IMPROVED METHOD OF VACCINATION.

Southland Times, Issue 1563, 12 April 1872, Page 3

IMPROVED METHOD OF VACCINATION.

In view of the great spread of the small pox at the present day in America and Europe, and the importance of successful vaccination, the suggesion of an English physician, Mr Ellis,' may be of some importance. This gentleman remarks that ordinary vaccination is performed by scraping off the epidermis and thrusting the vaccine virus into a puncture made by the lancet. A greatly improved method, however, consists in first raising a small blister by a drop of cantharides applied to the skin. This is to be pricked and the drop let out, and theu a fine vaccine point put into this place, and withdrawn after a mo ment of delay ; the epidermis falls back and quite excludes the air, shutting out any germs that may be floating in the atmosphere. This method has been practised by Mr Ellis for twenty years, and out of hundreds of cases of vaccination which he has performed, lie baa never had an instance of blood poisoning or abscess, while by the ordinary method tho occurrence of secondary abscess is by no means uncommon, and that of pyffimia is often observed. The comparative safety of .this method is believed to be due, first, to the exclusion of the air ; and second to the lesser size of the aperture for the introduction of mischief than when the punctures are made by the lancet. — Harper's New k Monthly Magazine.