D' 03 s° a (J".

REMARKS

ON

"PASTEUR'S DISCOVERIES IN DISEASE PREVENTION,''

By J. Dobson, M. D., F. A. S.

Copyright 1882, by J. Dobson.

ti

Published by thb Fairfield Job Print, P. Of Box 17, Fairfield, Coxn.

Price 15 Cents, or $ 5.00 p«r Hundred.

 IN view of the boasted progress of by the " Modern Scientist " who cannot
evolutionary thought, and the pretensions escape his environment, or look over his
of so-called " Modern Science", it is not a narrow fence of sense into the world be
little curious to note the ratiocination and yond. One valid objection to this self-satis
line of action adopted by many of their de fied attitude of the
"
Modern Scientists ",
votees. The "Modern Scientist", not urged by the common sense of the people
withstanding his claim to emancipation is the fact that, many of their most dog
from antiquated ideas, is, after all, so lar matic and positive utterances have been
"
gely dominated by hereditary barbarism, shown to be scientific "
humbug, mere
that it is almost impossible to evolve from Will-o'-the-wisps, deluding a too credul
his inner consciousness the fact that he is ous public into all sorts of" scientific"

the victim of intellectual and philosophical quagmires.

myopia. He has no patience with the dog It is also our misfortune to be afflicted
matism and bigotry of the ecclesiastical with a class of writers, in our popular mag
mind. He treats with lofty scorn, religi azines and reviews, who, knowing nothing
ous and social prejudices.
Assuming the of scientific facts from personal observa
role of infallibility to an extent never drea tion and experience, gulp down every al
"
med of by the despotisms of the past, he leged "
Scientific discovery and forth
seeks to dominate the public and official with trumpet it to the world as something
mind in all departments of life. He speaks that is to revolutionize modern thought.
and acts as though he had explored the en The obsequesness of these writers is too
tire universe and wrung from Nature every painfully apparent in the current literature
secret she possessed. He assumes to have of the day, and is followed by disastrous
reduced the chaos of facts to a correct and results, from which even men of education
orderly classification, and from his dictum and ability do not always escape.
tuore is no appeal. All phenomena other Illustrations of the above fact abound in
tliiin that explained by his hypothesis, or
"
department of research, but more
every
of which his scientific" sense is not cog
especially in that of medicine, the latest
nisant must be explained by a "scientific
phase of which is known as "the germ the
use of the imagination", or unmercifully ory", and which has received its fullest de
ridiculed with" scientific" sarcasm, and de
velopment in the experiments of Pasteur.
clared to be beyond the range of possibili The enthusiasm with which those experi
ty. Nay, he is not content with hurling ments have been hailed without waiting for
his shafts of ridicule and withering scorn at fuller and more
complete developments,
those who dissent from his "scientific" as
and the undue haste with which Pasteur's
sumptions; but in order to silence all ob hypothesis has been accepted and applied
jections to his self-constituted "authority", to prop up the tottering fanaticism of Jen-
and crush out all opposition to his fanciful ner and hi? followers is
strikingly manifes
theories, he resorts to the same means he ted by a perusal of the current literature of
so fiercely denounces when used against the
day. We are told for example that :-
himself by invoking the aid of law to com It is well known too, that cows have
"

pel acqiesence in his theories, and persecu been in- oculated with small-pox, and the
te all who oppose them.
resulting lymph has been used in vaccina
of the people" which,
"
Tlie common sense tion with complete success; indeed, a large
"
Dr. Carpenter informs us, must in the proportion of the vaccine virus now used is
future be accepted as an element of evid derived from this source".
ence in the discussion of scientific ques The above statement is at varienc*> with
tions"^ treated with unmitigated contempt, the official utterances of paid Vaccinators,
and imputes a we arc at onco met by an insuper
monstrous crime to those cerned
who vaccinate with such virus. difficulty in ils application by tho risk
There is able
no longer any mystery about the way in of imparting other equally dangerous or

which small-pox is nurtured and retained more fatal diseases than that sought to be
amongst the people. averted. If these disastrous effects should
A disingenuous attempt has been made follow inoculation, its practice is criminal
to credit the brilliant results of Listerism in the highest degree. The question then
to the theory of Pasteur. Where the arises Does the practice impart "spic-—

analogy comes in is difficult to discover. and-span new diseases" to healthy sub

Listerism is the antipodes of Pasteurism jects ? For many years this question was
direct
in that it seeks to annihilate all virus, and met by the medical profession with a
ren ler it absolutely inert, whilePasteurism negative, and with all the dogmatic as

is pro
cn.'i-ates the virus with the view to modify surance for which the profession
it-* virulence to make it available as a verbial.
so as The naked truth could not, how
One is be eternally concealed. After much
prophylactic. method, Listerism, ever,
broke forth, revealing
eminently scientific because hygienic ; the repression it finally
oth-T unscientific and a fan a chapter of horrors, which multiplied
irrational,
ciful illusion in the mind of the so-called with amazing rapidity, and made the re
discoverer. flecting portion of the community stand
[t is not the purpose of this paper, aghast. Inquiry revealed more of the
however, to review at any length the rash horrors so long silently and secretly en
and erroneous assertions of tha writers I dured; and thousands of the best citizens
have been led
have quoted; but rather to speak of Pas and most careful thinkers
te ar's hypothesis in relation to the Jenner- by experience, in spite of inherited opini
ian fanaticism ; which at present is being ons and prejudices, to array themselves
so rudely shaken as to create considerable against the practice.
Whether the mis

concern in the medical profession at the chievous effects of Jennerian

inoculation

prospective loss of a fruitful source of rev are also true of Pa.vo ar's experiments i3
enue. the purpose of this paper to show.

The between Pasteurism and We are told that in May 1881,

analogy
Jcunerism is close to "Pasteur took twenty -five of a flock of
so as
practically
amount to an identity. Both theories pro sheep and inoculated them with attenuat
of.
■
1 on theassumption which has a thou ed Bacteria virus early in the month. At
sand times been disproved, that the body is the middle of the month he repeated the
not subject to a second attack of certain dis
operation on the same sheep. None of
eases, by giving the subject a mild them suffered seriously, and on the last
and that
f< >rr.i of the disease by inoculation with its day of the month the whole fifty were
vims, the body may be protected from fu healthy and vigorous. Then Pasteur inoc
ture attacks of the malady; or, if attacked, ulated them all with the genuine 'charbon'
the attack would be shorn of its vir poison, and predicted that within twenty
ulence. Never did a more pernicious four hours the unprotected twenty-five
error possess the medical mind. Never would be dead, while the others would
was a more false and wretched superstition not be affected. The next afternoon, when
so carefully fostered. Never was irration the observers returned to the field twenty-
al empiricism practised with more disas three of theunprotected sheep lay dead,
trous effects. But supposing the hypothesis the other two soon dying, while the others
were correct so far as the specific disease were cropping the grass as usual."

for which inoculation is practised is con The enthusiastic writer of the above
with unquestioning faith grandiloquently While, on the other hand, be it remarked
exclaims that this "
experiment points the of the unvaccinated sheep, only 1 (0*37 "

to incalculable blessings to
way humanity" per cent. ) died during this time of anth
A medical millenium dawns
upon the hor rax, and none of any other disease." In
izon of his vivid imagination. "
It may view of these startling facts, Db. Roszhb-
indeed" says he, "revolutionize medicine." gyi observes:—" It is, therefore, still to

Unfortunately for these prospective be feared that in the practice of inocula

one swallow tion, both infection with anthrax and sep
" "
blessings to humanity ,"
does not make a summer ," neither does tic infection may easily, and therefore fre
one experiment demonstrate an hypothe quently, occur. We cannot overlook the
sis. Pasteur's experiment has been very fact, also, that after the protective inocula
tion (' vaccination '), the deaths from oth
carefully repeated on a much larger scale,
but with results very different to the above, er diseases —

catarrh, pneumonia, distoma,

and pregnant with disappointment and strongylus, and pericarditis— and not those
disastrous failure. The Royal Hunga of anthrax, occurred exclusively amongst
' '
rian Ministry, desirous of putting to a cru the vaccinated animals. It follows from
cial test the experiments of Pasteur with this that the fatal issue of othersevere but
a view of determining their practical value latent diseases is accelerated by a protect
"
ive vaccination.
besought a demonstration of the process
before a committee of scientific experts at The
importance of this admission ( not
Budapest. M. Thullier, one of Pasteur's referred to
by Pasteur ) cannot be overesti
"
assistants, was dispatched with the ne mated, and it would be interesting to
cessary material and apparatus ," and set learn whether Sir Bisdon Bennett and
to work, last October, experimenting on Prof. Carpenter, and others, who argue so
some 600 sheep and cattle provided for warmly for a strict analogy between the
the purpose. A masterly resume of the Pasteurian inoculation against anthrax and

experiments and results by Db. Aladar vaccination against small-pox, are prepar
von Roszahegyi, (Lecturer on Public ed to follow this analogy to its logical lim
Health at the University of Budapest) its, and proclaim with Dr. Boszahegyi,
"
may be found in the February and March that the fatal issue of other severe but
issues of the London Practitioner. Half latent diseases is accelerated by vaccina
"
of the animals were "vaccinated" and tion I That such is really the case, any
"
"
re- vaccinated with the cultured virus, unbiassed mind can ascertain from the
and then- the whole number, that is, both British Parliamentary return (No. 433,
the "vaccinated" and "unvaccinated," were 1877), moved for by Mr. Hopwood, M. P.,
inoculated with the genuine charbon poi which clearly demonstrates the danger of
son. The experiments established the vital seeking to abolish disease by dissemina
"
fact that the so-called "
vaccination is an ting disease. —
Dr. W. J. Collins.
operation of great danger.
"
Of the total The writer of the paper on " Pasteur's
"
317 18 (5.68 per cent.) died of anthrax af discoveries in disease prevention in the
ter the two protective inoculations, 1 (0*32 paper from which I quote indulges in a
"
percent.) of another disease, while in 12 in Utopian dream of incalculable blessings
"
the
grand total bene
and
flammatory infiltration occurred at the point to humanity,"
"
of injection, spreading over the whole fit to be ours conquest of scarlet-
in the

thigh, and leading to the formation of ab
scesses as
large as the fist, fistulse, and si
nuses, in consequence of which the ani
mals became lame en the injured
legs."]
fever, diphtheria, "consumption and its
allied legions." It seems cruel to dispel a
beautiful illusion such as this, but the
truth must be told, and Dr. Richardson,
 perhaps hygienist and pends. Even Pasteur himself admits this.
the most celebrated
sanitarian living, told it at the recent Pub The unscientific character of Pasteur'u
lic Health Congress at Brighton, when, experiments is manifest when their hi;>: on
referring to Pasteur's hypothesis, said : is known. We are told that the outbroaks
—

of 'charbon' were enshrouded in mystery,

Science, is in the main useful, but is
"

sometimes proud, wild, and erratic, and which Pasteur questioned, and found that
has lately proposed a desperate device for where carefully secluded flocks were at
"
tacked with the disease, there had been
the prevention of infection's perils. She
proposes to prevent one peril by setting many years before an epidemic of the same

up another. She would inoculate new dis

disease, the victims of which had been bur
eases into our old stock, in the anticipation
ied under the pastures where the disease

that the new will put out the old. I pray broke out afresh." The question arose-
What resurrected the Bacilli that produced
you, be not led away by this conceit. This " '
manufacture of new diseases the disease?
Earthworms' said Pasteur,
spic-and-span
proved." and so it Forthwith inoculation
in human, bovine, equine, ovine, canine,
our
forth as the pan
and perhaps feline species is too much is conceived and brought
No attempts are
to endure the thaught of, especially when acea for this calamity.
we know that purity of life is all-sufficient
made to secure a more sanitary disposal of
of burial ;
to remove what exists without invoking the dead by cremation instead
what is not." and no attempts are made to destroy the
Bacilli so that future epidemics may
In these well chosen words Dr. Rich- living
be prevented. But instead of this, Pasteur
ardson exposes the craze for the insane
set to work to propagate, cultivate, and in
practice of vaccination. and warns the pub
oculate with these disease-producing mi-
lic of its danger. Even Pasteur himself
and when it is borne in mind that
admits that pure air in respect of the oxy crozymes;
employment of protective
"
the general
gen it contains, is not only capable of at
inoculations would spread anthrax micro-
tenuating, but also of destroying the mate-
in inconceivable numbers through
ritjs morbi of the virulent zymotic diseases- zymes
out the whole couutry," I can readily con
Now I contend that the fact of danger
cur in the opinion of the committee of in
ous and fatal diseases being imparted by
"
is estab vestigation that, the immediate general
inoculation and vaccination fully
of Pasteur's method in the form
lished, and therefore, to continue to inoc application
demonstrated would be precipitate, and
ulate healthy bodies with the virus of dis
colossal that it should least of all be recommended
ease is a serious crime as well as a
and disseminated under the authority of
blunder. Sanitation and
personal hygiene "
the State," and further, that by strict
are, I
contend, the
natural, all-efficient,
in regard to animals
and therefore scientific, means by which all sanitary regulations
attacked by anthrax, and to their dead
zymotic diseases are to be prevented.
Proof of this is found in the non-suscepti bodies,
much might be done to prevent the
increase of anthrax and spread of the dis
bility of the healthy and robust to the in
vi- ease."
" " " "
fluence of attenuated or cultured
■

rus; and it is' only when the vital stamina is These practical and shrewd observa
lowered that it take tions of the committee are an excellent re
by any means can

effect. In
vigorous health and
equilibri ply sweeping assertions of Pasteur
to the
um of the conditions of life we have the and his dupes, and they are equally applic

most potential of all disease-resisting pow able to the adherents of Jennerism which,
ers, and it is on the maintenance of these, for all practical purposes, is identical with
and not on vaccination, that our safety de Pasteurism.
 But we can safely leave Pasteur to On the contrary, I regard vaccination as a
his countrymen, and already some of the powerful predisposing cause of small-pox
ablest men in France, notably Dr. Pigeon, and all other zymotic diseases. That small
of Fourchambault, have exposed the tricks pox has slain its thousands none will deny;

by which this cultivator of germs manages but vaccination has slain its tens of thous
" "
to palm off his bogus protective upon ands with syphilis, cancer, scrofula, ecze
the fanners of. France and, at the same ma, consumption, and other equally fatal
time, hoodwink the government into grant and loathsome diseases. It is no figure of
ing him large appropriations to prosecute speech, but the naked truth that vaccina
his so-called "researches." tion has proved itself a curse to humanity,
like seeks and ought to cease being enforced by legis
Pasteur, Jenner, to build
a collosal fortune out of his "cultured lative enactment. This is not my own ex

virus," hence the fraud will die hard. perience only, but it is the experience of
After some experience of the
years
a
large number of competent observers the
world over.
effects of
vaccination, during which time I
have seen somewhat of small-pox and its Switzerland has shown us a noble
treatment, I confess that in spite of inherit example by the energetic manner in which
ed opinions and the prejudices created by she has frustrated the impudent attempt of

early education, the results of my investi a mercenary medical cabal to deprive her
gations and experience lend no countenan of her liberties and her health. Let us go
ce to the pretensions of pro-vaccinators. and do likewise.

Faibfield, Conn. ,
J. Dobson, M. D.
Sept. 1882,