In 1882 Dr.Henry F. Hoyt was head of the Department of Health in St. Paul, Minnesota. I enjoy reading memoirs from the 19th century, and found his comments on smallpox interesting. Two cases of the disease occurred in his city in 1882, and he took photographs of the victims during their quarantine. One had been vaccinated and had a mild case of the disease, and the other had not. He posted them in the window of the Chamber of Commerce building downtown. He relates: "During that period not everyone was running around with a Kodak, and these photographs were considered to be the best photographs of genuine smallpox in the United states. They became almost invaluable to me in the matter of vaccination. As is well known, there is a strong movement in certain circles against vaccination. In St. Paul vaccination was compulsory, and each year before the opening of schools a large number of parents would come to the Health Department with all kinds of excuses in an effort to get their children admitted without vaccination. I would then ask the parents if they had ever seen a case of smallpox. Invariably the answer would be 'no'. I would then hand my two pictures with the statement: 'The man in this picture had been vaccinated, but the man in the other had not'. In ninety-nine cases in a hundred one good look was sufficient and they were glad to allow their children to be protected from the disease as provided for by law. A few last words regarding vaccination. It takes all kinds of people to make a world, but it is absolutely incomprehensible to me how any human being with intelligence or education can oppose it. The one fact disclosed by history is that before its (vaccination) discovery and introduction in the civilized world smallpox caused the death of more people than all other diseases put together, and that since the introduction of vaccination the mortality is less than that of any other contagious disease. This ought to settle the question at once and for all time."
so...after a hundred and forty years, some Americans have regressed to the point of denying the worth of a medical procedure that had , by 1882, been in use in our country for more than a hundred years? Ah well. I get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from my hobby of reading memoirs...once in a while a gem such as this comes along.