Dr. S. Monckton Copeman
[back]

Now, what will impartial students of this subject say when I cite the fact that the article on Vaccination in the last or current edition of the Britannica is written, not by a man who is impartial and professionally disinterested in the subject, as was Dr. Creighton, and who tried to give both sides of the subject freely, but, on the contrary, by a man who is actually a manufacturer or inventor of vaccine virus and has, therefore, necessarily, a professional interest and bias to conceal the fail­ures and dangers of vaccination as far as he can?   Surely, the editors of the Britannica made a great moral and logical mistake when they selected any man to write so important an article on a much disputed subject in this great book of refer­ence who had any professional or other interest or bias in this subject.    Now, the biased and interested author of this article in the last edition is none other than Dr. S. Monckton Copeman of London, a strong pro-vaccinist, who claims to be the original inventor of the so-called "glycerinated virus" now in general use for vaccination.   The idea of adding glycerine to the virus is to kill the many dangerous disease germs or infections it is known to contain, but to preserve the germ of smallpox, or "cowpox" intact.   This is, of course, an admission that before the use of glycerinated virus vaccination was very dangerous and likely to cause many infections in the human body, but since the adoption of glycerinated virus—Dr. Copeman's invention—it is now claimed that vaccination is rendered safe and harmless.   This is, of course, a false claim, as I have already shown, and will further show in a succeeding paragraph.
    Now, this greatly biased and one-sided article of Dr. Copeman—the maker or inventor of glycerinated virus—in our greatest Encyclopedia, is surely a good illustration of my charge that the trusting public mind is constantly misled, whether inten­tionally or unintentionally I know not, by some of our highest medical authorities on the whole subject of vaccination, and particularly as to its alleged harmlessness. Thus, when Dr. Copeman, who is regarded as one of the leading authorities on modern vaccination, comes to consider the dangers of vaccina­tion, he heads his paragraph, "Alleged Injurious Effects/' thus implying that the injuries are only "alleged" and not real, and he goes on to argue or imply that—due to his invention—the dangers and injuries are now trifling or negligible, but tacitly admits or implies that before his invention of glycerinated virus the dangers were very serious, whereas, with his invention, vac­cination is now practically safe and harmless.
    Now, what must we think of the truth of this claim that vaccination with glycerinated virus is now safe and harmless, when, at the very time that its inventor made or implied this claim in the pages of the Encyclopedia, in the year 1910 or 1911, the vital records of his own country, in the reports of the Registrar General of England for those two years, showed that there were eight deaths from vaccination in the year 1910, and fourteen deaths from vaccination in  1911!    And these fatal vaccinations were, of course, all made with the glycerinated virus as, practically, no other kind is now used!   These vaccination deaths were all in little children under five years and they exceeded the deaths from smallpox in the same age class by fourfold in 1910 and by threefold in 1911!   That is, the deaths from vaccination under five years were eight in 1910 and fourteen in 1911; while the deaths from smallpox under five years were two in 1910 and five in 1911! The total deaths from small­pox in all ages were nineteen in 1910 and twenty-three in 1911. The four years preceding 1910 show even a worse record for vaccinal mortality than the record of 1910 and 1911, so that the record of those two years cannot be claimed as anything special or unusual.   For example, the reports of the Registrar General for 1906, 1907 and 1908 show a total of only six deaths for these three years from smallpox in the infant ages under five years —the ages most susceptible to smallpox—while for the same infant ages there is a total of fifty-three deaths for the same three years from cowpox or vaccination—nine times more infant deaths from vaccination than from smallpox!   In 1909 there is reported only one infant death from smallpox and eleven infant deaths from vaccination!
    This shocking record of vaccination deaths clearly shows that the famous glycerinated vaccination of Dr. Copeman, which he virtually claims to be so safe and harmless, in our greatest book of public reference, is actually from three to ten times more fatal to children than natural smallpox, as proved by the vital records of his own country and by the highest statistical author­ity in the world! Surely, Mr. President, in such crushing coun­ter facts as these, my charge of a shocking deception of the public mind, either intentional or unintentional, on the merits of vaccination by our highest medical and literary authorities, is flatly proved. HORRORS OF VACCINATION EXPOSED AND ILLUSTRATED BY CHAS. M. HIGGINS