when the vaccination itself is kept clean. ‘Sore arms’ come from dirt getting into the vaccination, not from the vaccine itself.”

Now, if the man who wrote this falsehood knows anything extensive on this subject, he must know that what he states here is not true. And he knows also that the government does not really guarantee any virus, and that no such thing as “clean” virus is now, or ever was, made or can be made; that is, no virus without some, or many, dangerous suppurative disease germs of one kind or another, known or unknown, which will not be likely, some time or other, in some persons, to bring about a dangerous infection of the system with possible serious or fatal injury, and that, as a matter of fact, such infections are occurring constantly in children and adults from the various existing brands of “clean,” “inspected,” and “certified” virus now in use. Furthermore, as to this evil being caused only by “dirt” getting into the wound, this audacious writer must also know that this dangerous or fatal infection can and does come into the wound both directly as a “primary” infection from the virus itself, and as a “secondary” infection from “dirt” in or about the wound, and he must know very well, if at all competent to write on this subject for public instruction, that one kind of infection is about as common and as fatal as the other, and that both are almost equally chargeable to the operation of vaccination itself, so that to contend otherwise is merely a cowardly evasion of the truth, as has been fully proved by the shocking exhibits of vaccination horrors shown herein.

FALSEHOODS FROM THE ENCYCLOPEDIAS

From the article on Vaccination in one of our leading American books of reference, the “International Encyclopedia,” published by Dodd, Mead & Co. in 1904, I take this surprising gem of falsehood, as follows:

“_There is absolutely no danger of transmitting disease by means of bovine virus._”

Please note that the author of this falsehood is not content with saying merely that there is _no danger_, but _absolutely_ no danger. And when he was asked for an explanation or “authority” for this outrageous statement, this is what he answered:

“You ask for the authority for the statement in the International Encyclopedia: ‘There is absolutely no danger of transmitting disease by means of bovine virus.’

“I cannot refer you to an authoritative work on medicine where this statement can be found, but it is commonly repeated by professors of medicine to students, and was put away in my memory as an established fact many years ago.”

The rank stupidity and falsity of the statement first quoted will be evident when we recite the fact that _the very basic purpose and function_ of the bovine virus is _to transmit the disease cow-smallpox from calves to man_, as an alleged preventive of another disease, natural smallpox, and yet this high medical authority, writing for the information of the trusting public in one of our leading books of reference, solemnly tells us that it is absolutely impossible to transmit any disease by it, and that this doctrine has been preached to students for years _as an established fact_! If, however, he meant to say that it is absolutely impossible to transmit any other disease besides cow-smallpox or “vaccinia,” this statement would, of course, be equally false. Even of such generally harmless and benign mediums as _air_, _water_ and _milk_, it could not be sanely or truthfully said by any one that “_there is absolutely no danger of transmitting disease_” by them, for we all know that some of the most common and fatal diseases are often transmitted by these very benign mediums, air, water and milk. But to make such a reckless statement about a dangerous complicated _disease culture or virus_, a revolting _extract of pustules_, is not only grossly _untruthful_, but it is hardly even _sane_; yet this is a good sample of some of the statements with which our _high medical authorities_ have misled the trusting public mind. And speaking of “sanity,” it may provide us with a rather laughable emotion, at this point in our very grave subject, if I now cite the fact that at the time this high medical authority made this most false and absurd statement, as to the utter harmlessness of vaccination, he actually held the most high and significant office of--“_President of the New York State Commission on Lunacy_”!

THE ERRORS IN THE BRITANNICA

The article on Vaccination in the Encyclopedia Britannica, in the old edition preceding the last or current edition, was written by Dr. Chas. Creighton of London, a well known English doctor who, by long study, has become an opponent of vaccination, and is the author of several books exposing its fallacies. When Dr. Creighton first got the commission to write the article for the Encyclopedia he was a pro-vaccinist, like many other doctors, but to fit himself to write a full and impartial article which would give both sides of the subject he resolved to make a thorough study of it, pro and con. This study convinced him of the dangerous nature of vaccination to health and life, its limited or exaggerated value as a protection against smallpox, and its illogical or unscientific basis as a medical remedy; and his critical article on this subject, when it first appeared in the leading Encyclopedia, made a sensation in the medical world and has been a thorn in the side of pro-vaccinists ever since.

Now, what will impartial students of this subject say when I cite the fact that the article on Vaccination in the last or current edition of the Britannica is written, not by a man who is impartial and professionally disinterested in the subject, as was Dr. Creighton, and who tried to give both sides of the subject freely, but, on the contrary, by a man who is actually _a manufacturer or inventor of vaccine virus_ and has, therefore, necessarily, a professional interest and bias to conceal the failures and dangers of vaccination as far as he can? Surely, the editors of the Britannica made a great moral and logical mistake when they selected any man to write so important an article on a much disputed subject in this great book of reference who had any professional or other interest or bias in this subject. Now, the biased and interested author of this article in the last edition is none other than Dr. S. Monckton Copeman of London, a strong pro-vaccinist, who claims to be the original inventor of the so-called “_glycerinated virus_” now in general use for vaccination. The idea of adding glycerine to the virus is to kill the many dangerous disease germs or infections it is known to contain, but to preserve the germ of smallpox, or “cowpox” intact. This is, of course, an admission that before the use of glycerinated virus vaccination was very dangerous and likely to cause many infections in the human body, but since the adoption of glycerinated virus--Dr. Copeman’s invention--it is now claimed that vaccination is rendered safe and harmless. This is, of course, a false claim, as I have already shown, and will further show in a succeeding paragraph.

Now, this greatly biased and one-sided article of Dr. Copeman--the maker or inventor of glycerinated virus--in our greatest Encyclopedia, is surely a good illustration of my charge that the trusting public mind is constantly misled, whether intentionally or unintentionally I know not, by some of our highest medical authorities on the whole subject of vaccination, and particularly as to its alleged harmlessness. Thus, when Dr. Copeman, who is regarded as one of the leading authorities on modern vaccination, comes to consider the dangers of vaccination, he heads his paragraph, “Alleged Injurious Effects,” thus implying that the injuries are only “alleged” and not real, and he goes on to argue or imply that--due to his invention--the dangers and injuries are now trifling or negligible, but tacitly admits or implies that before his invention of glycerinated virus the dangers were very serious, whereas, with his invention, vaccination is now practically safe and harmless.

Now, what must we think of the truth of this claim that vaccination with glycerinated virus is now safe and harmless, when, at the very time that its inventor made or implied this claim in the pages of the Encyclopedia, in the year 1910 or 1911, the vital records of his own country, in the reports of the Registrar General of England for those two years, showed that there were eight deaths from vaccination in the year 1910, and fourteen deaths from vaccination in 1911! And these fatal vaccinations were, of course, all made with the glycerinated virus as, practically, no other kind is now used! These vaccination deaths were all in little children under five years and they exceeded the deaths from smallpox in the same age class by fourfold in 1910 and by threefold in 1911! That is, the deaths from vaccination under five years were eight in 1910 and fourteen in 1911; while the deaths from smallpox under five years were two in 1910 and five in 1911! The total deaths from smallpox in all ages were nineteen in 1910 and twenty-three in 1911.

The four years preceding 1910 show even a worse record for vaccinal mortality than the record of 1910 and 1911, so that the record of those two years cannot be claimed as anything special or unusual. For example, the reports of the Registrar General for 1906, 1907 and 1908 show a total of only six deaths for these three years from smallpox in the infant ages under five years--the ages most susceptible to smallpox--while for the same infant ages there is a total of fifty-three deaths for the same three years from cowpox or vaccination--nine times more infant deaths from vaccination than from smallpox! In 1909 there is reported only one infant death from smallpox and eleven infant deaths from vaccination!

This shocking record of vaccination deaths clearly shows that the famous glycerinated vaccination of Dr. Copeman, which he virtually claims to be so safe and harmless, in our greatest book of public reference, is actually from three to ten times more fatal to children than natural smallpox, as proved by the vital records of his own country and by the highest statistical authority in the world! Surely, Mr. President, in such crushing counter facts as these, my charge of a shocking deception of the public mind, either intentional or unintentional, on the merits of vaccination by our highest medical and literary authorities, is flatly proved.

THE ERRORS OF DR. M. J. ROSENAU, A HIGH MEDICAL AUTHORITY, ON THE RELATIVE HARMLESSNESS OF VACCINATION

We now come to a different style of medical falsehood on the effects of vaccination which, while honestly admitting its dangerous nature, yet tries to minimize the dangers as much as possible and reduce them to the relatively immaterial. This is a shameful equivocation of the truth and an absurd contradiction of facts, as I will now prove out of the mouth of the apologist himself. I now refer to the statements of Dr. Milton J. Rosenau, who is one of our highest authorities in this country on vaccination and other special medical subjects. He was for several years Director of the United States Hygienic Laboratory at Washington, where he made many investigations into the nature of vaccine virus, its impurities, dangers, etc., and has made official reports on different subjects for the said Laboratory and for the United States Public Health Service. He is now professor of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene in Harvard University, and is the author of several books, one of which, “Preventive Medicine and Hygiene,” published by D. Appleton & Co. in 1914, I will now quote from. In this book, on page 19, under the head of “Dangers and Complications” of vaccination, Dr. Rosenau states as follows:

“However, vaccination is not always a harmless procedure; it must be looked upon as the production of an acute infectious disease, and, although the disease is always mild and trivial, it must not be treated as trifling. The chief danger lies in the fact that we have produced an open wound, which is subject to the complications of any wound. Even a pin prick or a razor scratch may result in death. While the aggregate number of deaths resulting from the complications of vaccination may be considerable, the aggregate of the individual risk is so small as to be disregarded, especially when proper precautions are taken.”

Here, surely, are some honest admissions and some queer denials, and I would now kindly ask you, Mr. President, to re-read this quotation carefully, and I think you will find it an interesting verbal and psychological study, showing the typical sophistry and casuistry of the whole vaccination cult which well illustrates a witty saying of the late Elbert Hubbard, who was a great student and opponent of vaccination, viz.: “The great trouble with vaccination is that it vaccinates the mind.” And he meant by this that the poison which the vaccinators put into the blood of their victims seems to react morally on themselves so that it poisons and blinds their minds and renders them unable to see their own shocking absurdities and mendacities in their false excuses and defences for the serious evils of vaccination. The great Gladstone was reported to have said that he was led to oppose compulsory vaccination not so much by the arguments of the anti-vaccinists as from the falsehoods of the vaccinators.