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fected with small-pox; he takes the disease, he is sick; imme- ;
diately in his blood there begins to be elaborated an antidote
to the poison which has produced that disease—an antitoxin.
The micro-organisms grow and produce their poison ; the
system begins at once elaborating an antidote to that poison,
and after a certain time that antidote has been developed in
sufficient quantity to destroy the poison produced by the
micro-organisms of small-pox ; the fever subsides and the
man recovers. The micro-organisms are not necessarily ex-
pelled immediately, but usually they are expelled within a
short time. The man has not got well by reason of the fail-
ure of the growth of the micro-organisms, but he has recov-
ered for the reason that within his blood there has developed
an antidote to that poison, and that antidote, as a rule, re-
mains with him the rest of his life ; it becomes a permanent
fixture in the blood of the man, and for that reason he is
immune to smallpox afterward. It is a rare thing that small-
pox occurs a second time in one individual.
Now, we immunize against smallpox. It is found that
the cow has small-pox in a modified form, and many years
ago it was found that milkmen had sores upon their hands
from the ulcerations that occurred upon the udder of the
cows they milked, and that these persons became immune to
small-pox. Apparently this was b}^ reason of having these
sores upon their hands, and they began to inoculate for the
purpose of immunizing against small-pox, and in this acci-
dental way the discovery of vaccine came up and was intro-
duced in medicine. Now, in passing through its growth in
the cow the small-pox virus is modified, forming the
vaccine virus, or changed to such a degree that
the disease produced by it in man is of little consequence
a small sore, sometimes a little rise of temperature, passing
away in a week or two weeks, and the man is immune to
small-pox afterward. Why? The poison that is instilled into
the blood of the man in consequence of that growth serves
to develop the antitoxin which immunizes against small-pox
in the blood of that man, rendering him immune afterward.
It is not as permanent as the immunizing by having had the
disease, but it safely prevents the occurrence of small-pox
for a considerable number of years.
Now, gentlemen, this is the theory of vaccination. We

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