than by physic.


VACCINATION AND RE-VACCINATION.

45. _Are you an advocate for vaccination_?

Certainly. I consider it to be one of the greatest blessings ever
conferred upon mankind. Small-pox, before vaccination was adopted,
ravaged the country like a plague, and carried off thousands annually;
and those who did escape with their lives were frequently made
loathsome and disgusting objects by it. Even inoculation (which is
cutting for the small-pox) was attended with danger, more especially
to the unprotected--as it caused the disease to spread like wildfire,
and thus it carried off immense numbers.

Vaccination is one, and an important cause of our increasing
population; small-pox, in olden times, decimated the country.

46. _But vaccination does not always protect a child from, small-pox_?

I grant you that it does not _always_ protect him, _neither does
inoculation_; but when he is vaccinated, if he take the infection, he
is seldom pitted, and very rarely dies, and the disease assumes a
comparatively mild form. There are a few, very few fatal cases
recorded after vaccination, and these may be considered as only
exceptions to the general rule; and, possibly, some of these may be
traced to the arm, when the child was vaccinated, not having taken
proper effect.