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THE CENTENARY OF VACCINATION.

MAY 14, 1796.

J. G. ADAMr, M.D., M.ll.C.S.,

Professor of fatliology, McGill University ; Pathologist to tlie Royal Victoria

Hospital.

(Reprinted from the Montreal Medical Journal, August, 1896.)

THE CENTENARY OF VACCINATION.'
May 14th, 1796.

J. G. Adami, M.D., M.R.C.S.
Professor of Pathology, McGill University; Pathologist to the Royal Victoria

Hospital.

On May the 14th, 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner, of Berkeley, in the
County of Gloucester, first inoculated a human being with matter
taken from a vesicle of cow-pox. The inoculation so made developed
into a well-marked pustule, the pustule with which now-a-days we
are so well acquainted, and the inoculated individual was later
found to be absolutely refractory to the inoculation of matter taken
from a case of well-developed small-pox.

This successful experiment it was which inaugurated the practice
now spread throughout the world, of vaccination against small-pox
and led to the arrest of a foul disease so common during the last cen-
tury that almost every other individual in Europe showed signs of
its ravages, so rare now-a-days as to be extinct wherever vaccination
and re-vaccination is rigorously enforced.

To-day, therefore, we celebrate the centenary of vaccination, and it
is fitting that we, whose life-work is devoted to the combat with
disease, should consecrate, even if it be but a few minutes, to calling
into remembrance the great deeds which were of old, and should em-
ploy this occasion to look before and after, considering what has
already been accomplished and what the future holds in store. For

1 Lecture delivered before the post-graduate students, McGill University, May
14th, 1896.

only now, one linn<lro<l years aftoi- Jenner's first vaccination, are we
beginninj,' to apply successfully the principles underlying .lenner'g
method of arresting? infectious diseases, principles which Jenner him-
self appreciated, but could not satisfactorily estahlish— and now with
a fuller knowledge of those principles, a future dawns up(m us, rich in
hope.

Mindful of the day, and as a pious duty, let n»e tii-st hrietly recite
the main facts that led up to tin; discovery of vaccination, recalling
matters that are historical and, I doubt not, well-known to you.

Our knowledge of small-pox goes back to remote times. The
earliest sure reference to it is of its appearing in the Abyssinian army
at the siege of Mecca, in what was known as tlu; Elephant Wai-, of
about the year 570. The earliest references to small-pox in England,
if we leave out a possibly correct reference by Gaddesden early in
the fourteenth century, occurs in letters of the years 1514 and I'AH.
The disease gradually rose to prominence about the end of Elizabeth's
reign. In the autumn of 1641 we hear of 118 people dying with
small-pox in London in one week, at a time when tlu; population was
between 300,000 and 400,000, or roughly about the same as that o\'
Montreal. The experiences in Englanil were similar to those on the
European continent generally. Towards the close of the seventeenth
century the disease became more and more general and more and
more feared. In Iceland, in 1707 to 1709, after an abstnice of nearly
40 years, it killed 1<S,000 in a total population of 50,000. In England,
in 1723, Dr. Jurin calculated that upwards of 7 ])er cent., Oi some-
what more than l-14th part of mankind, died of small-pox.

In 1775 it would seem that in Chester, only 1,060, or 1 out of
every 14, had not contracted small-pox.

I have seen it stated as an explanation of the lack of Vteauty
revealed by the pictures by Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller and
others, of the Court beauties of the 17th and IcSth centuries, that so
common was the distigurenient by pock-marks that complexion was
taken as the test of beauty, that the woman whose face was not dis-
figured by small-pox became of necessity the beauty of her neigh-
bourhood, if only her features were not absolutely commonplace.

To arrest the ravages of small-pox it would seem that from a very
early period, in various parts of the world, it had been the custom to
inoculate young and healthy individuals with matter from those
suffering from mild attacks of the disease, founded upon the connnon
knowledge that one attack of small-pox protects against a second. It
would appe«pr to have been a most ancient custom in India, and at the

l)Cj,anning of tlio eighteenth century tlie custom was spread through
the Malionu'dan world, Tripoli, Algeria, 'i'urkey in Asia, Arabia an<i
Circass ia The well-known Dr. Richard Mead explained the b(!auty
of the (Circassian women, or more truly the preservati(jn of the same,
as Iteing due to tlui fact that hy inoculation hy tin; mild disease in
their youth the etlects upon the skin were practically nil, and thus
they were protected from future ravages of the disease.

It was in Constantinople that that most advanced new v/oraan of
her period, the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the imhassador
to the Suhlime Porte, was so much impress('d with the valu(! of
the method that siie ohtivined an old (Ireek woman, a professional
inoculator, who with Mr, Maitland, the surgeon of the embassy,
inoculated her soti, and so succe.'^sful was the procedure that on her
return to England she subjecteil her infant daughter to the same
operation.

Lady Mary was well known ; the daughter of th" fifth Earl of
Kingston, she had at the age of eight been named a toast at the
Kitcat Club and elected a member by acclamation. She married her
husband against the consent of her father, and by special license — a
distinctly advanced procedure in those days, both as regards the
special license ami the paternal con.sent. She was the friend of Mary
Astell, the defender of woman's rights in her day. I mention these
facts because perchance I am deterring some of you from attending
the (U'bates at the Woman's Congress, and I wonkl not seem to forget
the claims of that Congress upon our consideration. The great little
poet, I'ope, was enamoured of her and then of a .sudden developeil into
a venomous foe. Why he did so has become one of the puzzles of
literature. Two rival theories have gained strong supuort, one that
she had V)orrowed a pair of sheets from him (he h ■. 'nduced the
Wortley Montagu fan\ily to become his neighbours at ( 'hittenham)
and Lady Mary leturned the sheets unwashed; second, that she had
by her witty and engaging manner led him to the p(jint of solemnly
avowinc his love to her, whereat she laughed at him loudly and
scornfully. Whichever lie correct, there is no doubt that he wrote
bitter, not to say brutal, things about her, and .she managed to circu-
late abroail .stories and lampoons of almost e(|Ual .strength. She was a
great woman in her day, and her advocacy of small-pox inoculation
did nuich to t>nsure the popularity of the process.

The successful results I'xcited widespread intei-cst, and the method
gradually became^ extensively employed. It is calculated that in
En<dand alone up to the yeai- 1758 there had been at least "200,000
inoculations or variolations, while in the latter half of the century the

Buttons, Dimsdalo, and otliors wouM seem to have variolated thou-
sands of individuals. Dinisdale indeed was invited over to Russia to
inoculate the Empress, the great Cath(;rin<!, and he did this with such
success that he was made a baron of the Russian Empire, appointed
Councillor of State, physician to her Imperial Majesty, and, in adili-
tion to an annuity of £500, was presented with the not inconsiderable
douceur of £10,000— truly an imperial gift. But while this process
of variolation sprea<{, small-po.v at the sa?ne time became increasingly
frequent. The process, indeed, was essentially dangerous ; while it
is true that those who were variolated veiy rarely <lied, not unfrc-
(juently the .same could not be said concerning their friends and
neighbours, for those who were variolated suffered from the true
disease, and were as much liable to be carriers of infection as were
the victims of po.K by natural means — indeed more so, b(!cau.se the
mildne.ss of the induced disease led to a lack of care. Thus it was
that towards the end of the eighteenth century small- pox, in.stead of
being stamped out, was more prevalent than ever. It would not seem
to be an exaggeration to say that almost every second man was
pock-marked.

While this was the case, it had also been recognised among the
farminir classes, not in Great Britain alone, but elsewhere— sporadi-
cally — that milkmaids were specially exempt from the disease ; and it
was further noted that there was a relationship between this exemp-
tion and the fact that these milkmaids had at one time or another
been affected with cow-pox, a disease of a vesiculo-pustular nature,
appearing in an epizootic form, and showing itself more especially
upon the teats of -milch cattle. And it is evident that even before
Jenner's great experiment there had been occasional incjculations with
cow-pox, so as to protect against small-pox. The best authenticated
of these cases was that of Benjamin Jesty, a Dorsetshire farmer, who
in 1774 inoculated his wife and two sons with virus taken on the
spot from the cows of Farmer Elford, of Chittenhall, whitlier Mr.
Jesty carried his family for that purpose ; and in 1791 a schoolmaster
in Holstein, Peter Plett by name, did similarly. Holstein then as now
was a great dairy district, and there, as in the south and west of Eng-
land, the tradition existed that milkmaids who had been infected with
cow-pox were unaffected by small-pox. Thus, having seen a physician
practise variolation. Schoolmaster Plett came to the conclusion that he
would employ cow-pox lymph, and in the year above mentioned, there
being an epizootic of cow-pox in the neighbourhood, he inoculated
three children with the virus from a cow. His method was rather
crude, he used a pocket-knife and made cuts upon the back of the

Iiaiid bcfwccn the tluiinl) and first Inn^vr Tlie oporatioii had fclio
desired etftict. Three years later when all the other children of the
school sickened with small-pox the three remained (|uite healthy ; but
lud'ortmiately the choice of re^'ion for inoculation had led to so severe
an intlannnation that IMett never ajrrain ventured to repeat the pro-
cess. These and yet otiier observers, it may he, had vaccinated prior
to Jenner, hut with this difference, that they made no attempt to
repeat the process, to establish the correctness of the process by later
inoculation with variolous matter, or to spread abroad the beneficial
r(>sults accruing' thei-efrom. Only after tht; publication of Jenner's
famous " Inquiry " was any attempt made to publish the results
obtained. Jenner, on the other hand, havinj^ once succeeded, was not
.satisfied until aftei' repeatiMl attempts ho felt assured that he had
determined that an attack of induced cow-pox prot(,'cted from the
small-pox. Then, two years after this first experiment, he pul)lished
the inijuiry into the cau.ses and effects of the variohe vaccinie, and
thereby i n augur ateil or led to the inauf^uration of the process of vac-
cination. That motion can be brouf^ht about by the boiling of water
may have been known for centuries, but it is not to Hero, of Alexan-
ilria, or even to the Marcpiis of Worcester that we an; to ascriV)e the
honour in connection with the discovery of the steam engine, it is to
James Watt, to him who applied a knowledge of the properties of
steam to the production of tlu; steam engine the honour is due.
Hundreds of patriotic (lermans may have dreamt of and sighed
for the unification of Oermany, but the honour and the glory of
having brought about that unification is now and must always be
Bismarck's. And so in connection with vaccination, while we are
ready freely to acknowledge that there were others who inocu-
lated befox-e Jenner, yet it is to his labours and his researches, and
to him alone, that the honour and glory must V)e ascribed, if now-
a-days small-pox has ahi! f, vanished from our midst, not to mention
the further honour of liaving inaugurated the method of protective
inoculation.

So now for a brief sketch of Jenner. He was born in the year
1749, a younger son of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, vicar of Berkeley.
He was apparently not very strong as a boy, and his education was
conducted partly at home, partly at Cirencester, wliich is not very
far distant ; and being intended for the medical profession was, after
the good old fashion, bound apprentice to a surgeon at Sudbury.
Completing his apprenticeship he went to London, and there became
a pupil to him whom we may truly call the father of British path-
ology, the great John Hunter. And he would seem to have been a

favouritf pn|)il, for Huntor rt'Conun('ii(lc<l him to Sir JoHcpli Hanks to
aid him in arran^'inj,' tiic coUcctions which Ixi liad inadt^ thirin;,' Cap-
tain (book's first ct'lrhratisd voyap- of discovery. One hiof^raphcr,
indued, states that Hunter solicited Jenner to heconu! his j)artner ;
but the o\(\ life in (lloucestershire was mons to his Hkin;;, and he
returned to Berkeley, where lie scon hecanie the leadinj,' practitioner.
But at the Slime time, he di<l not lose his love for (»l)seivation, and his
puhlications, more especially a paper upon the haltits of the young
cuckoo, gaincMl him his V.R.S. It was here at home in (Jloucestershire
that he learnt the tiwlition concerning the eHects of cow-pox, and set
himself to work to collect togethei' what (-ases he conid find of cow-
pox having itn<lei'e<l those affected thcreliy refractory to smidl-pox.
He collected togethctr a considerahle nundier of very clear cases, some
of which he tested hy variolation, and he found that inoculation of
matter taken from small-pox patients constantly was without .fleet
in those antecedently affected with the genuints cow-pox And the
conclusion was forced upon him that it might he possihle to pi-opagate
the cow-pox hy inoculation, not only from the cow to the human sub-
ject, but also from man to man. And as the complaint when trans-
ferred from the cow to the milker possessed the (]uality of preventing
the small-pox, it seemed probable that this (piality might be retained
even by ])ropagation of the virus in succession from one human iK'ing
to another. At length, in the spring of the year 1790, the cow-pox
having broken out in a dairy near Berkeley, Sarah Nelmes, a milk-
maid, became infected in om; hand which had accidentally been
scratched by a thorn. Here was an exam])le of the geiniine disease,
and Jeimer selected a healthy boy named Edmund rhii)j)s, a lioy who
had not surtered from small-pox, aiitl on him on the historic May the
14th he made his first trial. On the seventh day the boy com{)lained
of uneasiness in the armpit and had a slight Iveadache. On the
following day he was perfectly well, and by now the incision of the
arm had assumed nearly the appi'ai-ance of a part inoculated with
variolous lym[)h. The intlaunnation subsided, the crust formed and
dropped off, leaving a permanent eschar, and six weeks later, on the
1st of July, Jenner inoculated the lioy with variolous matter, making
numerous punctures and slight incisions on both arms. No effect
was produced other than such a slight and transient inHamnuition as
usually ensues after the inoculation of persons who had already
suffered from small-pox. Several months later the inoculation was
repeated, but without effect. At this period Jeinier did not essay to
carry on the vaccination from nrm to arm, and the epizootic of cow-
pox having died out, he had to wait two years for an opportunity to

continue his ohsorviitions. On tJi»« lOtli of Miircli, 17!)H, he vaccinated
his soconil case, a hoy nanif.l Suniniers, with virus from the teat of nn
infectcil cow, and tlie vaccine lymph wan transferied from Sinnmers
to William Pead, vvhilf from William I'cad several children and adults
were likewise vaccinated, and from on- of this third of the series the
lymph was transferred to several others. S«!V»(ral of tliese persons
were next inoculated with variolous pus without effect, and Jimner
ascertained that the vaccine lymph in passing' throu^,di a series of tive
indivi<luals retaineil the property of renderinj,' the vaccinated insus-
ceptihle t<) the C(mta}jfion of small-pox.

The.se were the cases which were pnhli.shed ,ri the Impliry, which
appearinji in the latter part of I7!ts created innnediately a most pro-
found impression. It is unneces.sary for me here to state in detail
how C'line, Pearson, Woodville and others iiimu'diately took up the
process, or how, hmif liefore .leiiner's death, the process of vaccination
had spread al! over the world, and he had l)een the recipient of grants
of £30,000 from Parliament, and had heen „dven honorary dej,'rees at
Oxford and elsewhere. Already, hetore liis death, the dimiimtioi. in
the small-pox mortality in the leading countries of Europe was very
remarkable. Dr. Parr, the greate.st of English vital statisticians, has
made tlie following calculations as to tlu- London death rate in periods
previous to the introduction of the Registration Act, and Dr. McV'ail
has contiruied the series up to 1.S.S2. No words of mine can be more
elo(pient than thest; tigures.

With the process of time wi- have become better acijuainted with
what constitutes .satisfactory and successful vaccination. Jenncu-lield,
and his own observations upon tlio.s(( wlu. had accidentally taken cow-
pox strongly supported the opinion that a single attack' of cow-pox,
and conseipiently a single vaccination, conferral innnuii'^y for the
rest of life. iVfore his death this had already become seriously
doubted, but it was long before re- vaccination was generally adoptecl;
it was long, indeed, before the first serious attem[)t was made to
enforce vaccination of the whole p()j)ulation in Gi-eat Britain ; up to
]H5'i vaccination was o])ti(.nal, and only in 1872 was it made obliga-
tory. Even now at the pivseut day re-vaccination is not enforced
for the whole population, save in Pru.ssia. But how effective this is
is shown by the following table, or better still by the diagram here
copied from the report of the (lerman Vaccination Connnissitjn of
1884 in the British MedlcalJournal (for diagram see page 8!)), show-
ing the good effects in a class of population which is efhciently
looked after, namely, the army. Foi- comparison the accompanying
diagram shows the small-pox cases and deaths per 100,000 in jm

army and among a people in which vaccination and re-vaccination
are not so rigorously enforced.

Terms of Years fou

WHICH Data are

Given.

1777-1806 and 1807-1850,

1776-1780 and 1810-1830

1774-1801 and 1810-iaTO
1751-1800 and 1801-ia50

RWilON.

Lower Austria . .

Upper Austria and Salzburg

Styria

Illyria

Trieste

Tyrol

Bohemia

Prussia (East)

Prussia (West)

Westphalia

Khine Provinces

Sweden

Copenhagen

Approximate Average

Annual Death Rate

FROM Small- POX per Mil

LION OF Living.

Before Intro-
duction of
Vaccination .

2,484
1,421
1,052

518
14,046

911
2,174

321
2,272
2,643

908
2,050
3,128

After Intro-
duction of
Vaccination.

340
501
44(5
244
182
170
215

56
3.56
114

})0
158
286

DEATH-RATE PER MILLION IN LONDON AT SUCCESSIVE PERIODS.

Years.

Average An-
nual Deaths

FROM ALL

Causes.

Average An-
nual Deaths

FROM
SS5 iLL-POX.

1660-79.

80,000

4,170

1728-57.

52,000

4,260

Optional Variolation.

1771-80.

50,000

5,020

1801-10.

29,200

• 2,040

Optional Vaccination.

1831-35.

32,000

830

1838-53.

24,900

513

18.54-71.

24,200

388

Obligatory ; badly enforced.

1872-82.

22,100

262

Obligatory Vaccination ; more

efficient.

I have not, gentlemen, given you this evening many statistics, but
these diagrams, if they were the solitary records we possess concern-
ing the results accruing from proper vaccination, would be sufficient
to prove absolutely the enormoui benefit to the nation of vaccination
and re-vaccination. While upon statistics, I may here, thanks to the
great kindness of Dr. Wyatt Johnston in permitting me to use obser-
vations and statistics compiled by him and not j'ct published, sry a
few words showing the other side of the picture, namely, showing the
fatality from small-pox in an imperfectly vaccinated community, to-
wit, in this city of Montreal. I might perchance have selected more

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convincing, or rather more satisfactory tables, for it is a matter of
notoriety that, tluiiiks to tlie condition under which we live in this
Province of Quebec, it is a matter of peculiar difficulty to arrive at
even approximately correct vital statistics. The fact that the records
of bii'ths and deaths arc compiled from returns sent in by religious
denominations, and that tlu^ duty of recording is in the hands of
priests and ministers, who, I Ijelieve, re(!eive no adequate remunera-
tion for the work, — this fact alone makes the compilation of vital
statistics a matter of peculiar difficidty. I might have chosen fuller
statistics from sucli repoi'ts as those of Dr. Bariy on tlie Sheffield
epidemic, but tlie facts here given come close home. I I'efer to wliat
happened in the epi<lemic of lhcS5, whicli was started by cases whicli
canity from Chicago in the begimiing of that year; whereas in 1881
there had been five deaths from small-pox, none in 1882, one in 1888
and none again in 1884., in 1885 there were no less than 8,164, the
average number of small-pox deaths p(3r 1,000, being 18.9, the per-
centage of small -pox deaths to deaths from all causes being 40.6.
Taking now the analysis by religion and race, we arrive at the follow-
ing very suggestive table :

MONTREAL.

Population

French
Cathoijcs.

Othkh
Catuoi.u's.

PHO'I'KS'I'ANTS.

TOTAI,.

03,0 U

0,001
04.7

•J9,()27

887

107,491

1885..

Death.s from all causes. .
Deaths pi-r 1,00()

877

7,825

29.0

20.05

40.71

Dealh-s from sn\all-pox. .
Deaths per 1,000

2,887

181

3,l(i4

■MO

(i 2

2.1

18.9

We may therefore state that even if now, a century after Jenner's
first vaccination, small-pox is not erailicated, the fault does not lie in
the incapacity of the process to prevent the disease, but in the
incapacity of legislators ^ad peoples to recognize its henefieent effects.
It may to enthusiasts appear to bo a .serious assault upon the liberties
of the subject to compel him and his (offspring to undtu-go inoculation
with vaccine lymph. But when his neglect to be vaccinated leads
surely to the continuance of the disease and to the possibility of
disease and death or disfigurement being propagatc^d sooner or later
in his neighbourhood, then assuredly the goveriunent as representing
the nation has a full right to legislate for the safety of the nation as
against the personal predilections of the individual. We, here in

Canada, and <ii- t especially in this Province of Quebec, cannot but
be warned by t'u f;riin history that comes to us recently from the
county which gave birth to Jeniiei'.

We have learnt other thin<fs also during this last century which
Jenner at first did not recognise, and first and foremost that there is
a possibility, remi)t(! it is true, but nevertheless existent, that in
inoculating from man to man the diseases to which man is liable may
be conveyed and inoculated along with the lymph. We now know
that as a precaution against such an untoward event thore should be
constant return of the virus to the cow, and that calf lym[)h, and calf
lymph only, should lu' employed. And only within this last year or
two the researches of Copeman and Straus have shown that the admix-
ture of such lymph with glycerine leads to the gradual destruction of
the microbes in general harndess which constantly contaminate fresh
lymph, while at the same time the glycerinated lymph appears not to
have decreased but to have increased in activity, thus employing
glycerinated lymph that is two months old we can be absolutely sure
that we are using a pure and aseptic material.

Despite all ettbrts a centurj' of vaccination and of study of vaccine
lymph has not as yet disclosed to us the specific organism of vacciniai
or, as I have recently shown elsewhere, of the more virulent modifica-
tion of the disease, namely, variola. We cannot, therefore, state that
we have fully mastered, or even that we have begun to master the
bacteriology of vaccinia; we cannot cultivate its germ or supply to
the public pui'e attenuated cultures for purposes of inoculation. But
this we can say with certainty, first, that a single vaccination protects
against small-pox for at least four years and for a longer period in
the majority of individuals ; secondly, that re-vaccination reduces the
likelihood of infection with small-pox almost to nil ; thirdly, that the
vaccinatetl and <l fortiori the re-vaccinated individual, if attacked by
small-pox, sufters from a mild and modified form of the disease ;
fourthly, that the employment of matured glycerinated calf lymph
is a means whereliy the uncontaminated virus is introduced into the
system, so that erysipelatoid and other disturbances can be reduced
to a minimum, and when present are due to want of cleanliness on
the part of the individual and not to the lymph inoculated.

But, now, what is the essential nature of the process of vaccination
and of the innnunity conferred thereby <'

To answer this question adequately in the few minues remaining is
practically impossible ; to deal with the subject as it deserves would
require a series of lectures. It would imply showing how nearly a
contury after Jenner made his first vaccination the principles which

he laid down were applied to other diseases. It would involve, too,
a description of much of the life-work of that French chemist, Pasteur,
who with his earliest experiments was to enlighten the world by
creating a new science, the science of bacteriolo| •■, and through whose
inHnence a new era was to begin in the treatment of disease ; for it
was Pasteur who first showed in this century that from a study of
bacteriology we could learn to combat infectious disease in the most
rational manner. His earliest experiments were made on a disease of
fowls called chicken cholera, whose germ he discovered and isolated
in pure culture. Rapidly following upon this discovery it was found
that such cultures when kept for a long time in the laboratory lost
their pathogenic power and that fowl inoculated therewith, not only
survived the injections, but were apparently thereby rendered immune
to the action of his most virulent cultures of the same kind of germ.
Here, then, was the beginning for experiments of all kinds in the
various infectious diseases. Just so soon as the germ of any disease
was discovered the same efforts were made as in chicken cholera to
produce immunity along the same lines. It was thus that Pasteur
saved millions upon millions of francs to his country by producing
immunity in cattle and sheep against that dread and fatal disease of
anthrax which had up to that time proved a veritable scourge to
farmers in the richest and most fertile territories of the land. The
story, however, is doubtless familiar to you all, as are probably also
the general features of similar experiments performed on other
diseases. It need merely be said here that subsequent to the dis-
covery by Pasteur that cultures of germs might be attenuated with
age, other means were soon found of producing the same results and
more rapidly. And thus by artificial heat, by compressed air, by
exposure to light, by chemical re-agents, etc., the necessary attenua-
tion of germs was easily produced and the subsequent immunity. It
was but a step from this to the discovery of the toxines, that is to
say, of the fact tliat bacteria in their growth develop chemical poisons
which by a process of careful filti-ation may be separated in solution
from the Imcteria whence they have been derived. When later it was
found that not only could immunity be induced by inoculation of
attenuated germs or of their toxines similarly treated, but that the
blood serum of animals so immunised could likewise act both as a
preventative and a curative agent, the climax of rational therapeutics
was reached. These facts which concern the subject of serumtherapy
are too much of tlie nature of current events to require details of
description here to-night. What is, however, of some interest con-
cerns the mode of action of these vital therapeutic agents, and I will
conclude with but the briefest reference to this most interesting topic.

Formerly it was thought that an attack of most infectious diseases
created an immunity against subsequent invasion of the same germs,
by reason of the fact that all the pabulum necessary for these germs
had been consumed already ; or that perhaps the germs when once
they gained a foothold in the Ixxly, produced self-destructive chemi-
cal poisons, thus preventing a fui-ther development at a subsecjuent
exposure.

The experiments which have proved these theories in all respects
untenable, and which have shown that other factors come into play,
represent some of the most spirited and prolonged discussions which the
medical world has ever been called upon to witness. With charac-
teristic animosity tlie German and French schools upholding diverse
opinions, have found it difficult to agree, though their combined
theories have given to most observers all the essential explanations of
this acquired immunity. Through the researches of Mctchnikoff, of
Massart and Bordel, of Nuttall, PfeifFer and a host of others, we now
know that the invasion of the body by micro-organisms is followed
by a chemical attraction of certain cells of the host, inducing thus a
battle royal between the invaders and the invaded. That not only
can the cells destroy bacteria by intracellular digestion, but that
where the leucocytes themselves break down or are destroyed, they
may give off to the bodily humors in which they lie, certain secretions
or excretions which render these humors bactericidal,

Tt is impossible here in the.se few moments to make more than a
passing reference to this interesting topic ; though as a valuable sign
of the times and as an indication of the valuable work which has
been done within recent years it cannot be omitted ; and it is but a
fitting tribute to the great originator of this valuable means of curing
disease, namely Edward Jenner, that this day, the 14th day of May,
1896, 100 years from his celebrated inoculation, should be duly noted
in the medical world.