Life, 1912-04-04 · page 54 of 80
Life — April 4, 1912 — page 54: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a **debate on vaccination safety** disguised as a letters-to-editor section. A reader challenges Life magazine's earlier pro-vaccination stance, citing alarming (though unverified) British government statistics claiming 25,000 children die annually from vaccination and that vaccines cause disease rather than prevent it. The reader invokes authority figures like naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace to argue vaccination is "useless" and "disastrous." **Historical context**: This reflects genuine early-20th-century anti-vaccination sentiment that persisted despite vaccination's documented success against smallpox. Vaccine skeptics cherry-picked statistics and quoted scientists selectively to oppose public health measures. The **irony**: This debate appears alongside a hat advertisement—mundane commercial content contrasting sharply with claims of mass child death, highlighting how misinformation circulated freely in period magazines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
altar of the vaccine idol in all the Jes. nerized countries of the world? The following official government ep ord furnishes another grewsome any of “figures on the mortality of yan cinia” which I desire to sc: “oppeiy to” Dr. Groves’s figure: In the “ E: wh Digest of Partiames. tary Returns,” No. 488, sessions of 1878, entitled, “ Vaccination Mortain, I find recorded this appalling statemen: “Twenty-five thousand children an annually slaughtered by disc.ses ines lated into their systems by \accinati and a far greater number ore j and maimed for life by the same um wholesome rite.” There are still other reconled "fp ures” on the mortality of s.ccinia 1 be brought to the attention o/ the med. cal apologists for vaccinat In bis scientific work, “The Wonderful Cen Prof. Alfred Russe Wallace, “the dean of Eng!ch scien Men who know style—men who insist on quality and wear— Re cotianth of the ales tae nae are the ones who are today making the nation-wide demand for cination: “While utterly powcless for good, vaccination is a certain cause'd disease and death in many ca:rs, and is the probable cause of ten deaths annually, by five in eases of the most terrible «6 ” ing character, Correct Styles for Men Did time and space pern You're absolutely sure of the quality when you put on a te aalmes At —whether go on indefinitely citing. offic stiff or soft. It is guaranteed to you by thede aler and we stand behind him. The of appalling numbers of healthy childres who have been done to death by the new springstyles includethenewestand best rough, scratchand bright finish effects. Giecashimpartiog, heslbeblighulig ‘ed $3,,$4 ond $5. At your dealer's, o7 if he cannot iste 7pm reciente rented death-dealing vaccine lancet, but the and sive hat wie your height, weit data above cited should be quite suf: ient t vi y in d ua. We are Makers of the Siudd, Celebrated $3 Hat cient to convfoce:any reasoning aad me Hiapsjoody Offices and Sales- tion is not only a useless a dam Danbury, Conn. and a disastrous practice ‘Niagara Falls, gerous and Di Ontario, Canada, aweS. Vol oa rie J. W. Hooee. Straw Hat Factory: INCORPORATED 4 Summer Street | Nuacara Fats, N. Y., Baltimore, Md. Panama Factory: New York Boston January 30, 1912. From Our Readers (Concluded from page 712) misleading figures and statements with the following invitation to the editor of Lire: “You might set opposite to them any figures you may have on the mortal- ity of vaccinia.” With Lire’s permis- sion I desire to “set opposite” Dr. Groves’s figures the following official data: From the “History of the Reign of saianare Pes Queen Victor an English work pub- Hardy English Nute—Paper Shell lished in the year 1900, I quote the fol- ipherry for ¢ he lowing extract: “Official statistics andthe, Milioncire. Walnut Trees prove that twenty-six thousand children ee ee ntatotres er,sroun ~ hardier Trees for Planting in have been annually slaughtered by the tbe Northern States tunmatal poisoned lancets of public vaccinators, yet hea produces coottauousty from sot ght i sears lure to October—neavy cropa of large, green, follages lofty. aymabecrical growth, and one hundred thousand injured year: peste ps iagetipinpst bei destntong [ter Be grag orci Ag for Walnut thes ly by invaceinated es.” Bear in Its summer and autumn crops perdi shes the Pees mind that this appalling “slaughter of do not consist of @ ttered | ENGLISH WALNUT cR A Fy ‘ err the innocents" by the medical Herods ‘The demand tor nuts ts bie and prices is stated to have taken place in the patch, say }4 an acre, picked ans give growers handsome prods. Cattoraia British possessions alone during the value. Cultivation hatvestice and meek reign of the late Queen Victoria. ere enormous, tenance In view of this terrible slaughter of Grows muccessfully any eoll—endurea isn | Waloute I Buec : x without Injury heat, drought and ee healthy children by the vaccine lancet cold. Catalogue ire aie free on ff ing m3 jo 8 rears, in the British kingdom, what must be ibetiagerensiennumber ‘af helpless ‘chile GLEN BROTHERS, Glenwood Nursery (Est’d 1868), 1911 Main St., Rochester, N. dren who are annually immolated on the