On immunity against infectious disease, with special reference to anti-typhoid inoculation

Abstract

Success in a modern war depends on the intelligence with which it is waged?on the utilisation of every weapon which modern science places in our hands not merely for destroying the enemy but for the protection of our own men. We cannot afford, therefore, to neglect any method that may enable us to ward off the danger of Typhoid from our troops. Protective Inoculation is such a method, and it is therefore with pleasure that I now comply with a request conveyed to me at the last Council Meeting of the Statistical Society, and come forward with an account of the method, its underlying principles, and the results that have been attained by its use. Premising that my hearers do not, for the most part, belong to the medical profession, I shall find it necessary to begin by explaining some points connected with the modern doctrine of Immunity, a knowledge of which might otherwise be taken for granted. The same fact absolves me from entering into the details of the preparation of the several varieties of vaccine, and the discussion of their relative merits, with the fulness that a medical audience might expect.