Between persuasion and compulsion: Smallpox control in Brooklyn and New York, 1894-1902

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Volumn 78, Issue 2, 2004, Pages

  Colgrove, James ^a  

^a Mailman School of Public Health   (United States)

Author keywords

Legislation and jurisprudence; New York; Smallpox; Vaccination

Indexed keywords

EID: 20244378191     PISSN: 00075140     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/bhm.2004.0062     Document Type: Review

References (159)

1. "The Value of Revaccination", New York Daily Tribune, 4 January 1902, p. 10.
2. Seminal work in this area includes Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962); Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State: Changing Views in Massachusetts, 1842-1936 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972); and Judith Walzer Leavitt, The Healthiest City: Milwaukee and the Politics of Health Reform (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982). Notable recent works have included Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); Howard Markel, Quarantine! East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).
3. Seminal work in this area includes Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962); Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State: Changing Views in Massachusetts, 1842-1936 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972); and Judith Walzer Leavitt, The Healthiest City: Milwaukee and the Politics of Health Reform (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982). Notable recent works have included Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); Howard Markel, Quarantine! East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).
4. Seminal work in this area includes Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962); Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State: Changing Views in Massachusetts, 1842-1936 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972); and Judith Walzer Leavitt, The Healthiest City: Milwaukee and the Politics of Health Reform (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982). Notable recent works have included Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); Howard Markel, Quarantine! East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).
5. Seminal work in this area includes Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962); Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State: Changing Views in Massachusetts, 1842-1936 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972); and Judith Walzer Leavitt, The Healthiest City: Milwaukee and the Politics of Health Reform (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982). Notable recent works have included Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); Howard Markel, Quarantine! East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).
6. Seminal work in this area includes Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962); Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State: Changing Views in Massachusetts, 1842-1936 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972); and Judith Walzer Leavitt, The Healthiest City: Milwaukee and the Politics of Health Reform (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982). Notable recent works have included Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); Howard Markel, Quarantine! East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).
7. The best reference on the historical development of health law is Lawrence O. Gostin, Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000); on police powers, see pp. 47-51, 61-83. An examination of the role of police powers as part of a broad pattern of nineteenth-century law and regulation aimed" at creating a well-ordered society is William J. Novak, The People's Welfare: Law and Regulation in Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996) ; see pp. 191-233 for a discussion of public health jurisprudence. For a concise overview of the role of the law in public health, see Daniel M. Fox, "The Professions of Public Health," Amer. J. Pub. Health, 2001, 91:1362-64.
8. The best reference on the historical development of health law is Lawrence O. Gostin, Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000); on police powers, see pp. 47-51, 61-83. An examination of the role of police powers as part of a broad pattern of nineteenth-century law and regulation aimed" at creating a well-ordered society is William J. Novak, The People's Welfare: Law and Regulation in Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996) ; see pp. 191-233 for a discussion of public health jurisprudence. For a concise overview of the role of the law in public health, see Daniel M. Fox, "The Professions of Public Health," Amer. J. Pub. Health, 2001, 91:1362-64.
9. The best reference on the historical development of health law is Lawrence O. Gostin, Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000); on police powers, see pp. 47-51, 61-83. An examination of the role of police powers as part of a broad pattern of nineteenth-century law and regulation aimed" at creating a well-ordered society is William J. Novak, The People's Welfare: Law and Regulation in Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996) ; see pp. 191-233 for a discussion of public health jurisprudence. For a concise overview of the role of the law in public health, see Daniel M. Fox, "The Professions of Public Health," Amer. J. Pub. Health, 2001, 91:1362-64.
10. For example, in 1894, when one of the last major outbreaks struck the United States, the city of Brooklyn recorded more than ten cases of measles, the city's most common infectious disease, for every one case of smallpox; the incidence of scarlet fever and diphtheria numbered in the thousands, while smallpox cases totaled 459; diphtheria, the leading cause of mortality in the city, accounted for more than 1,200 deaths, compared to 102 for smallpox; Annual Report of the Board of Health of the City of Brooklyn for the Year 1894 (Brooklyn, 1895), p. 11 (henceforth Annual Report . . . Brooklyn, plus the year).
11. The reasons for the secular decline in the mortality from smallpox and other infectious diseases during the nineteenth century have been the subject of considerable debate among historians. See, e.g., Thomas McKeown, The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage, or Nemesis? (London: Nuffield Provincial Trust, 1976), which downplays the role of vaccination and other preventive interventions. On the beneficial effects of inoculation on smallpox mortality during the eighteenth century, see Peter Razzell, The Conquest of Smallpox (Firle; Caliban Books, 1977).
12. The reasons for the secular decline in the mortality from smallpox and other infectious diseases during the nineteenth century have been the subject of considerable debate among historians. See, e.g., Thomas McKeown, The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage, or Nemesis? (London: Nuffield Provincial Trust, 1976), which downplays the role of vaccination and other preventive interventions. On the beneficial effects of inoculation on smallpox mortality during the eighteenth century, see Peter Razzell, The Conquest of Smallpox (Firle; Caliban Books, 1977).
13. Annual Report of the Board of Health of the Health Department of the City of New York for the Year Ending December 31, 1894 (New York: Martin Brown, 1895), p. 45 (hereafter Annual Report . . . New York, plus the year).
14. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1886, p. 37.
15. Vaccination replaced inoculation, an older method of immunization in which smallpox material was transferred from the arm of a sick person to that of a healthy one in order to induce artificially a milder form of the illness. Inoculation occasionally produced a full-blown case, however, and could inadvertently spread the disease instead of preventing it. Vaccination, in contrast, involved the use of cowpox, a related disease of cattle which produced only mild illness in humans and provided cross-protection against its more dangerous cousin. See Donald Hopkins, Princes and Peasants: Smallpox in History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983).
16. "Anti-Vaccinism," Boston Med. Surg J., 1894, 130:346-47.
17. William W. Welch, "A Statistical Record of Five Thousand Cases of Small-Pox," New York Med. J., 1894, 59:326-30. In calculating statistics such as standardized mortality rates, which enabled the comparison of countries and cities with very different population sizes, such reports articulated in an inchoate form the epidemiological principles that would become cornerstones of public health practice in the next century.
18. "The Question of Vaccination," New York Daily Tribune, 2 September 1896, p. 6; New York Times, 13 March 1897, p. 8.
19. "The Question of Vaccination," New York Daily Tribune, 2 September 1896, p. 6; New York Times, 13 March 1897, p. 8.
20. See, e.g., F. G. Attwood, "Vaccination," New York Med. J., 1899, 70:803-4; "Proceedings of Societies," Brooklyn Med. J., 1901, 15:712-15.
21. See, e.g., F. G. Attwood, "Vaccination," New York Med. J., 1899, 70:803-4; "Proceedings of Societies," Brooklyn Med. J., 1901, 15:712-15.
22. Frank S. Fielder, "What Constitutes Efficient Vaccination?" New York State J. Med., 1902, 2: 107-9, quotation on p. 107.
23. Martin Kaufman, "The American Anti-Vaccinationists and Their Arguments," Bull. Hist. Med., 1967, 41:463-78.
24. Resistance to vaccination was based on substantially the same concerns about safety and efficacy (along with libertarian arguments) that had been expressed regarding the earlier practice of inoculation, even though, as noted above, the practice was considerably safer than inoculation. On resistance to inoculation in colonial America, see, e.g., Maxine Van De Watering, "A Reconsideration of the Inoculation Controversy," New England Quart., 1985, 58: 46-67; Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001); John Blake, "The Inoculation Controversy in Boston, 1721-1722," in Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health, ed. Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald Numbers (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978), pp. 347-55.
25. Resistance to vaccination was based on substantially the same concerns about safety and efficacy (along with libertarian arguments) that had been expressed regarding the earlier practice of inoculation, even though, as noted above, the practice was considerably safer than inoculation. On resistance to inoculation in colonial America, see, e.g., Maxine Van De Watering, "A Reconsideration of the Inoculation Controversy," New England Quart., 1985, 58: 46-67; Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001); John Blake, "The Inoculation Controversy in Boston, 1721-1722," in Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health, ed. Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald Numbers (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978), pp. 347-55.
26. Resistance to vaccination was based on substantially the same concerns about safety and efficacy (along with libertarian arguments) that had been expressed regarding the earlier practice of inoculation, even though, as noted above, the practice was considerably safer than inoculation. On resistance to inoculation in colonial America, see, e.g., Maxine Van De Watering, "A Reconsideration of the Inoculation Controversy," New England Quart., 1985, 58: 46-67; Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001); John Blake, "The Inoculation Controversy in Boston, 1721-1722," in Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health, ed. Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald Numbers (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978), pp. 347-55.
27. On the British antivaccinationists, see Dorothy Porter and Roy Porter, "The Politics of Prevention: Anti-Vaccinationism and Public Health in Nineteenth-Century England," Med. Hist., 1988, 32: 231-52; Roy MacLeod, "Law, Medicine and Public Opinion: The Resistance to Compulsory Health Legislation, 1870-1907," Public Law, 1967, pp. 106-28; Nadja Durbach, "'They Might as Well Brand Us': Working-Class Resistance to Compulsory Vaccination in Victorian England," Soc. Hist. Med., 2000, 13:45-62.
28. On the British antivaccinationists, see Dorothy Porter and Roy Porter, "The Politics of Prevention: Anti-Vaccinationism and Public Health in Nineteenth-Century England," Med. Hist., 1988, 32: 231-52; Roy MacLeod, "Law, Medicine and Public Opinion: The Resistance to Compulsory Health Legislation, 1870-1907," Public Law, 1967, pp. 106-28; Nadja Durbach, "'They Might as Well Brand Us': Working-Class Resistance to Compulsory Vaccination in Victorian England," Soc. Hist. Med., 2000, 13:45-62.
29. On the British antivaccinationists, see Dorothy Porter and Roy Porter, "The Politics of Prevention: Anti-Vaccinationism and Public Health in Nineteenth-Century England," Med. Hist., 1988, 32: 231-52; Roy MacLeod, "Law, Medicine and Public Opinion: The Resistance to Compulsory Health Legislation, 1870-1907," Public Law, 1967, pp. 106-28; Nadja Durbach, "'They Might as Well Brand Us': Working-Class Resistance to Compulsory Vaccination in Victorian England," Soc. Hist. Med., 2000, 13:45-62.
30. Kaufman, "American Anti-Vaccinationists" (n. 14), p. 465.
31. "Vaccination and Revaccination," Boston Med. Surg J., 1894, 130:21-22.
32. New York's law on school enrollment was enacted in 1860: see William Fowler, "Principal Provisions of Smallpox Vaccination Laws and Regulations in the United States," Pub. Health Rep., 1941, 56:167-73; Charles L. Jackson, "State Laws on Compulsory Immunization in the United States," ibid., 1969, 84:787-95.
33. New York's law on school enrollment was enacted in 1860: see William Fowler, "Principal Provisions of Smallpox Vaccination Laws and Regulations in the United States," Pub. Health Rep., 1941, 56:167-73; Charles L. Jackson, "State Laws on Compulsory Immunization in the United States," ibid., 1969, 84:787-95.
34. Kaufman, "American Anti-Vaccinationists" (n. 14), p. 464.
35. The first permanent municipal health department was founded in New York City in 1866, and the first state board was created in Massachusetts in 1869. On the growth in the authority of health departments and scientific medicine during this period, see, e.g., Elizabeth Fee, Disease and Discovery: A History of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1916-1939 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 10-13; Elizabeth Fee and Evelynn M. Hammonds, "Science, Politics, and the Art of Persuasion: Promoting the New Scientific Medicine in New York City," in Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City, ed. David Rosner (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995), pp. 155-96; Stanley K. Schultz and Clay McShane, "To Engineer the Metropolis: Sewers, Sanitation, and City Planning in Late-Nineteenth-Century America," J. Amer. Hist., 1978, 65:389-411 ; Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State (n. 2).
36. The first permanent municipal health department was founded in New York City in 1866, and the first state board was created in Massachusetts in 1869. On the growth in the authority of health departments and scientific medicine during this period, see, e.g., Elizabeth Fee, Disease and Discovery: A History of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1916-1939 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 10-13; Elizabeth Fee and Evelynn M. Hammonds, "Science, Politics, and the Art of Persuasion: Promoting the New Scientific Medicine in New York City," in Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City, ed. David Rosner (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995), pp. 155-96; Stanley K. Schultz and Clay McShane, "To Engineer the Metropolis: Sewers, Sanitation, and City Planning in Late-Nineteenth-Century America," J. Amer. Hist., 1978, 65:389-411 ; Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State (n. 2).
37. The first permanent municipal health department was founded in New York City in 1866, and the first state board was created in Massachusetts in 1869. On the growth in the authority of health departments and scientific medicine during this period, see, e.g., Elizabeth Fee, Disease and Discovery: A History of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1916-1939 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 10-13; Elizabeth Fee and Evelynn M. Hammonds, "Science, Politics, and the Art of Persuasion: Promoting the New Scientific Medicine in New York City," in Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City, ed. David Rosner (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995), pp. 155-96; Stanley K. Schultz and Clay McShane, "To Engineer the Metropolis: Sewers, Sanitation, and City Planning in Late-Nineteenth-Century America," J. Amer. Hist., 1978, 65:389-411 ; Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State (n. 2).
38. The first permanent municipal health department was founded in New York City in 1866, and the first state board was created in Massachusetts in 1869. On the growth in the authority of health departments and scientific medicine during this period, see, e.g., Elizabeth Fee, Disease and Discovery: A History of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1916-1939 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 10-13; Elizabeth Fee and Evelynn M. Hammonds, "Science, Politics, and the Art of Persuasion: Promoting the New Scientific Medicine in New York City," in Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City, ed. David Rosner (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995), pp. 155-96; Stanley K. Schultz and Clay McShane, "To Engineer the Metropolis: Sewers, Sanitation, and City Planning in Late-Nineteenth-Century America," J. Amer. Hist., 1978, 65:389-411 ; Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State (n. 2).
39. Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State (n. 2), pp. 65-67; Leavitt, Healthiest City (n. 2), pp. 8-9 and passim.
40. Rosenkrantz, Public Health and the State (n. 2), pp. 65-67; Leavitt, Healthiest City (n. 2), pp. 8-9 and passim.
41. Notable recent works exploring the sociopolitical dimensions of public health authority include Susan Craddock, City of Plagues: Disease, Poverty, and Deviance in San Francisco (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000); Margaret Humphreys, Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
42. Notable recent works exploring the sociopolitical dimensions of public health authority include Susan Craddock, City of Plagues: Disease, Poverty, and Deviance in San Francisco (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000); Margaret Humphreys, Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
43. See, e.g., Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2). The New York City Department of Health had scored a notable success when it contained incipient typhus and cholera outbreaks in 1892 by enforcing strict quarantine on ships in New York Harbor. Markel stresses that while health officials justified quarantine on bacteriological grounds, their application of it was influenced by class and ethnic bias, with poor immigrants on affected ships receiving very different treatment from first-class passengers. On health officials' beliefs about the association between disease and class, see also Amy L. Fairchild, Science at the Borders: Immigrant Medical Inspection and the Shaping of the Modern Industrial Labor Force (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Other recent works to examine the effects of race on disease control include Marilyn Chase, The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco (New York: Random House, 2003); Shah, Contagious Divides (n. 2).
44. See, e.g., Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2). The New York City Department of Health had scored a notable success when it contained incipient typhus and cholera outbreaks in 1892 by enforcing strict quarantine on ships in New York Harbor. Markel stresses that while health officials justified quarantine on bacteriological grounds, their application of it was influenced by class and ethnic bias, with poor immigrants on affected ships receiving very different treatment from first-class passengers. On health officials' beliefs about the association between disease and class, see also Amy L. Fairchild, Science at the Borders: Immigrant Medical Inspection and the Shaping of the Modern Industrial Labor Force (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Other recent works to examine the effects of race on disease control include Marilyn Chase, The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco (New York: Random House, 2003); Shah, Contagious Divides (n. 2).
45. See, e.g., Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2). The New York City Department of Health had scored a notable success when it contained incipient typhus and cholera outbreaks in 1892 by enforcing strict quarantine on ships in New York Harbor. Markel stresses that while health officials justified quarantine on bacteriological grounds, their application of it was influenced by class and ethnic bias, with poor immigrants on affected ships receiving very different treatment from first-class passengers. On health officials' beliefs about the association between disease and class, see also Amy L. Fairchild, Science at the Borders: Immigrant Medical Inspection and the Shaping of the Modern Industrial Labor Force (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Other recent works to examine the effects of race on disease control include Marilyn Chase, The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco (New York: Random House, 2003); Shah, Contagious Divides (n. 2).
46. See, e.g., Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2). The New York City Department of Health had scored a notable success when it contained incipient typhus and cholera outbreaks in 1892 by enforcing strict quarantine on ships in New York Harbor. Markel stresses that while health officials justified quarantine on bacteriological grounds, their application of it was influenced by class and ethnic bias, with poor immigrants on affected ships receiving very different treatment from first-class passengers. On health officials' beliefs about the association between disease and class, see also Amy L. Fairchild, Science at the Borders: Immigrant Medical Inspection and the Shaping of the Modern Industrial Labor Force (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Other recent works to examine the effects of race on disease control include Marilyn Chase, The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco (New York: Random House, 2003); Shah, Contagious Divides (n. 2).
47. Judith Walzer Leavitt, Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996).
48. Jackson also makes this point in "State Laws" (n. 19), p. 787.
49. The practice scarred the arm, and it was also well known for causing soreness that lasted for several days. The care and skill with which practitioners administered the procedure varied widely, and sloppy vaccination sometimes resulted in other infections or inadequate protection from disease. Moreover, the operation provided relatively short-term immunity; experts disagreed on precisely how often people needed to be revaccinated, since the duration of protection could in general only be estimated. See Pedro Jose Salicrup, "Smallpox and the Value of Vaccination as a Preventive," New York Med. J., 1893, 57: 605-10.
50. Evelynn Maxine Hammonds, Childhood's Deadly Scourge: The Campaign to Control Diphtheria in New York City, 1880-1930 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), p. 15. Hammonds quotes Hermann Biggs, New York City's health commissioner in the 1890s, as writing: "Sanitary authorities must protect the community from, the individual, in order to provide the greatest good to the greatest number . . . . the State, not the individual, would define the common goal and see to its fulfillment" (ibid.).
51. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1886, p. 10.
52. Placards were more commonly used for residential quarantine, while flags were typical of maritime quarantine.
53. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1888, p. 45.
54. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, pp. 91-92.
55. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1887, p. 12.
56. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1888, p. 48.
57. The Metropolitan Board of Health that had been created in New York City in 1866 encompassed Manhattan and neighboring cities, including Brooklyn, In 1870, when a new city charter was approved, the jurisdiction of the board was limited to Manhattan, and a separate board of health was created for the city of Brooklyn: John Duffy, A History of Public Health in New York City, 1866-1966 (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1967), p. 51. The modern-day city of New York, joining Manhattan and Brooklyn along with the adjacent boroughs of Queens, the Bronx, and Staten. Island, was consolidated in 1898.
58. F. A. Jewett, "Smallpox in Brooklyn," Brooklyn Med. J., 1894, 8:290-92, quotation on p. 291. On German immigrants' mistrust of the health department, see also Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1888, pp. 11, 45.
59. F. A. Jewett, "Smallpox in Brooklyn," Brooklyn Med. J., 1894, 8:290-92, quotation on p. 291. On German immigrants' mistrust of the health department, see also Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1888, pp. 11, 45.
60. The European smallpox epidemic was triggered by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The fact that German soldiers, most of whom had been vaccinated, suffered far fewer casualties from the disease than the French, who had not, was widely cited by vaccination proponents in Europe and the United States as proof of the procedure's efficacy. See Claudia Huerkamp, "The History of Smallpox Vaccination in Germany: A First Step in the Medicalization of the General Public," J. Contemp. Hist., 1985, 20: 617-35. On the resistance of German immigrants to health department authority in Milwaukee, see Leavitt, Healthiest City (n. 2), pp. 80-83 and passim.
61. The European smallpox epidemic was triggered by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The fact that German soldiers, most of whom had been vaccinated, suffered far fewer casualties from the disease than the French, who had not, was widely cited by vaccination proponents in Europe and the United States as proof of the procedure's efficacy. See Claudia Huerkamp, "The History of Smallpox Vaccination in Germany: A First Step in the Medicalization of the General Public," J. Contemp. Hist., 1985, 20: 617-35. On the resistance of German immigrants to health department authority in Milwaukee, see Leavitt, Healthiest City (n. 2), pp. 80-83 and passim.
62. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, pp. 18, 87.
63. Exhibit C, Rules for Vaccinators, 20 March 1984, In Re Smith, New York State Supreme Court Cases and Briefs, vol. 4269, Appellate Division 1896-1911, pp. 68-69.
64. "Quarantined Family Escapes," New York Times, 23 March 1894, p. 9. According to the Sun, McCauley threatened health department doctors with a rifle when they first attempted the vaccinate him: "No Vaccination for Him," Sun, 23 March 1894, p. 1.
65. "Quarantined Family Escapes," New York Times, 23 March 1894, p. 9. According to the Sun, McCauley threatened health department doctors with a rifle when they first attempted the vaccinate him: "No Vaccination for Him," Sun, 23 March 1894, p. 1.
66. "The McAuleys Vaccinated," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 26 March 1894, p. 1. The Times and Eagle spellings of the family's last name are discrepant.
67. Cited in In Re Smith, 146 N.Y. 68 (1895), p. 68.
68. "Bungling Health Board Doctors," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 8 April 1894, p. 3. The Department of Health did not record how many houses were placed under quarantine during the outbreak, so it is impossible to determine precisely how widespread the practice was. Based on other information in annual reports and in press accounts, its use seems to have been uncommon relative to the number of vaccinations administered.
69. "Smallpox Precautions," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 30 March 1894, p. 7. The validity of this complaint is uncertain. The city did contract with private physicians to serve as vaccinators during epidemics, but it is unclear from health department records whether they were paid a flat or per capita salary.
70. "Moving Smallpox Patients," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 30 March 1894, p. 7.
71. On the influence of the press on popular opinions about science and medicine, see Bert Hansen, "America's first Medical Breakthrough: How Popular Excitement about a French Rabies Cure in 1885 Raised New Expectations for Medical Progress," Amer. Hist. Rev., 1998, 103: 373-418; Hammonds, Childhood's Deadly Scourge (n. 28), pp. 98-119 and passim.
72. On the influence of the press on popular opinions about science and medicine, see Bert Hansen, "America's first Medical Breakthrough: How Popular Excitement about a French Rabies Cure in 1885 Raised New Expectations for Medical Progress," Amer. Hist. Rev., 1998, 103: 373-418; Hammonds, Childhood's Deadly Scourge (n. 28), pp. 98-119 and passim.
73. New York City health officials were also very skillful in their use of the press to generate public support for their work during this period. See Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2), pp. 8-9.
74. "Vaccination Is Safe," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 26 March 1894, p. 5. See also "Smallpox Precautions," ibid., 21 March 1894, p. 12.
75. "Vaccination Is Safe," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 26 March 1894, p. 5. See also "Smallpox Precautions," ibid., 21 March 1894, p. 12.
76. "Vaccination Is Safe" (n. 48).
77. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, p. 12. The kind of support that Emery received from Schieren was essential in the intensely political environment of municipal public health during this period, as was most vividly exemplified by the successes of prominent New York figures like Hermann Biggs and Cyrus Edson. Biggs in particular was masterly in maintaining the support of New York's Tammany Hall government while appearing to remain aloof from the muck of partisan politics. On the effects of city politics, especially the machinations of Tammany Hall, on the practice of public health, see, inter alia, Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2); Fee and Hammonds, "Science, Politics" (n. 21); Duffy, History (n. 35).
78. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, p. 12. The kind of support that Emery received from Schieren was essential in the intensely political environment of municipal public health during this period, as was most vividly exemplified by the successes of prominent New York figures like Hermann Biggs and Cyrus Edson. Biggs in particular was masterly in maintaining the support of New York's Tammany Hall government while appearing to remain aloof from the muck of partisan politics. On the effects of city politics, especially the machinations of Tammany Hall, on the practice of public health, see, inter alia, Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2); Fee and Hammonds, "Science, Politics" (n. 21); Duffy, History (n. 35).
79. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, p. 12. The kind of support that Emery received from Schieren was essential in the intensely political environment of municipal public health during this period, as was most vividly exemplified by the successes of prominent New York figures like Hermann Biggs and Cyrus Edson. Biggs in particular was masterly in maintaining the support of New York's Tammany Hall government while appearing to remain aloof from the muck of partisan politics. On the effects of city politics, especially the machinations of Tammany Hall, on the practice of public health, see, inter alia, Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2); Fee and Hammonds, "Science, Politics" (n. 21); Duffy, History (n. 35).
80. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, p. 12. The kind of support that Emery received from Schieren was essential in the intensely political environment of municipal public health during this period, as was most vividly exemplified by the successes of prominent New York figures like Hermann Biggs and Cyrus Edson. Biggs in particular was masterly in maintaining the support of New York's Tammany Hall government while appearing to remain aloof from the muck of partisan politics. On the effects of city politics, especially the machinations of Tammany Hall, on the practice of public health, see, inter alia, Markel, Quarantine! (n. 2); Fee and Hammonds, "Science, Politics" (n. 21); Duffy, History (n. 35).
81. Exhibit A, Smith v. Emery, New York State Supreme Court Cases and Briefs, vol. 426, Appellate Division, 1896-1911, p. 48.
82. "Proceedings of Societies," Brooklyn Med. J., 1894, 8:643.
83. Cited in Brooklyn Med. J., 1894, 8:576.
84. "Physicians Fighting Hard," New York Times, 29 March 1894, p. 9.
85. "Great Increase in Smallpox," New York Times, 27 March 1894, p. 9. Newspaper accounts during the outbreak do not specify mass vaccination at all-female workplaces, but there is no reason to believe that the health department systematically neglected them. Indeed, health department annual reports frequently express concern over the work of seamstresses and laundresses because of the danger posed by contaminated clothes and bedding.
86. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, p. 178.
87. Annual Report . . . New York . . . 1894, pp. 12, 53.
88. Leavitt, Healthiest City (n. 2), pp. 76-121.
89. "Preparing to Stamp Out Smallpox," New York Times, 24 April 1894, p. 9.
90. "Anti-Vaccination Sentiment," New York Daily Tribune, 15 April 1894, p. 18.
91. Jewett, "Smallpox in Brooklyn" (n. 36); "Vaccination in the Public Schools," Brooklyn Med. J., 1894, 8:294.
92. Jewett, "Smallpox in Brooklyn" (n. 36); "Vaccination in the Public Schools," Brooklyn Med. J., 1894, 8:294.
93. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, p. 96.
94. "Modest Girls, Horrid Doctors," New York Herald, 30 March 1894, p. 8; "The Girls Fooled the Doctor," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 31 March 1894, p. 1.
95. "Modest Girls, Horrid Doctors," New York Herald, 30 March 1894, p. 8; "The Girls Fooled the Doctor," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 31 March 1894, p. 1.
96. "Against Compulsory Vaccination," New York Times, 22 April 1894, p. 12; "Anti-Vaccinators Busy," New York Herald, 28 April 1894, p. 4.
97. "Against Compulsory Vaccination," New York Times, 22 April 1894, p. 12; "Anti-Vaccinators Busy," New York Herald, 28 April 1894, p. 4.
98. Testimony of William H. Smith, Smith v. Emery (n. 51), pp. 12-22.
99. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1886, p. 39.
100. Testimony of William H. Smith, Smith v. Emery (n. 51), pp. 14-17.
101. Mortimer Smith, William Jay Gaynar, Mayor of New York (Chicago: Regnery, 1951), pp. 19-38. Gaynor was elected mayor in 1910 and died in office in 1913. His biographer Smith describes him as "by a wide margin the most cantankerous man ever to sit in City Hall" (p. ix).
102. "Dangers of Smallpox," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 7 May 1894, p. 5.
103. Ruling of William J. Gaynor, 18 May 1894, In Re Smith (n. 39), p. 35.
104. Testimony of Z. Taylor Emery, Smith v. Emery (n. 51), p. 67.
105. "A Fight Against Vaccination," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 5 May 1894, p. 1; "Law as to Vaccination," New York Times, 5 May 1894, p. 9; "As to Compulsory Vaccination," New York World, 5 May 1894, p. 8; "Gaynor on the Health Board's Rights," New York Daily Tribune, 5 May 1894, p. 12.
106. "A Fight Against Vaccination," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 5 May 1894, p. 1; "Law as to Vaccination," New York Times, 5 May 1894, p. 9; "As to Compulsory Vaccination," New York World, 5 May 1894, p. 8; "Gaynor on the Health Board's Rights," New York Daily Tribune, 5 May 1894, p. 12.
107. "A Fight Against Vaccination," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 5 May 1894, p. 1; "Law as to Vaccination," New York Times, 5 May 1894, p. 9; "As to Compulsory Vaccination," New York World, 5 May 1894, p. 8; "Gaynor on the Health Board's Rights," New York Daily Tribune, 5 May 1894, p. 12.
108. "A Fight Against Vaccination," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 5 May 1894, p. 1; "Law as to Vaccination," New York Times, 5 May 1894, p. 9; "As to Compulsory Vaccination," New York World, 5 May 1894, p. 8; "Gaynor on the Health Board's Rights," New York Daily Tribune, 5 May 1894, p. 12.
109. "Smallpox Outbreak Feared," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 30 May 1894, p. 1; see also "Refused to Be Vaccinated," New York Times, 31 May 1894, p. 9.
110. "Smallpox Outbreak Feared," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 30 May 1894, p. 1; see also "Refused to Be Vaccinated," New York Times, 31 May 1894, p. 9.
111. "Virus in an Italian Colony," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 7 May 1894, p. 1.
112. "Slashed at the Doctors," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 8 May 1894, p. 12.
113. "Want Emery Removed," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 29 May 1894, p. 7.
114. "A Legal Contest over Vaccination," New York Tribune, 13 July 1894, p. 12; "Anti-Vaccination Test Cases," New York Times, 13 July 1894, p. 9.
115. "A Legal Contest over Vaccination," New York Tribune, 13 July 1894, p. 12; "Anti-Vaccination Test Cases," New York Times, 13 July 1894, p. 9.
116. "Vaccination and the Public Schools," Brooklyn Med. J., 1894, 8:637-39, quotation on p. 638.
117. Annual Report . . . Brooklyn . . . 1894, p. 96. The number of house-to-house vaccinations was 164, 306.
118. "Smallpox in Brooklyn," Brooklyn Med. J., 1897, 11:34.
119. Ruling of J. Dykman, 14 February 1895, In Re Smith, Cases in the Court of Appeals, vol. 1442, New York Law Institute, p. 24.
120. In Re Smith, 146 N.Y. 68 (1895), p. 77.
121. The damages suit, Smith v. Emery, was a separate legal action from In Re Smith, the original suit contesting forced vaccination, although for several months during 1894-95 both were pending simultaneously in the state court system.
122. Judgment of Charles F. Brown, 16 December 1895, Smith v. Emery (n. 51), p. 10.
123. Smith, v. Emery (n. 51), p. 43. The figure of 140 cases per day does not correspond to any health department data; it is probable that the judge here is speaking hyperbolically.
124. Ibid., pp. 39-42 and passim.
125. At the end of 1895 a jury awarded $1,500 to Emil Schaefer, who claimed that he "came near dying from loss of blood and shock" after being vaccinated against his will by the same health department doctors who had attempted to force the procedure on Smith and Cummings ("$1,500 for Forced Vaccination," New York Times, 16 November 1895, p. 1).
126. "Death Followed the Vaccination," New York Herald, 3 May 1894, p. 11.
127. "Vaccine Suits in Brooklyn," New York Times, 10 January 1896, p. 9; "Light on That Vaccination," New York Tribune, 11 January 1896, p. 9.
128. "Vaccine Suits in Brooklyn," New York Times, 10 January 1896, p. 9; "Light on That Vaccination," New York Tribune, 11 January 1896, p. 9.
129. "The Burggraff Jury Discharged," New York Times, 18 January 1896, p. 9. See also "Burgraf vs. Emery," Brooklyn Med. J., 1896, 19: 139-47 (the spelling of the family name appears as Burggraff in most of the press accounts of the case) ; "Lockjaw Germs Abound," New York Times, 11 January 1896, p. 14.
130. "The Burggraff Jury Discharged," New York Times, 18 January 1896, p. 9. See also "Burgraf vs. Emery," Brooklyn Med. J., 1896, 19: 139-47 (the spelling of the family name appears as Burggraff in most of the press accounts of the case) ; "Lockjaw Germs Abound," New York Times, 11 January 1896, p. 14.
131. "The Burggraff Jury Discharged," New York Times, 18 January 1896, p. 9. See also "Burgraf vs. Emery," Brooklyn Med. J., 1896, 19: 139-47 (the spelling of the family name appears as Burggraff in most of the press accounts of the case) ; "Lockjaw Germs Abound," New York Times, 11 January 1896, p. 14.
132. Smith v. Emery, 11 A.D. 10 (1896), p. 14.
133. "Crowds Seek Vaccination," New York Daily Tribune, 2 December 1900, p. 6.
134. "Not a Plague-Stricken City," New York Daily Tribune, 23 December 1900, p. 10.
135. Annual Report . . . New York . . . 1901, pp. 13, 30.
136. Ibid., p. 30. A total of 1,964 cases and 410 fatalities were recorded in 1901.
137. New York State J. Med., 1901, 1:138.
138. "Compulsory Vaccination," New York Med. J., 1902, 75: 292; "To Make Vaccination Compulsory by Law," New York World, 11 February 1902, p. 4.
139. "Compulsory Vaccination," New York Med. J., 1902, 75: 292; "To Make Vaccination Compulsory by Law," New York World, 11 February 1902, p. 4.
140. Although the medical profession had become much more uniform in its use of allopathic methods, it remained highly fractured throughout this period, especially along lines of practice setting. Tensions were prominent between doctors associated with health departments, who embraced the power of bacteriology and laboratory methods in diagnosing and treating disease, and physicians in private practice, who placed greater value on the empiricism of clinical experience. Private practitioners often resented health department regulations such as mandatory reporting of infectious disease, which they saw as an intrusion on the doctor-patient relationship. See, e.g., Hammonds, Childhood's Deadly Scourge (n. 28), pp. 11-12. The debate over compulsory vaccination, however, does not seem to have broken out along any typical or predictable lines.
141. "Compulsory Vaccination," Brooklyn Med. J., 1902, 16:184.
142. "Vaccination under Indirect Compulsion," New York Med. J., 1902, 75: 330-31, quotation on p. 330.
143. Ibid., p. 331.
144. "The Amended Vaccination Act for New York State," Med. Rec., 1902, 61:379.
145. J. N. McCormack, "The Value of State Control and Vaccination in the Management of Smallpox," JAMA, 1902, 38:1434-35, quotation on p. 1434.
146. "Compulsory Vaccination Law," New York State J. Med., 1902, 2:99.
147. Michael R. Albert, Kristen G. Ostheimer, and Joel G. Breman, "The Last Smallpox Epidemic in Boston and the Vaccination Controversy, 1901-1903," New England J. Med., 2001, 344:375-79.
148. The effort to repeal the Massachusetts law was ultimately unsuccessful: ibid.
149. "Anti-Vaccination League," New York Times, 6 January 1901, p. 5.
150. "Compulsory Vaccination Law" (n. 104).
151. Annual Report . . . New York . . . 1902, p. 8.
152. Viemeister v. White, 179 N.Y. 235 (1904), p. 238.
153. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), p. 28.
154. I b i d.
155. James A. Tobey, Public Health Law: A Manual for Sanitarians (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1926), pp. 89-98; William Fowler, "Smallpox Vaccination Laws, Regulations, and Court Decisions," Pub. Health Rep., 1927, Suppl. 60:1-21. The earliest case on vaccination was heard in Vermont in 1830.
156. James A. Tobey, Public Health Law: A Manual for Sanitarians (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1926), pp. 89-98; William Fowler, "Smallpox Vaccination Laws, Regulations, and Court Decisions," Pub. Health Rep., 1927, Suppl. 60:1-21. The earliest case on vaccination was heard in Vermont in 1830.
157. On the debate over the MSEHPA, see, inter alia, John Colmers and Daniel M. Fox, "The Politics of Emergency Health Powers and the Isolation of Public Health," Amer. J. Pub. Health, 2003, 93:397-99; Ronald Bayer and James Colgrove, "Bioterrorism, Public Health and the Law," Health Affairs, 2002, 21: 98-101; George J. Annas, "Bioterrorism, Public Health, and Civil Liberties," New England J. Med., 2002, 346:1337-42.
158. On the debate over the MSEHPA, see, inter alia, John Colmers and Daniel M. Fox, "The Politics of Emergency Health Powers and the Isolation of Public Health," Amer. J. Pub. Health, 2003, 93:397-99; Ronald Bayer and James Colgrove, "Bioterrorism, Public Health and the Law," Health Affairs, 2002, 21: 98-101; George J. Annas, "Bioterrorism, Public Health, and Civil Liberties," New England J. Med., 2002, 346:1337-42.
159. On the debate over the MSEHPA, see, inter alia, John Colmers and Daniel M. Fox, "The Politics of Emergency Health Powers and the Isolation of Public Health," Amer. J. Pub. Health, 2003, 93:397-99; Ronald Bayer and James Colgrove, "Bioterrorism, Public Health and the Law," Health Affairs, 2002, 21: 98-101; George J. Annas, "Bioterrorism, Public Health, and Civil Liberties," New England J. Med., 2002, 346:1337-42.