To suppress the epidemic of 1902, as already shown, 4,316 animals were
slaughtered by the U. S. Government at a cost of $130,000; and in the
epidemic of 1908 the Government slaughtered 3,636 animals at a cost of
$300,000. The last or recent epidemic, which has been the worst of all,
extended from 1914 to 1916, invaded twenty-three States and involved
the destruction of 172,222 animals, chiefly swine, cattle and sheep, in
the order stated. The cost of this destruction amounted to a loss of
over nine millions of dollars, half of which was paid by the National
Government and half by the States! See the report of the Chief of the
U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry for 1916. This is surely a big price
to pay for vaccination, which was most probably the cause of this last
and greatest epidemic, as it was proved to be the cause of the previous
epidemics of 1908 and 1902! And at this point it should be remembered
that this last epidemic of 1914 to 1916 originated in the same State of
Michigan where one of the largest vaccine factories in the country is
located and from which factory the epidemic of 1908 was proved to have
originated!
EPIDEMICS OF SMALLPOX PROBABLY CAUSED BY VACCINATION AND FOOT AND MOUTH
DISEASE
An interesting and significant fact in relation to the epidemic of
1908 is that the lake counties of New York where the foot and mouth
disease prevailed in 1908, as shown on the map in Fig. 10, are the same
counties where the greatest outbreaks of smallpox occurred in 1913 and
1914, and may possibly have had some relation to the previous epidemic
of virulent cowpox or foot and mouth disease in 1908 and to the last
epidemic of this disease in 1914 to 1916. This point seems to be worthy
of careful investigation, to say the least, because I am convinced
that so-called “Foot and Mouth Disease” may be really a virulent form
of “Cowpox” or a mongrel form of smallpox and may sometimes convey
to mankind what may actually be, or be mistaken for, a mild form of
smallpox, such as prevailed in the lake counties of New York in 1914,
including the City of Niagara Falls.