Simon, Edmund M. H.

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COMMENTS ON VACCINATION IN THE FAREAST.BY EDMUND M. H. SIMON.A SHORT time after I had paid a visit to the International Ex-hibition of Hygiene at Dresden in 1911, where I had seen inthe excellent Japanese Section some instruments used in ancienttimes in Japan for the medical treatment of smallpox, and also anumber of books and pictures treating the question of the intro-duction of vaccination into the Country of the Rising Sun, I hap-pened to read an article written by Berthold Laufer concerning thesame subject.^ Supported by some statements from the official cata-logue^ and by a small pamphlet published in German on this occasion,^I may add some remarks to those already offered in Dr. Laufer'sarticle.According to Japanese statements the first credible record ofan epidemic of smallpox in China dates from the Tsin Dynasty(265-419 A. D.)* The first description of the disease is found ina medical book Choii-hoii-fang, written by the physician T'ao Hung-ching in the Liang dynasty (502-556).^ Further, the Ping-ymn-hou-lun, published by Ch'ao Yiian-fang in 601, dealt with the symp-tomatology of smallpox.*' During the Sung dynasty some specialworks on smallpox were written which also found their way toJapan. In the second year of the Japanese era Shoo (1653), a Chi-nese physician Tai Man-kung arrived in Nagasaki who published* Berthold Laufer, "The Introduction of Vaccination into the Far East,"The Open Court, Vol. XXV, pp. 524-531-" Katalog der von der Kais. Japan. Regierung ausgestellten Gegenstdnde,Dresden, 191 1.' Vakzination in Japan, Dresden, 191 1.* We regret that no exact details are given as to where these records areto be found.° Vakzination, p. i. •' Ibid.242 THE OPEN COURT.a book Ta-cJu-ch'iian-shoii treating of the course and prognosis ofsmallpox varying according to the place of outbreak and accordingto color and form. Ikeda ]\Iasanao, the medical adviser to thePrince Kikkwa, received instruction from Tai, and afterwardshanded down his knowledge to his family from which was descendedIkeda Kinkyo, the famous specialist for smallpox treatment. Kinkyowas appointed medical adviser to the Shogun in 1796 and foundedat Yedo (Tokyo) a special course in his science at the MedicalAcademy ( Igaku kwan). He also published drawings of the lipand tongue of smallpox sufiferers, and the minute details of hissketches give evidence of very careful study of the disease.To check the virulence of smallpox the practice of inoculationwas introduced into Japan in the second year of Enkyo (1744) bya Chinese from Hangchou called Li Jen-shan/ but it was not fol-lowed to any great extent by the Japanese. It is only since themiddle of the eighteenth century, when a Chinese book treating ofinoculation was published in Japan under the title Shnto shimpo("A Novel Method of Vaccination"), that this method was put moreand more into practice. One physician who applied inoculationwith good results is said to have been Ogata Shinsaku from theProvince of Hizen in Kiushiu. This man also invented some instru-ments which proved very helpful in fighting an epidemic that ragedin the clan of Akizuki* in 1788. He also recorded the results of hisinvestigations in a book, Slnito Hitsujumhcn, in 1795.\^accination become known in Japan not long after it was intro-duced into China by Dr. Pearson by means of the Yin-ton-liich, abook written and published in 1817 by the Chinese physician Ch'iuHao-chuan of ]\Ianhai who had applied Jenner's method with goodresults." The tract written by Dr. Pearson and the Yiii-tou-liicJiwere translated into Japanese by the botanist ltd Keisuke in 1840.'"The Japanese obtained practical knowledge of Jenner's methodfrom two dififerent sources at about the same time. In the first casethe knowledge was brought to them accidentally from Russia whena Japanese official named Nakagawa Goroji, imprisoned in 1808 onthe Kurile Island Iturup on suspicion of espionage, became ac-quainted with vaccination as conducted by the Russians. Afterhis release he introduced it in his native town Matsumai of Hok-^ Vakzination, p. 2.' In Chikuzen.^ Vakzination. pp. 4, 5, where the name of the book is given as Jin-tou-liith.'" Shisei Oyama published the Yin-tou-liich in 1847 in a revised and en-larged edition under the title: Intoshinipo-zcnsho.COMMENTS OX VACCTXATIOX TX THE FAR EAST. 243kaido, having obtained not only two books on the subject but someof the cow-lymph as well. Therefore Nakagawa was a1)le to checkthe force of epidemics which raged in 1824, 1835 and 1842, Init onaccount of the remoteness of his field of operation from the capitalhis successful work remained unknown there. However, this factconfirms the truth of a statement made by a Russian physician/^that in consequence of measures he had employed vaccination hadbeen propagated from Jekutzh as far as Jakutsk and Ochotsk;but we suppose that the writer of this did not know that he hadalso been indirectly the teacher of Japan, which at that time wasstill closed to foreigners except a few Dutch merchants.The other occasion was when the famous German physician andnaturalist Philipp von Siebold, who was employed by the DutchEast India Company, introduced Jenner's discovery into Japan, im-porting cow-lymph from Java to Nagasaki in 1824. Originally theeflforts made by him and some others did not meet with muchrecognition, but when Narabayashi Soken,^- medical adviser toPrince Nabeshima Kanso, Daimyo of Saga, having been orderedto provide cow-lymph, had obtained it from the Dutch physicianMohnike. and had vaccinated some children with good results in1849, the new method gained a victory. Narabayashi also pub-lished a book Gyfito shoko describing the method of vaccinationand reported a conversation he had had with Mohnike on the samesubject.Although the Bakupu, the government of the Shogun, sym-pathized with the physicians of the old style and forbade the studyof European medicine, the new method of vaccination made rapidprogress in Japan. The most celebrated books of foreign medicalauthorities were translated into Japanese and published by MiyakeShinrai. Institutes for vaccination were established and pamphletsas well as colorprints distributed among the people. Specimens ofthese were to be seen at the exhibition held at Dresden which werevery similar to the specimen described by Dr. Laufer. Finally in1874 the new regime made vaccination compulsory after the Jap-anese institutes had been successful in preparing cow-lymph of goodcjuality.When the 100th amiiversary of Jenner's discovery was cele-brated in 1896, the united medical societies of Japan erected amonument in Ueno-Park at Tokyo in acknowledgment of the greatgenius of the discoverer." Cf. J. J. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese, 1903, p. 757.^' Kafalog, ibid., gives tlic name Narabayashi Wazan.AN EASY WAY TO FIND EASTER IN THE TWEN-TIETH CENTURY.*BY EBERHARD NESTLE.THE newspapers report that the negotiations which recentlywent on between the states of Europe to put an end to thevaccination of Easter, have been unsuccessful, at least for the timebeing. It is therefore desirable to know an easy way for the deter-mination of Easter.It is a well-known fact that in determining the date of Eastertwo traditions have been combined : the Jewish, which kept andkeeps Passover on the day of the first full moon in the spring ; andthe Christian, which led to the observance of the following Sunday.Two questions are therefore united, when we ask on what day Easterwill fall. We must know:1. on what day of the nionth will be the first spring full moon,and2. on what day of the week it will fall.Following the good rule divide et iuipera, we can answer boththese questions very easily.1. Multiply the year {annus) a by 11, divide the product by30, subtract the remainder from 45 and you have the day of thefirst full moon in the spring by counting from the first of March.The formula then will be 45 - (11a -30;//) in which ni is the largestwhole number of times 30 will be contained in \\a, here ignoringthe remainder.Examples :(19)12x11 = 132; 132 : 30 leaves 12 ; 45-12 = 33. March 33 =April 2.* Eberhard Nestle, D.D., Ph.D., a professor at the theological seminaryat Maulbronn, famous for his Syriac and Hebrew works and also as a Semiticscholar in general, takes great interest in his leisure hours in mathematicalstudies, and we take pleasure in publishing one of his lucubrations in the lineof his hobby. It may be of interest also to our readers that Dr. Nestle, havinglived for two or three years in England, speaks and writes English withfacility.AN EASY WAY TO FIND EASTER IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 245( 19) 13 X 1 1 = 143 ; 143 : 30 leaves 23 ; 45 - 23 = 22. March 22.(19)14x11 = 154; 154 : 30 leaves 4; 45-4 = 41. March 41 =AprillO.Observation 1 : If a (the year) be greater than 19, simplify theoperation by subtracting 19 or multiples of 19.Observation 2: If the result be smaller than 21, add 30.Example for observations 1 and 2:1943. 43 : 19 leaves 5 ; 5 x 11 = 55 ; 55 - 30 leaves 25 ; 45 - 25 = 20;20+30 = 50. March 50 = April 19.2. Now comes the second task: What day of the week is theday thus found? Denoting the desired day of the week by x, theday of the month by d, and the year by a we have the formulasa) for April. d-{- \-<-^+\a—>'P • ^ leaves x;b) for March. d+ [.a+\J^-r\'] +4 : 7 leaves .v;in which r equals the remainder of the previous operation beingthe division of the year by 4. In the resulting numerical valuesof X, 1 indicates Sunday, 2 Monday, etc.To use the same examples as above:1912, April 2. 2 + 12 + (3 - 0) = 17 : 7 leaves 3 = Tuesday.1913, March 22. 22 + 13 + (3^4 - i/4) + 4 = 42 : 7 leaves = Saturday.1914, April 10. 10 + 14 + (31/2 - 1/0) = 27 : 7 leaves 6 = Friday.1943, April 19. 19 + 43 + ( 10% -%)^72 -.7 leaves 2 = Monday.Observation 3 : It is clear that I can at once simplify everymember by subtracting 7 or multiples of 7. Instead of sayingMarch 22, April 10, April 19, I say 1, 3, 5 ; instead of years 12, 13,14,43, Isay 5, 6, 0, 1.Observation 4: That I must add to the year a its fourth part,comes from the leap years.Easter then always comes on the Sunday following the daythus found; i. e., in 1912 it will be April 7, in 1913 March 23, in1914 April 12, and in 1943 April 25, which is as late as Easter canfall, while in 1913 it will be almost as early as it can be.3. There are two exceptions in the general rules for findingEaster ; but as they are very rare, they may be neglected here. Toexplain how it is possible to bring the rules for Easter, which areregarded as very complicated, to such a simple form in the 20thcentury, will lead us too far here. Suffice it to say that the moonkeeps a period of 19 years ; therefore the 1900 years which havepassed before the years for which we seek the full moon, may beneglected.246 THE OPEN COURT.4. The above rules under 2 are only a special application of thegeneral rules by which the day of the week of any date can be fixed.They are based on the continued division ofseven. Perhaps the most convenient formwhich can be given them will be found inthe annexed calendar.UNIVERSAL CALENDAR.To find the day of the week of any(late (for instance of the day of yourbirth) add the figures in either marginalcolumn corresponding to the day (d),month (;//), year (a) and century (c),and divide the sum by 7. The remain-der will give the required day of the week.1 meaning Sunday, 2 Monday, 3 Tuesdayand so on. For the Julian calendar, whichis still used in Russia and has been replacedelsewhere in Europe by the Gregorian sinceOctober 15, 1582, use for century (c) thefigures under J, for the Gregorian underG. For leapyears, use for January andFebruary the bracketed (I), (II).By letting the letters d, m, a, c, standfor the marginal figures (1-7) which ap-pear in our table in the same lines as thecorresponding figures of the date, we havethe formula,d + ui -{ a + c : 7.To illustrate, let us determine uponwhat day of the week Washington's birth-day fell this year. Then by consultingthe table we find d-\, m = 7, a=l, c = 3.1 + 7+1+3 :7 leaves 5. Hence the dayof the week required is Thursday.-

Comments on Vaccination in the Far East.

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Comments on Vaccination in the Far East.

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