I have been a believer in and advocate of vaccination. I was myself vaccinated in childhood by the arm-to-arm method without ill effects. It was in accordance with this belief and in an honest effort to comply with the law that I had my son vaccinated. Even his death did not entirely shake my faith in the practice, but it led me to make an investigation of the results of vaccination in New York State in 1914. Owing to the difficulty of making a canvass in the great cities, no effort was made to collect statistics in New York and Buffalo, and but little in Rochester, Syracuse or Albany. My investigations were, therefore, practically confined to the rural or semi-rural portions of the State.
The result has been the gathering of such an appalling story of death and illness as to completely shatter my belief in the wisdom of enforced vaccination.
It should be understood that I am not a physician. This leaves me free to write with greater frankness in certain instances than would be permitted to a doctor by the ethics of his profession.
I desire to be understood as seeking nothing but the common good of humanity. In the pages that follow I have attempted to write without bias as far as is humanly possible. Only established facts are presented; extravagant statements have been avoided; in no single instance has a quotation been made from an anti-vaccination source. I have felt that my case is so strong that I could afford to be generous in my arguments.
The reader is invited to go over the facts as presented and draw his own conclusions as to the accuracy of the deductions made.
James A. Loyster.
Cazenovia, N. Y., Jan. 5, 1915.
Note. In the group pictures on the following pages the star indicates the victim of vaccination.—C. M. H.
CASE No. 1
