The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 16, 1904, Page 7

2T L Tis e songs, the traditions, the folk lore of & people that get the most intimate and unerring viewof them.” upon a time there was a great He was of a very wicked nature 3 jealous of everybody, but f his lovely young wife. He her shut up In a big box, hung from the roof by cords This chief had a sister also, but both the chil- ner feared this chief s and hid as far away however, he d instantly ed ng he feared that er they might steal f skins. " the boys, grew n they rrowful mother fled and crying all day and night r pretty boys. In the evening, as ghe was weeping, there appeared to her e crane. Bhe thought the crane was & man, for so he seemed to her, while he was really a wonderful magic crane who could do strange things. The crane asked her ma questions about her gad fortune and sympathized with her very kindly. Finally he told her to choose a small round pebble from the shore as clean and white as she could find and to swallow it. This she did and after a little time she bore a child, & son, who was the famous Yehl, about whom many stories are told over the fires in winter nights. Yehl's mother hid him carefully, for she remembered his wicked uncle and feared for his life. But in less tharn tan days the baby had become a full- grown man, tall and fearless. Then his mother was glad and gave him a bow end arrows and taught him to shoot straight and true. Then she brought bim epenly to the house of the great chief, who, of course, pretended to be pleased, but that very moment plotted to destroy him. He asked the boy to go out with him #n bis bark cance fishing and in the deepest part of the rfver tipped the bost over. But Yehl let himself sink to the bottom end walked ashore on the send. Then uncle took him Into the darkest, wildest part of the forest and tying him up in a bark canoe left him to starve. But again Yehl put out his strong arms, broke the bonds, picked up the cenoe and jirotted home ‘with it Soon aftér this the great chief was obliged to go hu as almost all the food was goO He left Yehl quite alone in the house ard the very first thing he did was to cut the skin strings of the box that was from the roof and ict out hiz uncle's pretty wife. As she stepped out of the box two little birds fiew out from under her arms and they at once guessed that they would fly off to tell the chief. Sure enough in a few mo- ments he came rushing in, roaring with rage and called out as loud as he could, pointing to the sea: “Let the tide come up.” Higher and higher rose the tide un- til the house was covered, but Yehl changed himself into a monstrous crow and flew up to the sky, where he hung on the edge of a cloud until the floods had gone down again. After this he called a great sea ot- ter to him and sent him to the bot- tom of the sea, telling him to bring back a quantity of a certain kind of fine sand. Out of this sand he made the world we live in now. When the world wae made it was as bare as the sand of which Yehl made it. But he took some seaweed, chewed it up very fine and spat it out &nd it grew and became all the vegetation of the, earth. Then Yehl made the animals and last of all he made men and women. He made the first man out of stone, but he proved to be dull and heavy. Also Yehl was afraid he might be- come too powerful and reign over him, so he took a stick of wood and this time the men were light and active. Some say that Yehl made his man out of a leaf end the woman out of the blossom of a wild strawberry, but no one belleves this now. About thet time all the fire was on one little island far off in the sea. v W WER. SHUT VP IR EVEN ER np, nuNe FROM N CORDS - s b THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. Yehl turned himself again into a ra- ven and, fiving there, brought away a brand in his beak for his people. While flving so far the brand burned down to his beak and he was obliged to drop it among the rocks and sticks, which caught and held it, and ever since when people want fire they rub the sticks and stones together and the hidden fire comes forth. At first Yehl's world was quite dark, though the men and women had fire. There was a sun and a moon and stars, but they belonged to a great Prince far O S S HE California Anti-Compulsory " Waccination League is the name of a new organization that threatens California. Its object is to ereate a sentiment throughout the State against the compulsory vaccina- tion of public school children as now required by the State school law. A determined effort on the part of those ectively connected witn this new so- clety will be made to have the vaccina- tion act wiped from the statutes at the ccming session of the State Legisla- ture. As the matter now stands the law seems to have been thoroughly tested, as the State Supreme Court has three times affirmed its validity. Many are satisfied with the law which pro- hibits the attendance at school of ~hil- dren having contagious diseases. The most active agitation seems to have centered in Oakland and Berke- ley, where legal measures have been taken to restrain the Boards of £du- cation from enforcing ¢he law. The scRool authorities are, however, deter- mined to insist upon strict compliance with the law, with the resuit that in Berkeley 885 pupils of the public schoois were excluded from the class rooms. As a result of the antagonism of the opposing forces, mass meetings have been held and overcrowded halls have been proof of the interest of the com- munities in the agitation. X The purpose of this article is not to take sides for or against vaccination, but to present the arguments and sta- tistics introduced by both factions, that a ciear understanding wmay be had of the matter as regarded from different points of view. Anti-Vaccination. At the anti-vaccination meetings it is peinted out that people suffer from lack of knowledge and that the theory of vaccination has not been strength- ened by virtue of its age. The most important objections made to the inoculation of virus as now practiced by most physicians are that it cannot be proven that smallpox epi- demics have been lessened by its prac- tice; that vaccine causes the system to become impregnated with different poi- sons; that there is an Increased mor- tality from diseases {noculated into the system by vaccination, and the law of compulsion is considered un-Ameri- can. It is claimed that vaccination is a “risky business” and a “filthy fad,” which originated® in a dairy maid su- perstition, first promulgated by a bar- ber named Jenner. To prove its inefficiency such au- thorities as Dr. Charles Ruata, Dr. Buckner Basel, Dr. Gregory, Dr. Crue- well, Dr. Stowell and the late Herbert Spencer are freely quoted. A number of periodicals are published in support of the anti-vaccination theory, notably the Antj-Vaccination Inquirer of Lon- don and one published in Terre Haute, Indiana, called Vaccination. Dr. Greg- ory, medical director of the London Smallpox Hospital, in the Medical Times of January, 1852, is quoted as saying: “The idea of extinguishing smalipox by vaccination is as absurd - ~ NO off, who had one lovely daughter. Yehl changed himself into a spruce needle and got into the drinking cup of the Princess, so that she swallowed him without knowing. Afterward a son was born to her that was Yehl himself. Thus he got to live in the house of the as it is chimerical and it is as irrational as it is presumptuous.” Another au- thority cited is Dr. Stowell, an English physician of twenty years' experience, who says: “The general declaration of my patients enables me to proclaim that the vaccination notion is not only a delusion, but a curse to humanity.” Charles Ruata in the New York Medi- cal Journal July 22, 1899, makes the startling statement that 98.5 per cent of the population were vaccinated and vet in the years 1887-838-89 42,272 deaths from smallpox occurred. In Italy there were 16,000 deaths, while 98 per cent of the people were vaccinated. The sweep- ing statement is made that “about 60 per cent of all physicians who have practiced their professions more than five years know that vaccination is not only dangerous, but entirely ineffective as a preventive against smallpox.” Many physicians claim that immunity can be secured by the use of certain preventive remedies. Revaccination is strongly objected to on the ground that no doctor is certain from the cicatrix whether revaccination is necessary or not. One prominent speaker cited the case cf a man who was declhred im- mune on account of a remarkably good cicatrix, when the fact was it was only the scar from the bite of a colt. The opposition holds that doctors who practice it should be made to pay damages in case of death or disability. They say that the mildness of modern epidemics is due solely to isolation and sanitation. “The whole world is vacci- nated and yet smallpox exists.” Statistics from the armies of differ- ent countries are given to prove that soldlers vaccinated and revaceinated many times have not been immune from attacks of the disease. In fact, it is asserted that epidemics begin with the vaccinated and the revaccinated. Some of the prominent speakers at anti-vaccination meetings have been those whose objection to the practice is based upon the loss by death of some member of the family as a result of vaccination and it is held that compul- sion under such painful circumstances is little less than cruelty. In support of their opposition to its continuance many statistics have been compiled to show the cause of death to have been from vaccination. It is sald that in England 25,000 children are annually slaughtered by disease inoculated into the system by virus, while by far a greater number are disabled or injured for life. It is contended that there is no definite way for physicians to de- termine the character of the vacecine used, and that there is no way of test- ing the absolute purity of what is placed upon the market. In the north of England a house to house canvass was made for the purpose of gaining trustworthy information, with the re- sult that 750 deaths were alleged to be due to vaccination, while there were 8135 cases of Injury recorded. It is cited that nine cases of lockjaw oc- curred in Philadelphia in three days. Another instance mentioned is that out of forty inoculated children nine died of vaccinia. In 1885 Dr, Andua, a prominent physician of Asprieres, i cinated forty-two children. All 'v:c“ attacked with fever, and six were dead v v " BY DR-DOROTHEA MO Prince, and when he was grown stgong enough he changed himself again into a raven, took the sun, moon and stars and set them In their present places in the skv. At first @ll the earth frightened at this bright 1§, the next day. The healt Berlin showed in 1801 1000 deaths: re- sulting frem vaceination. o It is contended that no correct esti- mate is possible of the harm done by this vitious practice, as many fatali- tieg are covered up; but it is responsi- ble for the long death lists of erysipe- las, heart disease, tuberculosis, pneu- monia, kidney 'disease and insanity. In fact, almost any disease that flesh is heir to may be attributed to vaccina- tion. Herbert Spencer is quoted as saying “that the ravages of influenza of recent years are directly attributa- bie to vaccination and that la grippe was never such a menace . to health until vaccination becamé almost uni- versal.” Infantile syphilis increased in England, from 1853 to 1883, in propor- tion to vaccination. Dr. Cruewell, con- sidered by many a hign medical au- thority, swore under oath: “Every in- oculation of so-cailed prolectic pox is syphilitic poisoning.” Thus it is con- tended that even if smallpox has vir- tually ‘been annihilated, general mor- tality has increased, and there is every rezson to attribute this to the practice of vaccination. The fact that the town of Leicester, in ¥ngland, has prohibited vaccination and that smallpox has been unknown there for years is held up as an exam- ple of what ail towns would be with- out it. Many of the opposition justify their opinions simply upon the ground that compulsion interferes with liberty and that taxation without education is tyr- rany. A strong expression used is that “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” The claim is made that the law was not passed at the instigation of nor by the wish of the people, but that it was through the efforts of “a few political doctors and in the interests of the vaccine trust.” In refusing to comply with the law, many agitators express themselves as being unwilling to become martyrs to a superstition, to submit to any inter- ference with their religious belief (to this class belong Christian Scientists, faith cure adherents and various kinds of healers), but insist upon the right of every American citizen to enjoy that ““‘American liberty which is supposed to grant to each and every one freedom of individual belief and action.” In Favor of Vaccination. The majority of medical practition- ers throughout the world are strong in their support of the Jenner theory of vaceination and scarcely consider it worth while to attempt to refute the views of the “fanatical anti-vaccina- tion party.” Sueh authorities as John F. J. Sykes of London, John Willlam Moore of Dublin, Pasteur, Koch and Sir John Simons will be freely quoted in this treatise. The mass of evidence confirming the protective power of vaccination and revaccination is irre- sistible and opposition to it is due prin- cipally to the objection to compulsion. The objects of compulsion are the ab- solute necessity of p;‘lnecun‘ the larg- est percentage possible of the ula- tion for the benefit of the wholl?p com- munity; to secure a regular and suffi- cient supply of lymph; to prevent un- their Ieads, but soon they began to like it, and loved Yehl for giving them light. Have you ever seen the crater of Mount Edgecombe? It was made by the sister of the Thunder Bird, whose name 18 so long that people do not care to speak of her—Ahgishanakhou. due haste and insufficiency, inferiority, or failure of lymph in times of panic. The abolition of compulsion would mean the neglegt of vaccination and the accumulation of unorotected per- sons in a community, so that in the panic produced by an epidemic vacecin- ation would be overtaxed, with serious results, and there would be an insuffi- cient supply of lymph. The ignorant and the improvident neglect vaccina- tion, as they do other prudent meas- ures that bear remote results. Many /ot the medical fraternity contend that it might be well to do away with com- pulsion, as pestilence is one of the agencies by which overpopulation is regulated and that it usually picks off the weak and those not well fitted to battle with life. Statistics showing thelefficacy of vac- cination seem to be conclusive, but it will be seen that they differ widely from those intreduced bv anti-vaceina- tiopists. Both factions are positive that figures presented by them are cor- rect. Regard is certainly due to the opinions of such eminent authorities as seryed on the German Vaccination Commission of 1884. In their opinion the credit of diminishing mortality in Germany was due to compulsory re- vaccination. Most important evidence is shown in reports compiled in Eng- land and Wales. Before the introduc- tion of vaceination there were 3000 deaths in every million of the popula- tion from smallpox, while in 1890 this disease caused only fifteen deaths in England, and the annual number of deaths in ten years, 1881-90. inclusive, was one-seventieth part only of the death rate of pre-vaccination times. It is held that vaccination not only greai- 1y diminished the number stricken, but that it greatly influenced the death rate among those attacked. In Shef- field, in the outbreak of 1887-88, of 4151 vaccinated patients 200 died, or 4.8 per cent; of 652 unvaccinated patients 274 died, or 49.6 per cent. If the death rate of vaccinated children under ten years of age, during this same epidemic, had been at the same rate as that of the unvaccinated there would have been 4400 deaths, whereas there were only 9 such deaths. In Prussia the mortality from small- pox in the year 1835 was 27 per every 100,000 persons, while in 1886, vaccigy- tion and revaccination being obliga- tory, the death rate was reduced to but 0.39 per 100,000 inhabitants. Only one great epidemic has occurred since vac- cination was made obligatory—that of 1871-72—while in the preceding century there were 32 epidemics. The pro-vac- cinationists do not claim that the mild- ness of modern epidemics is due solely to vaccination. Notification, isolation and disinfection are admitted as sup- plementary measures, while the sever- ity and extent depend largely upon the season, dwelling, mode of life and care of the skin. . This is conceded to be a different age from that of Jenner, and yet certain conditions exist now that are condu- cive to the spread of the disease that did not exist in his time. Population has increased, particularly in cities, means of locomotion have multiplied and there is a closer commercial rela- tion between nations than ever before, so that infection is easily transferrea from one country.to another. Some persons should not be submit- ted to the operation of vaccination, as its success depends largely upon the condition of the blood and system gen- . L™ 10 Y VACCINATIO ) ] -3 She used to sit on the edge of the mountain and hold the world on her shoulders. It was so heavy that, the mountain kept sinking and sinking un« til the bottom was reached. Then Ah- gishanakhou cleared a space about her and settled down to keep house there. The Indians know this, for when they see the mountain smoking they know that Ahgishanakhou is building her fire. Have you seen the: Muir Glaeler? Two young girls were living near this place shut up in a small hut. THelr clothes became so dirty that they went out to BODOGOSO0E00E000005D) N erally. Many physicians refuse to practice it at all unless they have a personal knowledge of the comstitution of the natient. That death is some- times due to its practice is admitted by those favoring it, but this is always the result of accident. According to the German commission previously referred to, “no nrobable increase of any par- ticular disease has taken place as the consequence of vaccination.” Any open sore is liable to infection.. Death i3 frequently caused by no mere serious accident than running a sliver into one's finger. Considering the immense number of vaccinations performed and with the same constant danger of in- fection as to any wound, it is quite ex- traordinary that so few fatalities occur. Want of care and absence of antiseptic precautions or use of human lymph are causes of Infection or poisoning. Many fatalities have been traced to improper cleansing of the vaccinating needle. It has been definitely deter- mined that only animal lymph should be used. The great advantage of the use’ of calf lymph is that it sweeps away any suspicion of the inoculation of other diseases. Syphilis cannot be communicated to animals. Lymph is now being prepared from carefully se- lected calves that are quarantined and closely observed for some length of time before vaccination, and before placing the lymph on the market the animal should be killed and tests made upon the body to insure its absolute healthiness. Dr. Cory, the director of the animal vaccination gtation of the local Govern- ment board, in his evidence before the royal commission of England states that from 1882-89 32,002 vaccinations were performed with calf lymph and that there were only eight deaths. Of these only two could be reasonably at- tributed to vaccination, namely, two cases of wound disease—cellulitis and erysipelas. This mortality is probably not even so high as that resulting from common cuts and scratches. The case of the loss of six children out of forty-two vaccinated by Dr. Andua in 1885 is so frequently referred to by anti-vaccinationists, is explained by P. Bronardel of Paris, who shows that death was due to the use of hu- man virus. That Leicester, England, has prohibited vaccination fer years, and has escaped a scourge is due wholly to the fact that it is sur- rounded by a population which is pro- tected by vaccination. The evidence so far leads to the con- clusion that the best defense of a com- munity against smallpox is not the re- peal of the law of compulsion, but in adopting the following measures: The use of calf ivmph only, compulsory pri- mary vaccination in infaney, occasional revaccination, isolation of imported cases of disease, disinfection and sani- tation. The preSent agitation will tend to educate the people of the communi- ty, will make physicians more careful in 2000000 their selection of Ilymph, care of instruments and cleanliness of wounds. The existence of the disease in the United States to-day is due in the main to individuals who resist attempts for the protection of the population. No man is responsible to himself alone for the care of his own body. An unvac- cinated group of persons in a com- munity are a menace to the health of the entire population. and it is con- tended that no cne has the right to endanger the life of the entire commu- {n.lty by refusing to comply with the w. American liberty should grant to every” citizen freedom of individual be- lief and action, but there are times when that freedom should be, to a cer- tain degree, restricted. the stream to wash them and then hung them up to dry. They waited and Walited, but the clothes were as wet as before. Then the girls grew impatient and called at the top of their veices: “Oh, north ‘wind, please come qQuickly and dry our clothes.” And the north wind heard and came along with such pawer that he froze all the streams and started a mass of ice ryshing along toward the ocean. When the Indlans saw this they were fright- ened almost to death, and finding out from the poor girls that they were the cause of the mischief, took them and threw them right in the path of the ice. Suddenly the ice stopped, and has re- mained so always except when a few lttle bits crumble off with.a loud noise to remind the Indians and make them careful about calling the morth'wind to do work for them. Way up in the great north, en the very edge of the world, where are the long silences, the dark days and the pale, strange midnight sum, there is one thing more precious than anything else. It is fire. For where fire is, there life s also; and where fire is not, there is death. All this the big bear knows as‘well as anybody. But the bear has been the sworn enemy of the people ever since there were any, and he watchies and waits with his mad, red little eyes to see if he can do them a mischief. Once it so happened that all the fire in the northland was in fhe care of just two people, an old man and his little son. They knew its value, however, and were very careful to keep it always be- tween their hands wherever they went. They slept watch and watch about—one always awake and watching the pre- cious flame. One night when it was the boy’s turn to sleep the old man grew very weary. He was too old and could no longer keep wide awake in the sleepy smow. And at last he, too, slept quite soundly. Then the great bear, who had traveled behind them for a long time, saw his opportunity. He would steal up and put out the fire. Then all these hated people would freeze and die and the north go back to the old‘quiet s be- fore the people came. : And ti would rejoice the bear folk mightily. = So the bear slipped up softly and put- ting out his enormous flat vs scat- tered the fire far over the snow., And the two men never wakened.* Then the bear went away, muech pl and told the bear folk that the peopla were finished forever. But he had counted without the birds, who loved the people @& much as the bears hated them, and who also watched. but only to help them. And thus it happened that a little bird who had followed the men, flying after the bear, was concealed among the branches of the firs. As the bear struck out the fire he caught one last spark upon his breast, and though it burned deep into his breast feathers he kept it and flew far with it to the people in the south, where he gave it to them and saved the land to them to this day. And ever since the spark has been glowing upon his bosom. And that the people might remember and be glad for him, they call him the robin redbreast. Once upon a time there was no moon for a long, long time. And the white people were afraid. They thought that the Great Spirit, who had charge of the sky, was very angry and might never put the moon out any more. And they were sorrowful, for up there they love the soft moonlight very much. And so the raven, who was friendly to them and also very clever, offerad to fiysup into the blue and try to see what was the matter. He went, and was gone a long while, but was unable to find out anything except that the Great Spirit kept the moon and the stars in a box and that only he himself had the key. Then the clever raven changed him- self into the most beautiful little boy you could imagine and went to see the Great Spirit. Here he soon made him- self at home, and by-and-by the Great Spirit became as fond of him as any grandfather and gave him his own way in everything—except when he asked for the moon and star box to play witk. But one day the sweet little raven boy begged so hard and cried so loudly that he got the coveted box. In the twink- Iing of an eve he changed himself into a raven again and flew off with the moon and stars as hard as he could. He kept droovping the stays all along the way, but the moon was so big he could hardly manage it. So he Began to bite ‘off bits of it with his sl beak and let the bits drop into the water, where they lay shining. And if you do not believe this story, go and look at the water any moonlight night. Wt -