THE object of this pamphlet is to publish the result of a painstaking
inquiry into the effects of vaccination in the State of New York in
1914.
My immediate personal interest in the subject is due to the death of my
only son as a result of vaccination.
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.