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THE LATE MR. R. R. CHEYNE AND THE PRESERVATION OF VACCINE LYMPH.
’’
894
INOCULATION OF SMALL-POX.
I
small-pox patient in the dwellings of
the poor where crowded in one or two rooms I inoculated all the unvaccinated inmates of the apparternent, ,using the pus of the first well-formed variolous pustule. This I did in the belief that every unvaccinated individual would mecessarily take the disease, isolation being impossible. My method was to use the variolous pus in the same way as ’vaccine lymph, scratching the skin, but not making it bleed much. This was done by me in about forty instances; the inoculations were not attended by any accident and all the - oases were very mild, the variola developing nicely with kittle fever and never being confluent. I believe that at the
parents and children
were
THE LATE MR. R. R. CHEYNE AND THE PRESERVATION OF VACCINE LYMPH. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SiRs,-In his speech introducing the new Vaccination Bill Mr. Chaplin, referring to the use of glycerine in the preser-vation of vaccine lymph, seems to imply that the method is of comparatively recent date and of foreign origin. That this is not so I wish to be allowed to point out. As far back as 1849 the idea had occurred to my father, Mr. R. R. Cheyne, F.R.C.S. (of 43, Berners-street and afterwards of 27, Nottingham-place), who after having experimentally proved its ’value for several months laid it before the profession in a letter to the Medical Times dated March 15th, 1850. Some correspondence ensued at the time and in Jane, 1853, I find my father writing to the same journal saying that he had had the pleasure of showing to the Presidents of the London Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons (Dr. Paris and Mr. Caesar Hawkins) a case successfully vaccinated with lymph preserved for upwards of six months in this way. "What we wanted," my father says in a letter to the Medical Times, dated March 30th, 1850, 11 was some liquid natqtral to the animal body ; having the power of remaining liquid at common temperatures; neither crystallizable nor ,disposed to ferment ; antiseptic in a marked degree; and, lastly, having the power of easily mixing with the lymph to be preserved." The discovery does not seem to have been taken advantage of by the profession to any great extent, though several public vaccinators availed themselves of the convenience and advantage of the method, until in 1866sixteen years after my father had first made it knownDr. Miiller, of Berlin, appeared as discoverer and inventor of the use of glycerine to store vaccine lymph by admixture. There was some further correspondence (including a letter to THE LANCET, dated March 13th, 1867, from Mr. A. C. MacLaren, who is still living at No. 60, Harley-street), but the matter once more dropped until now I see it revived again as a novelty of foreign origin. My father is not with us now to have the gratification of seeing the method he introduced sanctioned by authority and adopted by the Government, but I think it only fair to his memory that it should be generally known to whom the merit of the discovery is really due. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, R. CHEYNE. West Norwood, March 19th, 1898.
in the more important parts of the work. I also thank you for giving what purports to be a quotation, being duly enclosed in inverted commas, but which is not what I have said and has a different meaning (see p. 13 at top). It is really a compliment to be thus misquoted by an opponent, because it implies such a plentiful lack of fact or argument against the author’s real statements or contentions. Besides, it furnishes me with another example, to add to those I have given, of the inaccuracies of the medical profession when dealing with this question. Equally complimentary is it that immediately after commenting upon your own misquotation you run away from my book to quote some quite unimportant portions of my examination before the Royal Commission eight years ago. I tendered evidence on the statistical side of the subject only, but the Commissioners insisted upon questioning me on medical and other matters as to which I knew little or nothing and of which ignorance-not claiming omniscience-I am not in the least ashamed. Again thanking you for your unintentional, but none the less acceptable, testimony as to the unanswercharacter of the facts and arguments in my book, I am, Sirs, vours trulv. Parkstone, Dorset, March 20th, 1898. ALFRED R. WALLACE. errors
INOCULATION OF SMALL-POX. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SiRS,-The paragraph headed "Vaccination Extraordinary"in THE LANCET of Feb. 26th, 1898, p. 619, reminds me that in 1881, I believe, there was in Geneva an epidemic of variola, the regulations relative to compulsory vaccination having been to a great extent disregarded. Each time that
able I
** WE are glad to hear that Mr. Wallace has now been convinced that typhus fever is not believedto be spread by means of specifically polluted drinking water, though we are really afraid that a plea of "verbal error"can only with very considerable elasticity be made applicable to a statement thatcholera, typhus, and enteric fever are believed to be communicated through,the dejecta from the patient contaminating drinking water." We regret, however, that on our part words never intended to have been placed in inverted commas should inadvertently have been so placed, but any one reading our passage side by side with the passage in Mr. Wallace’s pamphlet to which he refers would at once see that the former has no pretence whatever to be a quotation from the latter. With Mr. Wallace’s contention that when before the Royal Commission he tendered evidence on the statistical side of the subject only, while the Commissioners insisted upon questioning him " on medical and other matters as to which I knew little or nothing," we must join issue. It appears to us that it is exactly the crucial statistical evidence which Mr. Wallace did not tender to the Commission, and when asked as to it he confessed a total ignorance of this allimportant side of the question, an ignorance which it would seem is equally manifest in his pamphlet. Hence the uselessness of seriously discussing the pamphlet. For Mr. Wallace to adduce statistics such as may suit his own views of the situation, and to abstain from dealing with the evidence upon which belief in the protective value of vaccination admittedly rests, is to adopt tactics which could hardly be expected to meet with much sympathy at the hands of Commissioners bent on elucidating the facts. What would Mr. Wallace say if we professed to furnish " expert evidence upon his work "The Malay Archipelago" and admitted in cross-examination that we had only read certain chapters, and those the least important of it ? Mr. Wallace laments that we have reverted to his evidence before the Royal Commission, and we do not wonder: it is certainly no more worthy of his great reputation than is the pamphlet to which we have referred.-ED. L. "ADENOID VEGETATIONS AND LARYNGEAL STRIDOR."
MR. A. R. WALLACE AND VACCINATION. To the Editors of THE LANCET. ojRS,—i mans you lor tne notice 01 my pampniet, "Vaccination a Delusion," in your issue of March 12th, at page 734, and especially for pointing out a verbal error in the introductory passage which, however, has no bearing on the main argument. It shall be corrected in future issues and your notice of it leads me to hope that there are few such
To the -Editors of THE LANOET. SiRs,-An article from the pen of Dr. Eastace Smith relating to diseases of childhood necessarily commands so much attention that I venture to ask for space for a brief criticism of the views expressed by him in his recent paper on Adenoid Vegetations and Laryngeal Stridor.1 Dr. 1
THE LANCET, March 19th, 1898, p. 783.
894
INOCULATION OF SMALL-POX.
I
small-pox patient in the dwellings of
the poor where crowded in one or two rooms I inoculated all the unvaccinated inmates of the apparternent, ,using the pus of the first well-formed variolous pustule. This I did in the belief that every unvaccinated individual would mecessarily take the disease, isolation being impossible. My method was to use the variolous pus in the same way as ’vaccine lymph, scratching the skin, but not making it bleed much. This was done by me in about forty instances; the inoculations were not attended by any accident and all the - oases were very mild, the variola developing nicely with kittle fever and never being confluent. I believe that at the
parents and children
were
THE LATE MR. R. R. CHEYNE AND THE PRESERVATION OF VACCINE LYMPH. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SiRs,-In his speech introducing the new Vaccination Bill Mr. Chaplin, referring to the use of glycerine in the preser-vation of vaccine lymph, seems to imply that the method is of comparatively recent date and of foreign origin. That this is not so I wish to be allowed to point out. As far back as 1849 the idea had occurred to my father, Mr. R. R. Cheyne, F.R.C.S. (of 43, Berners-street and afterwards of 27, Nottingham-place), who after having experimentally proved its ’value for several months laid it before the profession in a letter to the Medical Times dated March 15th, 1850. Some correspondence ensued at the time and in Jane, 1853, I find my father writing to the same journal saying that he had had the pleasure of showing to the Presidents of the London Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons (Dr. Paris and Mr. Caesar Hawkins) a case successfully vaccinated with lymph preserved for upwards of six months in this way. "What we wanted," my father says in a letter to the Medical Times, dated March 30th, 1850, 11 was some liquid natqtral to the animal body ; having the power of remaining liquid at common temperatures; neither crystallizable nor ,disposed to ferment ; antiseptic in a marked degree; and, lastly, having the power of easily mixing with the lymph to be preserved." The discovery does not seem to have been taken advantage of by the profession to any great extent, though several public vaccinators availed themselves of the convenience and advantage of the method, until in 1866sixteen years after my father had first made it knownDr. Miiller, of Berlin, appeared as discoverer and inventor of the use of glycerine to store vaccine lymph by admixture. There was some further correspondence (including a letter to THE LANCET, dated March 13th, 1867, from Mr. A. C. MacLaren, who is still living at No. 60, Harley-street), but the matter once more dropped until now I see it revived again as a novelty of foreign origin. My father is not with us now to have the gratification of seeing the method he introduced sanctioned by authority and adopted by the Government, but I think it only fair to his memory that it should be generally known to whom the merit of the discovery is really due. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, R. CHEYNE. West Norwood, March 19th, 1898.
in the more important parts of the work. I also thank you for giving what purports to be a quotation, being duly enclosed in inverted commas, but which is not what I have said and has a different meaning (see p. 13 at top). It is really a compliment to be thus misquoted by an opponent, because it implies such a plentiful lack of fact or argument against the author’s real statements or contentions. Besides, it furnishes me with another example, to add to those I have given, of the inaccuracies of the medical profession when dealing with this question. Equally complimentary is it that immediately after commenting upon your own misquotation you run away from my book to quote some quite unimportant portions of my examination before the Royal Commission eight years ago. I tendered evidence on the statistical side of the subject only, but the Commissioners insisted upon questioning me on medical and other matters as to which I knew little or nothing and of which ignorance-not claiming omniscience-I am not in the least ashamed. Again thanking you for your unintentional, but none the less acceptable, testimony as to the unanswercharacter of the facts and arguments in my book, I am, Sirs, vours trulv. Parkstone, Dorset, March 20th, 1898. ALFRED R. WALLACE. errors
INOCULATION OF SMALL-POX. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SiRS,-The paragraph headed "Vaccination Extraordinary"in THE LANCET of Feb. 26th, 1898, p. 619, reminds me that in 1881, I believe, there was in Geneva an epidemic of variola, the regulations relative to compulsory vaccination having been to a great extent disregarded. Each time that
able I
** WE are glad to hear that Mr. Wallace has now been convinced that typhus fever is not believedto be spread by means of specifically polluted drinking water, though we are really afraid that a plea of "verbal error"can only with very considerable elasticity be made applicable to a statement thatcholera, typhus, and enteric fever are believed to be communicated through,the dejecta from the patient contaminating drinking water." We regret, however, that on our part words never intended to have been placed in inverted commas should inadvertently have been so placed, but any one reading our passage side by side with the passage in Mr. Wallace’s pamphlet to which he refers would at once see that the former has no pretence whatever to be a quotation from the latter. With Mr. Wallace’s contention that when before the Royal Commission he tendered evidence on the statistical side of the subject only, while the Commissioners insisted upon questioning him " on medical and other matters as to which I knew little or nothing," we must join issue. It appears to us that it is exactly the crucial statistical evidence which Mr. Wallace did not tender to the Commission, and when asked as to it he confessed a total ignorance of this allimportant side of the question, an ignorance which it would seem is equally manifest in his pamphlet. Hence the uselessness of seriously discussing the pamphlet. For Mr. Wallace to adduce statistics such as may suit his own views of the situation, and to abstain from dealing with the evidence upon which belief in the protective value of vaccination admittedly rests, is to adopt tactics which could hardly be expected to meet with much sympathy at the hands of Commissioners bent on elucidating the facts. What would Mr. Wallace say if we professed to furnish " expert evidence upon his work "The Malay Archipelago" and admitted in cross-examination that we had only read certain chapters, and those the least important of it ? Mr. Wallace laments that we have reverted to his evidence before the Royal Commission, and we do not wonder: it is certainly no more worthy of his great reputation than is the pamphlet to which we have referred.-ED. L. "ADENOID VEGETATIONS AND LARYNGEAL STRIDOR."
MR. A. R. WALLACE AND VACCINATION. To the Editors of THE LANCET. ojRS,—i mans you lor tne notice 01 my pampniet, "Vaccination a Delusion," in your issue of March 12th, at page 734, and especially for pointing out a verbal error in the introductory passage which, however, has no bearing on the main argument. It shall be corrected in future issues and your notice of it leads me to hope that there are few such
To the -Editors of THE LANOET. SiRs,-An article from the pen of Dr. Eastace Smith relating to diseases of childhood necessarily commands so much attention that I venture to ask for space for a brief criticism of the views expressed by him in his recent paper on Adenoid Vegetations and Laryngeal Stridor.1 Dr. 1
THE LANCET, March 19th, 1898, p. 783.