Hawaii Holomua, Volume I, Number 58, 24 November 1893 — LEPROSY AND VACCINATION [ARTICLE]

LEPROSY AND VACCINATION

to thk Enrrok of the ac<trala$la>. Sir;—My attension has been called to the brief notice iu 7'he Australasiun of my reeently pnl>lished volume. Tlu' Recrude*cence of Lepix>sy and its Caumtion, and I shall be glad of space for further esplanatian. It is ueedless to say that the qnestion of the eonueelion between vaccination and leprosy is oue of urgent and imperial importance, and mnst sooner or later command the attention of everyone interested iu the puhlie health, and in wellbeing of our vast eolouial populatioos. Evidenoe to show that there is such a eonneelion wus laid l>efore the Select Parliameutary Committee on Vaccination as early as 1871. by Dr. R. Hall llakewell, thea visiting phyaieian to one of the largest ieper

bospita1s in the West Intlies. aml vaccinator-general for Trinidal, bnt tbe idea \ra> poohpoobed bv the cbief- of tho poor law boards of that time (who h;ul probab!y nc-ver seeu a case of Ieprosv amongst them i. and the evil was allowed to go on uaeheekeil until it has reached its present alanuing dimensions. Evīdence of a mut h wider esperience has been laid before the Royal .icoination Commission now sitting in London nmler the presidency of the Lord Chancellor. The eminent bacteriologist, Dr. Edward Araing, of Hamburg, who spent three yeara in the Sandwich I>lands studving the . P ! causes of the serions increase of this scourge, says—in a piper read before the Berlin Me.lieal C’ongress in 18fK). aml publisheil in January, 1891. on tiie trans mission of Ieprosy—that “a vorv remarkablo aeumunilalion of fresh leprosy cases took plaee in 1871 73 at Lahaina, on the island of Alaui, Hawaii, about a vear after a general arm-to-arm vaccinatiou. From 50 to G0 cases occurred suddeniv in this localitv, whieh up to that time had been compar atively free.” Evidence pointing iu tbe same direction has beeu giveu with particulars of cases of invacinated leprosy by Professor W. T. Gairduer, M. I)., F. R. S., of Glasgow; Dr. John D. Hillis. of Demerara; Professor Moutgomery, of San Francisco; Dr. Rodger S. Chew, of Calcutta; Dr. S. P. Iiupey, of Robben Island, Soutu Africa; and other wellknown authorities. Dr. Arning, Dr. Hansen, and Professor Montgomery, discovered the leprous bacilli in the virus of vaccinated lepers. At a meeting of the Mieroscopical SocietvofCulcutta, reported in the E)igli*h nian of Calcutta, 23rd December, 1890. Dr. W. J. Simpsou read a paper ou the Bacillus Lepne. Dr. Simpson said he had vaccinated three lepers with %accine lymph, and had found the bacill in verv large numbers in the lymph obtained from the pnstules formed on these patients. He had blistered a patient over a leprous tubercle and got haeilli in the serura from the blister, bnt they were not nearly so n«merons as iu the vacciue lymph. As all bacterial deseases are inoeulahle these esperiments show tbe danger of vaccination. 1 am awaro of the numerous attempts )in my judgement most emel and unwarrantable) to inoculate human beings with leprosy and syphilis j*t >• , and of the alleged negative re.sults. Tbe late Dr. George Hogtn, who had given many years close at tention to the subject, maintained that the leprons virns is mixed with vaccine lymph a> iu the process of vaccination. the lransmission is easily made. and this will accouut for the alarming increaso of leprosy iu countries where leprosy is endemic, and vacciu.»tion is euforced. About 120 pages of my volume, w;th higb modical testimony and particuiars of numerous cases of invaccinated leprosy, are devoted to this part of the case. Duringm y visit to Hawaii. in October. 1890. several members of the Houolulu Legislature, and other induential residents, begge»l me to make knowu the facts concerning this special danger. aud to assist them to get rid of a • medical ordinance whieh was

neither adapted to the native ' race nor to their climatic eon- j ditions. and was decimating the poj)u!ation with the most hi»leoos an i de>tructive of human :»fflictions. Allow mo to conclode by thankiug you for calling attention to the subject through your inlluenlial oolumn-;. — Yours. etc., WlILU»M TePB. Dovenshiro Club, St. -lamo* >. Loudon. Ang. 30.