Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [565]
recognition of the importance of vaccination. It was then spread all over the continent; and in 1800 Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse of Boston introduced it into America; in 1801, with his sons-in-law, President Jefferson vaccinated in their own families and those of their friends nearly 200 persons. Quinan has shown that vaccination was introduced into Maryland at least simultaneously with its introduction into Massachusetts. De Curco introduced vaccination into Vienna, where its beneficial results were displayed on a striking scale; previously the average annual mortality had been about 835; the number now fell to 164 in 1801, 61 in 1802, and 27 in 1803. After the introduction of vaccination in England the mortality was reduced from nearly 3000 per million inhabitants annually to 310 per million annually. During the small-pox epidemic in London in 1863, Seaton and Buchanan examined over 50,000 school children, and among every thousand without evidences of vaccination they found 360 with the scars of small-pox, while of every thousand presenting some evidence of vaccination, only 1.78 had any such traces of small-pox to exhibit. Where vaccination has been rendered compulsory, the results are surprising. In 1874 a law was established in Prussia that every child that had not already had small-pox must be vaccinated in the first year of its life, and every pupil in a private or public institution must be revaccinated during the year in which his or her twelfth birthday occurs. This law virtually stamped small-pox out of existence; and according to Frolich not a single death from small-pox occurred in the German army between 1874 and 1882. Notwithstanding the arguments advanced in this latter day against vaccination, the remembrance of a few important statistic facts is all that is necessary to fully appreciate the blessing which Jenner conferred upon humanity. In the last century, besides the enormous mortality of small-pox (it was computed that, in the middle of the last century, 2,000,000 victims perished in Russia from small-pox), the marks of affliction, blindness, deafness, etc., were plain in at least one member of every family.
Asiatic cholera probably originated centuries ago in India, where it is now endemic and rages to such an extent as to destroy 750,000 inhabitants in the space of five years. There is questionable evidence of the existence of cholera to be found in the writings of some of the classic Grecian and Indian authors, almost as far back as the beginning of the Christian era. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries travelers in the East gave accounts of this disease. Sonnerat, a French traveler, describes a pestilence having all the characteristics of Asiatic cholera which prevailed in the neighborhood of Pondicherry and the Coromandel coast from 1768 to 1769, and which, within a year, carried off 60,000 of those attacked. According to Rohe, Jasper Correa, an officer in Vasco da Gama's expedition to Calicut, states that Zamorin, the chief of Calicut, lost 20,000 troops by the disease. Although cholera has frequently extended to Europe and America, its ravages have never been nearly as extensive as in the Oriental outbreaks. An excellent short historic sketch of the epidemics of the cholera observed beyond the borders of India has been given by Rohe. In 1817 cholera crossed the boundaries of India, advancing southeasterly to Ceylon, and westerly to Mauritius, reaching the African coast in 1820. In the following two years it devastated the Chinese Empire and invaded Japan, appearing at the port of Nagasaki in 1822. It advanced into Asiatic Russia, and appeared as far east as St. Petersburg in 1830, from whence it spread north to Finland. In 1831 it passed through Germany, invading France and the western borders of Europe, entering the British Isles in 1832, and crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, appeared in Canada, having been carried thence by some Irish emigrants.
From Canada it directly made its way to the United States by way of Detroit. In the same year (1832) it appeared in New York
Asiatic cholera probably originated centuries ago in India, where it is now endemic and rages to such an extent as to destroy 750,000 inhabitants in the space of five years. There is questionable evidence of the existence of cholera to be found in the writings of some of the classic Grecian and Indian authors, almost as far back as the beginning of the Christian era. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries travelers in the East gave accounts of this disease. Sonnerat, a French traveler, describes a pestilence having all the characteristics of Asiatic cholera which prevailed in the neighborhood of Pondicherry and the Coromandel coast from 1768 to 1769, and which, within a year, carried off 60,000 of those attacked. According to Rohe, Jasper Correa, an officer in Vasco da Gama's expedition to Calicut, states that Zamorin, the chief of Calicut, lost 20,000 troops by the disease. Although cholera has frequently extended to Europe and America, its ravages have never been nearly as extensive as in the Oriental outbreaks. An excellent short historic sketch of the epidemics of the cholera observed beyond the borders of India has been given by Rohe. In 1817 cholera crossed the boundaries of India, advancing southeasterly to Ceylon, and westerly to Mauritius, reaching the African coast in 1820. In the following two years it devastated the Chinese Empire and invaded Japan, appearing at the port of Nagasaki in 1822. It advanced into Asiatic Russia, and appeared as far east as St. Petersburg in 1830, from whence it spread north to Finland. In 1831 it passed through Germany, invading France and the western borders of Europe, entering the British Isles in 1832, and crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, appeared in Canada, having been carried thence by some Irish emigrants.
From Canada it directly made its way to the United States by way of Detroit. In the same year (1832) it appeared in New York