SMALL-POX AND RE-VACCINATION.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1243, 24 July 1872, Page 2

SMALL- POX AND RE-VACCI-NATION.

The value of re-vaccination v scarcely so well appreciated as it might be. Hundreds of thousands, are re-vaccinated in England without any evil effects following the operation. The example afforded -by the Queen in having herself and family re- vaccinated has done much of late in aristocracy- worshipping England, to remove this feeling of apprehension, and re-vaccination has been again much and successfully practised. That there, is more occasion for the operation than is generally supposed is disclosed < in the fact, as we learn from the report of Dr. W. # M'orea, Chief Medical Officer in Victoria, that when the small-pox some time since obtained a short-lived footing in that colony, the medical men, attendant nurses, and all .other persons brought into immediate, contact with the patients were re- vaccinated, . and that in almost every instance the operation was successful, showing that but for it they would have been as liable to take the varioloid disease as if in infancy they had never been vaccinated at all In this peculiarity is to be found an unanswerable argument in favor of re-vaccination. . If the person operated upon is sufficiently protected from small-pox by previous vaccination, the re-vaccination will take no effect for good or ill, except, indeed, as an immunity from infection; if, on the other hand, the operation succeeds, then it will have proved itself as necessary as vaccination would have been to a wholly unvaccinated person. ' '< . \' ' * In Auckland very few have any scruples respecting being re/vaccinated. We have been informed from a credible source that over 200 ....'.were, vaccinated there, intone day, direct from ; the heifer. Dr Wright was assisted in thb large amount "of work by pro Dawson and Fischer, and for more than two hours they were kept as bttsjly employed as they could be, and might have been kept so during the day had the supply of lymph been unlimited. Those vaccinated embraced all* ages, from the middle-aged man of business to the infant upon its mother's breavt. Ladies, young and old, were amongst those who. submitted to this operation. The chance jlp deception as to the source, of the lympn used was put beyond doubt by the presence of the heifer, each patient seelbg whence the lymph, which was introduced to his or her system, was taken. There was also a ; large number vaccinated by Dr Stockwell at his residence. A number of the police force have been vaccinated, and the remainder of them intend to undergo that precautionary operation. The Thames Advertiser says:— ?' The number of persons applying to be vaccinated at the various surgeries at the Thames appears to be increasing.. On Monday, the day set apart for the purpose by Mr Fisher, surgeon, no less than 77 men, women, and children submitted themselves, and were vaccinated, and^ yesterday ten natives came from Kerikeri to the same gentleman to be vaccinated." Mr John Playford, Auckland, writes to one of- the papers :— " I left London in the barque Amelia Thomson in the year 1838 with'some 200 souls on board. We had no sooner got to sea than we footed we had small-pox on board of the most virulent kind, which, in a feY days, carried .off four of bur strongest men. So bad was the disease that they almost . fell to pieces. Thanks to the energy of Dr Sullivan, by a complete re-vaccination the disease was at once stopped ; not another case occurred during the remainder of the voyage. Of myself I can only say that it Jell to the lot of two others with me to bury the poor fellows that died; still I did not take the disease." - - .— Amongst the, precautions recommended by the Health Officer of Victoria, at the time Melbourne was visited by varibloid disease, was the frequent purification of houses and premises by means of disin*. fectants. Those recommended as the most effective were, the one, the fumes of burning sulphur; the other,; carbolic acid. Either disinfectant, it is stated, will unquestionably destroy the germs of contagion. The fumes of sulphur are the cheapest, and their effect is more searching than that of carbolic acid ; the latter, however, has the advantage of being more continuous in its action. In using the sulphur, all that is needed is to place a few live coals on a shovel, or in a flowerpot within the room, having closed the doors, windows, and fireplace, and to sprinkle upon them a few grains of comnion sulphur. In the use of carbolic *bi<L a small quantity poured on a couple, of

plates will suffice to disinfect a mom sateen feet square, but it should be removed as often as the sme ' of it ceases to be perceived. In the use of using sulphur, Tr M'Orae recommends that the room nr house should be disinfected twice a day,* and stat.B that bedding clothes, and textile fabrics of all k'lds, if spread out and htwg up in a room so filled with the sulphurous vapor, will be thoroughly disinfect id without injury to the articles. Cleanliness aid ventilation are further enlarged upon « ye./ necessav^ aids to the prevention of the spread of the dia-