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LAUNCUI?STON only
EXA.M1NER. t
- r-I== This
rPULISED DAILY. I th
FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1881. tion
-- - - - stol
TiE enquiry " What is truth ?" affords sho
no guaranteo that the enquirer is anxious
to discover truth and nothing beside. It q
is one- of the commonest occurrences to son
find persons swayed by the strongest bias isl
diligently hunting up arguments in sup- be,
port of their own views under the delu- to
sion that they are seeking after truth. cib
The evidences of self-deception are not h
far to seek. The prominenice given to mi
trifles that seem to support a cherished th
idea, and the jauntiness with which in- se
convenient facts are disposed of reveal at *
a glance the leaning of the speaker t
or writer. Such persons protest the D
greatest readiness to renounce their v4
d opinion on production of sufficient evi
dence ; but that is a very slight concession, t
inasmuch as they have mentally resolved n
e that they never will be satisfied. It is d
r the old story- a
A man convinced against his will . b
Is of the same opinion still.' . t
It has been truly said that there is no
folly so egregious but it will find ad- h
° herents; and as they are rather proud
ft than otherwise of the prominence- thus
1 obtained, it is a more waste of time to en
is deavour to prove them to be wrong. The I
e. wisest-at least the easiest-thing is to p
let them talk themselves out of breath,
le leaving their utterances to inevitable
al oblivion, and going on disseminating
d. truth and facts as the beat antidotes for
id every form of error.
be Our correspondent "Investigator"'
n' commences his letter with the enquiry
`" What is truth 1 " producing the impres
sion that he is sincerely and simply seek
ing for information ; but having thus
awakened the reader's sympathy he im
mediately discovers himself to be a deter
s; mined opponent of the practice on which
he asks for information. But .he must
tn permit us to remind him that he starts
with a misrepresentation-probably un
designed, but on that very account show
ing the intensity of his bias. Referring
to the report on the importance of vacci
iS nation recently published by the Mel
ur bourne Medical Board, he gives the fol
ch lowing as a quotation from that docu
ment :-" That it is a physiolo
gical impossibility to communicate
- disease through the agency of injected
impure lymph." We have looked in vain
through the report in question not only
for the exact words supposed to be in
dicated by inverted commas, but for
1E anything approaching the sentiment they
convey. " Investigator" does not need
to be told that there is a right way and a
wrong way of doing everything, and
when vaccination is spoken of in any dis
cussion upon its efficacy it is to be under
stood as having been properly performed.
- The words actually used by the Medical
ase Board of Health are these :-" It
nd is physiologically impossible that
are syphilis can be " conveyed by
,el, vaccination propel-y pe??formed." Not
id. a syllable there about "impure
ne lymph" being " injected," which "In
of vestigator" imputes to the Board.
Be did not read carefully and
G calmly what was written, and having
ol- permitted prejudice to supply a text he
roe set himself the easy task of demolishing
nd it ! But all his labour has been thrown
e away; not a single shaft has gone in the
ed right direction. Starting with a false
on premiss all his subsequent reasoning is
- beside the question. His facts remain,
R. but then they were not assailed, and they
might with equal relevancy and effect
sen have been cited to prove that taking cod
liver oil will enable a man to swim ! It is
quite true that poisons may be absorbed
into the blood, and produce injurious and
even fatal effects. Diseased blood or pus
Mr so taken into the system would un
of doubtedly be attended with mischievous
lers results. Vaccino lymph, however,
is neither blood nor pus, but a colourless
Sr fluid, eliminated from the blood, it is
ion true, though as far as it has been found
Mr possible to examine its nature it seems to
be unaffected by any of the media
through which itmay pass. It maintains
at its absolute homogeneity irrespective of
the system in which it operates. It is the
germ poisbn of vaccinia and of nothing
else;. just as a grain of wheat will pro
duce only its own kind, though a thousand
different plants are growing in the same
- field. . Ignorant or unskilful persons may
NG not take lymph at all, or they may
mix it with other fluids, and then pos
best sibly evil effects may follow; but that
and contingency shows tihe importance of
en's having the operation performed by those
y in wIho are qualified to do it properly and to
watch it to a successful conclusion.
ond Vaccination has been tested for nearly
a century, and the result has demon
strated it to be the only, as it is the
certain, antidote to small-pox, and there
is reason for hoping that eventually it
will be the means of freeing humanity
N. from that terrible foe. "Investigator"
askls.thlat his letter may be published "so
that thle objections advanced against vacci
nation may either be met and annihilated,
or otherwise be allowed to go forth as a
warning on this momentous subject." If
the objections to which he refers are those
that he ihas statdd, .there is nothing to
answer, for they are myths, and when
Sconfronted with " truth" they .ainihilato
be themselves. What other objections there
ters may be we know not, but being thoroughly
tors Persuaded of the eflicacy of the great dis
co very as a preventive of small-pox, and
with" the grim disease almost at oui- door,
ro- we hold that those who in the slightest
Sdegree try to shake public confidence in
the panacea, or render it more diflicult to
the carry out l.ueasures for the protection of
P the commu.'ity, incur a fearful respon
ry sibility. It may seem a light thing
while we are yut free, but when tihe di.s
ty, ease shall be in ,-ur midst, and s:ores if
a not hundreds of hearts and homes are
be made desolate by its ravages, then those
?t who have opposqd the application of the
only known preventive will be exposed
the maledictions of the bereaved and S
the remorse of their own consciences.
This is not the time, we repeat, to discuss e
the desirableness or otherwise of vaccina- \
tion. With a foundering ship who would 1i
stop to enquire whether the lifeboat ?
should be launched 1
Tue terrible tragedy of last evening 1
sent through the town a thrill of horror i
mingled with pity for the unfortunate
man whose mental sufferings must have
been intense to suggest such a termination
to them. But the sad event has dis
clbsed a fact that every one appears to
have been ignorant of before, namely,
that accused persons out wn bail are per
mitted to step out of the street and take
their trial without being previously
searched. It is evident that during the
whole of the time that Linnane was
undergoing his trial yesterday, he was
standing before his Honour MIr Justice
a Dobson, with a loaded six-chambered re
r volver in his pocket. It is fortunate that
his highly wrought feeling did not
overcome reason at an earlier period, or
the consequences might have been even
d more serious. For the future we have no
s doubt that accused persons who have been
admitted to bail will be carefully searched
before they are placed upon their trial,
no-less for their own protection than for
that of the officers of the Court and the
1. public.
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