Providentia

The Last Alchemist

Alchemy has a very long history.

First believed to have been practiced in Ancient Persia, the ancient dream of endless wealth and immortality has enticed practitioners for thousands of years. While attempts to transmute lead into gold or create the elixir of life have always ended in failure, the lure was enough to entice famous scientists such as Roger Bacon, Tycho Brahe and Isaac Newton to give it a try. Still, by the 18th century, there was enough skepticism for alchemy to be dismissed as a fantasy by the scientific community.

Which brings us to James Price...

Born in 1752, his original name was actually Higginbotham but he changed it to Price when a wealthy relative left him a legacy. After distinguishing himself at Oxford by earning various degrees, he became a member of the Royal Society at the age of 29. Although Price seemed set for an eminent career in science, he began to concentrate a more unconventional line of research: transmuting base metals into precious metals (particularly turning mercury into gold).  Which was a pity, since, as I've already mentioned, whatever respect alchemists claimed in previous centuries had long since evaporated by Price's time.

After telling a few of his friends that he had been successful in his strange research, Price became the subject of some fearful whispering among fellow chemists. It was this public skepticism that caused Price to begin a series of public demonstrations of his transmutation process. The process centered on a special "powder of production" that could transform mercury and other base metals into gold or silver "under special circumstances". He conducted seven public experiments beginning on on May 6, 1782 and ended on May 25th. With various peers, baronets, clergymen and chemists in attendance, Price mixed borax, nitre, mercury, and other assorted chemicals and produced small amounts of gold and silver that he later presented to King George III.

The initial reaction was certainly positive. Oxford University bestowed a Doctor of Medicine degree on Price and there was tremendous demand for the written account of his experiments. Anyone remembering the cold fusion debacle a few years back can appreciate the tremendous enthusiasm resulting from the news of Price's discovery. The notion of endless wealth being produced for England through alchemy was certainly intoxicating (setting aside the fact that gold was mainly valuable because it was scarce). Since James Price was a respected and wealthy scientist who came from a distinguished family, the possibility that he might have faked his results seemed unthinkable.

Unfortunately for Price, the Royal Society remained skeptical.They insisted that Price repeat his experiments under controlled conditions to rule out the possibility of error. Price's hesitation made them even more suspicious. He attempted to downplay his earlier success and insisted that his powder of production was too expensive to make in large quantities. He added that the process of creating gold wasn't as cost-effective as he had previously assumed and that the cost of ingredients was greater than the cost of the gold produced. While his experiments were of scientific value, Price insisted that there would be no point in repeating them.

The president of the Royal Society, Joseph Banks, flatly told Price that his scientific reputation was at stake as well as the reputation of the Royal Society itself.   Price, in return, began to insist that he was the victim of persecution and that his reputation should rule out any thought of deceit. By then, even Price's friends had become distressed by his refusal and finally persuaded him to produce more of his powder of production for the Royal Society to examine. He left London in January, 1783 and returned to his Guildford laboratory. Although he had promised to return in a month, nothing more was heard from him for six months when he finally returned to London. Inviting as many members of the Royal Society as he could to his Guildford laboratory, he arranged for a demonstration on August 3rd of that same year.

Price's reputation had already been damaged by his long delay and even most of his friends had deserted him by the time of his demonstration. That only three members of the Royal Society showed up on August 3rd probably told Price all he needed to know. After greeting his guests cordially, he stepped away from them and drank a vial of what would later turn out to be laurel water. When he began to collapse, his visitors tried to help him but it was too late.  Before they could arrange for medical attention, James Price was dead.

An investigation would later find that Price had recently written his last will and testament and wrapped up his affairs before calling for the demonstration. Despite intense speculation over why Price had staked his professional reputation (and his life) on his strange fixation with alchemy, no real explanation was ever found. It's probably likely that he had deceived himself into believing that he was successful and, little by little, resorted to deception to avoid disgrace. Suicide may have been the only solution for the mess that he had created for himself.

James Price's suicide marked the end of alchemy in the United Kingdom (though it lingered on in other parts of the world). His sad fate represents an object lesson in how easy it is to be seduced by the prospect of fame and fortune as well as how hard it is to admit that you're wrong. Too many other would-be discoverers have learned this the hard way.

The Man Who Had Visions

It's hard to think of the right word to describe Emmanuel Swedenborg.  Complex doesn't even come close.

Born in 1688, Swedenborg's father was a bishop who often claimed to see spirits and made claims of miraculous cures (he also did exorcisms). His religious upbringing didn't prevent Emmanuel Swedenborg from traveling extensively and immersing himself in the natural sciences.  Despite a stuttering problem that made him extremely reluctant to speak in public, he devoted the next two decades of his life to projects in astronomy, physics, and mineralogy including various attempts to reconcile philosophy and the physical sciences (he even proposed early versions of a flying machine and a submarine). After turning down an appointment as professor of mathematics at Uppsala University (his stuttering made the idea of public lectures unthinkable), he turned to the life sciences in 1736.

Traveling to medical centres in France and Italy, he went on to do extensive research in anatomy and physiology. It was Swedenborg who first proposed that the cerebral cortex could be divided into specific regions that controlled different parts of the body. These specialized "cortical territories" were highly interconnected and enable the brain to function as a coherent whole. He also identified the role of cortical region at the back of the frontal lobes in voluntary muscle control, and even suggested that the frontal lobes of the brain were linked to intellectual functions (including imagination, memory, and thought).

Although many of Swedenborg's discoveries were revolutionary, the mainstream medical community in other countries didn't really become aware of them until the late 19th century (his treatises on the brain weren't fully translated for decades). By then, most of his astounding discoveries had been made by other researchers working independently. His lack of an academic post worked against him as well but Swedenborg might still have become one of the pioneers of medical science if he had persisted in his research. Unfortunately, all of his scientific activities had ended by 1743.

Which was when the visions started...

While he had been a religious man all his life,  Swedenborg was fifty-five when first began experiencing a strange spiritual crisis. After taking a leave of absence from his research and traveling to the Netherlands, he was haunted by strange dreams that he faithfully recorded in his journal. In one story that was often retold years later, Swedenborg was eating in a London tavern when "a darkness fell upon his eyes and the room shifted character. Suddenly he saw a person sitting at a corner of the room, telling him: "Do not eat too much!".  Frightened by what happened, he hurried home. Later that night, the same man appeared in his dreams. The man told Swedenborg that He was the Lord, that He had appointed Swedenborg to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and that He would guide Swedenborg in what to write.  He reportedly became so agitated that the physician who was treating him had six men guard him as he slept.

After arranging for a government pension to support him, Swedenborg devoted himself to his strange visions and the religious books that he wrote based on what he experienced (and which he later claimed were dictated to him by an angel). He spent the remaining years of his life traveling between London, Stockholm, and the Netherlands and wrote fourteen books on various spiritual topics. The visions that he described took him from Heaven to Hell and across the solar system (and meeting the inhabitants he found there). Most of his works were published during his lifetime and he quickly developed a reputation as a mystic (or a lunatic depending on who you asked).His books were remarkably consistent and his descriptions of the nature of Heaven, Hell and the universe has had a tremendous influence over the years. Although some of Swedenborg's writings were bizarre (he claimed that the moon was inhabited by a race of creatures who spoke through their stomachs), his sincere manner and reputed psychic ability won over many doubters. Other critics were more skeptical (Immanuel Kant wrote that Swedenborg should be in a madhouse and two of his supporters were tried for heresy in Sweden), but Swedenborg's crusade continued.

The bulk of his spiritual writings focused on God's plan to initiate His kingdom on earth but he denied that anything he wrote was theological (they were based on his personal experiences after all). In later years, Swedenborg became increasingly deranged and lived on a diet of milk and bread. Evil spirits continually harassed him with temptations although he was comforted and protected by good spirits. Although  already a lifelong bachelor, he became so frightened of women that he would never see them alone. By the time of his death in 1772, Swedenborg was one of the most well-known mystical writers of his time and his works have since been translated into numerous languages. His works inspired later writers including William Blake, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Henry James Senior (father of William and Henry James), and Carl Jung.  Swedenborg's supporters founded the New Jerusalem Church in 1778 (a branch in the United States was founded in 1792). Despite the inevitable schisms over interpretations of his writings, he still has a devoted following and the Swedenborg Society (founded in 1810) is actively engaged in disseminating his works.

The question of why an accomplished scientist like Swedenborg made such an abrupt change in his later life from science to mysticism has baffled later writers and researchers. While it's tempting to link Swedenborg's experiences to the mystical visions and religious grandiosity often experienced by schizophrenics and patients with certain neurological conditions, the available evidence doesn't really indicate a clear diagnosis. If there was a neurological basis to these visions, then it would be especially ironic that it would occur in someone who might well have become one of the great pioneers in brain research had his life not take such a strange direction.

Understanding Troll Personalities

The sub-clinical personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and everyday sadism (i.e., the dark triad/tetrad) are known to predict subversive behaviours. Given increases in the prevalence of social media and internet use, and the growing knowledge about the negative consequences of their use, it is important to understand how these traits relate to online behaviours. A recent article in Personality and Individual Differences presents a systematic review of the evidence for these relationships and found 26 studies which reveal these traits are related to trolling, cyber-aggression, cyber-loafing, sending unsolicited explicit images, the non-consensual dissemination of ‘sexts’, cyberbullying, problematic social media usage, problematic online gaming, problematic internet use, internet-use disorder, social media addiction, intimate partner cyberstalking, technology facilitated sexual violence, and technology facilitated infidelity. The review revealed evidence that psychopathy is the trait most strongly associated with these behaviours - Machiavellianism and everyday sadism were also consistently related to these behaviours, albeit to a lesser degree. Narcissism is the trait least consistently related to antisocial online behaviours. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Scientists Challenge Social Media Giants to help Combat Vaccine Misinformation to End "Unnecessary Crisis"

In the wake of massive anti-vaccination campaigns being waged around the world, the World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy as a major public health issue jeopardizing countless lives.  Recognizing the role that social media sites play in spreading vaccine misinformation, a group of global scientists are calling on companies such as Google and Facebook to help spread the word about vaccine safety.    A recent issues of the  Journal of Health Communication has published the Salzburg Statement on Vaccination Acceptance outlining the major health benefits resulting from vaccine use internationally.  This includes the total eradication of diseases such as smallpox as well as the millions of lives being saved yearly through vaccination campaigns intended to control Hepatitis B, meningitis, measles, and polio.   Not only is vaccination saving lives but it also makes good economic sense given that every dollar spent on vaccination is repaid many times over in reduced demand on health care services, lost time from work, and overall health improvement in most populations.

But the rising incidence of vaccine hesitancy threatens to reverse many of these gains.   In 2017 alone, 110,000 people around the world died of measles, an otherwise preventable disease.   And most of these deaths occurred in children younger than five years of age.   In that same year, measles vaccinations across European nations fell below the 95 percent threshold needed to maintain herd immunity.  As a result, measles cases have surged across much of Europe with dozens of children having died already.

"We are alarmed that the WHO this year declared vaccine hesitancy a top-ten international public health problem," says Scott Ratzan, founding editor of the Journal of Health Communication, in a recent news release.  "This is a man-made, dangerous and wholly unnecessary crisis." 

In the United States, measles outbreaks have occurred in eleven states with more than one thousand measles cases being reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   Though the United Nations has already implicated vaccine-averse parents in the crisis, finding real solutions continues to be a challenge.    

Meanwhile, Facebook groups such as  Stop Mandatory Vaccinations continue to share inflammatory posts outlining perceived dangers of vaccines, including videos from parents blaming vaccines for health problems in their children.  Such groups mainly serve as an "echo chamber" to help anti-vaccine advocates collect more false stories about vaccines to bolster their arguments.   That many of these stories are exaggerated and most studies finding health problems in vaccines have been discredited hardly seems to matter to the anti-vaccine lobby.   While Facebook has already told media interviewers that it is fighting misinformation, little has been done to date.    Other platforms, including  Pinterest, and YouTube, have already acted to censure people knowingly spreading misinformation,

Though the anti-vaccine campaigns will likely continue, medical authorities and social media companies are doing what they can to ensure the actual facts about vaccination are getting out.    Ultimately, every social media user  needs to be skeptical about any new information they hear and be certain about the facts before passing it on to others.   

For more information

 

 

"The Worst Woman on Earth"

Despite the controversy over Lizzie Borden's acquittal in 1893,  her supporters continued to defend her by insisting that a woman couldn't possibly by guilty of a brutal axe murder.   So, there has to be a certain irony that another Lizzie would be arrested that same year for crimes even more gruesome than the crimes Borden supposedly committed.   And there would be absolutely no doubt that this other Lizzie was guilty as charged.

Born in 1859 in Ireland under the name Eliza Margaret McNally,  the early childhood of the woman most commonly known as Lizzie Halliday seemed ordinary enough.  After she and her family emigrated to the United States when she was a small child, she would marry her first husband at the age of twenty but, as later events would soon prove, Lizzie didn't have a lot of luck with marriage.   Or with motherhood considering that her only child, a son born to her first husband, was reportedly born "feeble minded".    Not one to let herself be tied down; Lizzy had her son committed to a state institution as soon as her husband died of "natural causes."  

Lizzie's next two marriages scarcely merit mentioning, aside from the fact that her husbands either died or disappeared not long after Lizzie married them.   That all of her husbands were older men with generous military pensions didn't seem as remarkable as the fact that she managed to go through five marriages by the time she reached her late twenties, sometimes being married to more than one husband at a time.   That she was able to marry so often wasn't nearly as remarkable as the fact that she could find willing candidates considering the stories that came out about how Lizzie treated her various husbands, including allegations of verbal and physical abuse.

Remarkably though, her fourth husband, George Smith, was lucky enough to survive after Lizzie tried to poison him with arsenic.  When the murder attempt was exposed, Lizzie promptly fled to Vermont and managed to marry a fifth husband, this time someone closer to her own age.  Whatever her reasons for marrying this new man, she disappeared once more after only two weeks of wedded bliss.

Lizzie finally surfaced again in 1888, this time with her son in tow (he had recently been released from the institution).   She stayed for a time in New York with a childhood friend, Margaret McQuinlan (this name will be important later).   She then moved to Philadelphia without her son, and  rented a store with its own apartment until a devastating fire destroyed her building and the buildings on both sides.  After an investigation, Lizzie was promptly convicted of fraud and arson and spent two years in Eastern State Penitentiary.   Lizzie being Lizzie, she managed to marry yet another elderly admirer not long after her release in 1891.

Paul Halliday, her newest husband (number six, in case you lost count), was in his seventies when he married Lizzie and already had two sons from his first marriage.   While his first son was married and living on his own, the second son was a life-long invalid and, as such, needed to live with his father and new wife.   If Lizzie objected to being a nursemaid to this stepson, she didn't say anything.    Instead, the family home went up in flames soon afterward and the disabled son died in the fire.  Nobody suspected arson despite Lizzie's colourful history and the Hallidays simply moved to another house.   But if Paul Halliday was hoping for some domestic bliss to ease the pain of losing his son, he would be sadly mistaken.    

When he was reported missing in 1893, police became suspicious enough to search the house where he had been living with Lizzie.    While they eventually found the body of the unfortunate Mr. Halliday, they also found two other bodies buried in the born.    They were identified as Lizzie's old friend, Margaret McQuinlan, and her daughter, Sarah.   Both women had both gone missing some time previously and police were still searching for them when their bodies were discovered.   A coroner determined that Paul Halliday had been mutilated and shot at least twice while both McQuinlans had also been shot repeatedly.    To make things even more macabre, a fourth body was discovered on the property, this one belonging to a local peddler who had also gone missing.    Lizzie Halliday was charged with four murders and police also started taking a closer look at the other "convenient" deaths that had occurred in her past.

Even as Lizzie was waiting for trial, she needed regular police protection to prevent her from being lynched by people who had known the Hallidays and the McQuinlans.   In the meantime, Lizzie, well aware that an insanity defense was her only hope,  did her best to convince everyone that she was quite insane.  This included ranting and raving in her cell, refusing to take care of herself, and letting her hair grown disheveled and matted.   She also tried cutting her own throat and hanging herself with a rope she managed to find someplace.   The sheriff, who had grown tired of her antics, had her chained to the floor in her cell but Lizzie simply switched to starving herself instead.   To ensure that she lived long enough to stand trial, the court ordered her to be force-fed.

But Lizzie wasn't just suspected of the murders for which she had been charged.   Since she was known to have been in Europe in 1888 when the Whitechapel Murders were taking place and had mentioned them while she was raving, at least a few newspapers began openly speculating that Lizzie might actually be Jack the Ripper.   While the sheriff even went so far as to ask Lizzie whether she had committed those crimes, she simply replied that the murders had been done by a man and, lacking any real evidence,  nothing more came of it.   

As for Lizzie's trial, which began on June 18, 1894, it proved to be quite a spectacle.   Lizzie insisted that she wasn't guilty and that murders had actually been committed by a band of "gypsy-like brigands" who preyed on peddlers and other travelers so they could steal their possessions.   She also insisted that these brigands had drugged her and forced her to watch her husband's murder.  Despite some speculation that Lizzie may have been part of a "gipsy gang" that had committed the murders she had arranged, all of the evidence from her trial showed that she had acted alone. 

According to witnesses, Lizzie had lured Margaret McQuinlan from her home by asking for her help in cleaning a large boarding house she would be running.   Margaret's husband testified that Lizzie returned to the McQuinlan home and told them that Margaret had fallen ill and needed Sarah to help care for her.   Neither women was ever seen alive again after leaving with her.  As well, personal property belonging to both McQuinlans was found in Lizzie's home by police.

With all the evidence presented in court, it didn't take long for a jury to decide that Lizzie was guilty, and, on June 27, she was sentenced to be executed.     As it happened, she took this news rather hard and, as she was being led out of the courtroom, bit the sheriff escorting her so badly that he developed a serious infection due to the bite.   Stories vary on whether he died or simply lost his arm due to infection, but, either way, this was one crime for which Lizzie was never charged.

While the original plan was for Lizzie to be sent to the electric chair (which would have made her the first woman to be executed this way), a last-minute plea for clemency to then-Governor Roswell Flower succeeded and she was instead sent to the Mattewean Prison for the Criminally Insane (now the Fishkill Correctional Facility).    But Lizzie was still as dangerous as ever and even her fellow inmates avoided her.   In one graphic incident just a few years later, she attacked an attendant that she felt had treated her badly and, with the help of another inmate almost as crazy as Lizzie, left the attendant unconscious and badly scratched by the time of her rescue.   The attendant, Catherine Ward, managed to recover (presumably Lizzie didn't bite this one.)

But there was an even grimmer incident that occurred in 1906.   A 24-year-old nurse named Nellie Wicks had recently been promoted to the head of the unit where Lizzie was being housed.   Not only was Nurse Wicks exceptionally kind, but she also gave Lizzie special privileges which she appreciated.   In return,  Lizzie developed a maternal affection for the young nurse.   Unfortunately, this changed rapidly when Nurse Wicks announced that she would be leaving Mattewean and her patients.   According to one new story, she was planning to return to school to continue her nursing training and Lizzie, furious at losing her, insisted that she stay.    Nellie Wicks' refusal apparently upset Lizzie greatly and she began muttering threats that other inmates reported to staff.   Even the superintendent heard about the threats but, given that Lizzie had been problem-free for years, decided that the threats weren't serious. 

Big mistake.

On October 21, 1906, Lizzie followed Nurse Wicks as she was walking through Lizzie's ward as usual when Lizzie, grabbing the nurse's keys out of her hand, used them to lock them both inside a bathroom.   There Lizzie attacked Nurse Wicks and, using a pair of scissors that she had somehow managed to acquire, then proceeded to stab Nellie Wicks repeatedly.   By the time staff realized that something was wrong and broke down the door, Lizzie had managed to stab the hapless nurse two hundred times.   

Even after staff tried to pull her away from her victim, she responded by attacking them instead.   Her violence only ended after she was wrestled to the floor, but it was too late for Nellie Wicks.   She died minutes later despite all the medical treatment the doctors could provide.  As for Lizzie, she was placed in solitary confinement once again and there she would remain until her death on June 28, 1918.  Ironically, her stepson Paul, the only member of the Halliday family that Lizzie hadn't killed, died just a year later.   

According to Lizzie's obituary (which referred to her as the "worst woman on Earth"), she was known to have killed at least five people but likely killed many more, including various husbands.   While she could technically be classified as a serial killer, all of her murders had been for profit, aside from the death of Nellie Wicks,  and she lacked the psychosexual features seen in many male serial killers.  As for why she resorted to murder, one of her many newspaper obituaries may have described her motivation best of all:   she was "born with the desire to kill."  

Fighting the Vaccination Wars

Although Jenny McCarthy and her fellow anti-vaccinationists still wage their very public crusade against vaccination, there's nothing really new about their arguments. Opposition to vaccination is as old as vaccination itself.

Smallpox was once one of the most devastating and feared diseases in history. As recently as the 18th century, frequent outbreaks killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year and left many survivors disfigured. Especially dangerous in children, 80% of those who contracted smallpox died of the disease. When Lady Ashley Wortley Montague arranged for her son and daughter to be inoculated against smallpox in 1717 (the practice was common in Asia but was unknown in Europe), she had no idea of the storm she would unleash as a result. Although early opposition to inoculation had a valid basis (patients undergoing the first inoculation technique, also known as variolation, had an estimated 3 percent chance of developing serious complications), much of the resistance came from religious leaders.

In a July 8, 1722 lecture by Edmund Massey at St. Andrew's Church in Holborn, England, he based his sermon on a passage from the Book of Job, "So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with boils, from the sole of his foot, unto his crown". Massey argued that the Biblical disease in question was smallpox and added, "With this view, I will not scruple to call it a diabolical operation, usurping an authority founded neither in nature or religion. This practice also tends to support vice and immorality, inasmuch as it diminishes the salutary terror which prevails respecting the uncertain approach of this disease".  In other words, being afraid of smallpox built character.

Although Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination meant a safer alternative to variolation, it would still take many years for vaccination to be widely accepted. In 1840, the British Parliament passed the first Vaccination Act which banned variolation. The Act also gave local boards the power to vaccinate everyone in their districts but still allowed individual objectors to refuse. While vaccination campaigns led to a dramatic drop in smallpox cases, outbreaks continued to occur (especially in the growing city slums). Following pressure from medical authorities, Parliament amended the act in 1853 to make vaccination compulsory. Not only were all newborns required to be vaccinated within the first three months of life but any parent refusing to comply was fined. By 1867, the law became even more stringent with parents being prosecuted for refusing to have their children vaccinated.

It was the stringent laws that inspired the development of the anti-vaccination movement in the 1870s. One of the leading figures in the movement was William Tebb who co-founded the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination in 1880 (it later became the National Anti-vaccination League in 1896). A lifelong firebrand, Tebb had been prosecuted thirteen times for refusing to vaccinate his third daughter. Along with his supporters, Tebb pushed for the abolition of the Vaccination Act and an end to compulsory vaccination in the UK and abroad. Realizing that the movement needed an eminent scientist to support the anti-vaccination cause, Tebb recruited an unlikely champion: Alfred Russel Wallace.

Although Wallace was already famous for his role in the development of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, his willingness to take on unpopular causes had earned him considerable notoriety as well. Wallace had not always been an anti-vaccinationist (his earlier writings praised Edward Jenner as a medical pioneer and he had his own children vaccinated) but his involvement with Spiritualism brought him into regular contact with anti-vaccinationists (especially Tebb). It was Tebb who persuaded Wallace to join the movement by presenting him with statistics that he had compiled concerning the risks associated with vaccination. Whether due to the statistics or his own concerns about the basic infringements on individual freedom resulting from the Vaccination Act, Wallace became a convert to the cause sometime in the early 1880s.

In fairness to Wallace, there was probably was some basis for his skepticism. At the time, nobody knew exactly why vaccination worked. Despite Louis Pasteur's research and the recent acceptance of the germ theory of disease, the science of immunology was still in its infancy. The fact that medical authorities were eagerly pushing for something that the anti-vaccinationists were condemning as "quackery" and prosecuted parents who refused to comply was enough for Wallace to get involved. Working with the statistics that Tebb provided, Wallace began his own research into vaccination and the government statistics on smallpox and vaccination. He also attempted to link incidence of smallpox to more general issues of sanitation. While the Public Health Act of 1848 began to improve living conditions in most slums, progress remained slow and health problems related to sewage and industrial waste were still common. Wallace and his fellow anti-vaccinationists argued that smallpox and other infectious diseases were actually caused by contamination and that vaccination was likely dangerous in itself. There was (if you'll pardon the expression) a germ of truth in that since there was no generally accepted antiseptic guidelines in vaccinating children and doctors often reused the same needles on their patients. Wallace also argued that there were no controlled experiments showing how long the protection from vaccination lasted.

All of Wallace's findings were written up in a tract titled Forty-five Years of Registration Statistics, Proving Vaccination To Be Both Useless and Dangerous.Published in early 1885, Wallace compiled statistics from across Great Britain and continental Europe (where compulsory vaccination laws were also in place).  Not limiting himself to smallpox, Wallace examined incidence patterns for diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, and whooping cough (pertussis). He concluded that vaccination did more harm than good and that public sanitation played a greater role in disease prevention. Almost immediately, Wallace came under attack by physicians who were horrified that a scientist of Wallace's reputation would side with the anti-vaccinationists. The fact that popular opinion was turning against mandatory vaccination (helped along by graphic stories of conscientious objectors being arrested), added to the pressure for changing the vaccination laws.

In 1889, the British government appointed a Royal Commission to evaluate mandatory vaccination policies. While Wallace turned down an offer to sit on the Commission himself, he appeared as the anti-vaccinationists' star witness. The fifteen members of the Commission included some of the prominent British physicians of that time (most of whom were pro-vaccinationists which outraged Tebb and the others). The Commission members held twenty-one meetings in 1890 and examined ten witnesses (mostly anti-vaccinationists). Wallace appeared four times before the commission and presented all of his graphs and statistics. While the commission members were initially impressed by Wallace's testimony, that changed after they had a chance to evaluate his findings more carefully.

Wallace's statistics seemed impressive but the committee members found numerous errors that seemed unworthy of someone of Wallace's reputation. Not only did Wallace and his fellow anti-vaccinationists ignore statistics that failed to support their view but many of the statistical tables were highly selective (doubly embarrassing since Wallace had accused the pro-vaccinationists of doing the same thing).Wallace was caught off-guard by the findings and was forced to admit that many of the statistics that he had presented were worthless. While he continued to argue that sanitation was more important than vaccination, Wallace's credibility had been severely undermined by the time he concluded his testimony. Anti-vaccination activists defended Wallace throughout the entire process and accused the commission of being biased in favour of the pro-vaccinationists. One source commented that, "Dr Wallace stood an examination which proved, if nothing else, that anyone who gives anti-vaccination evidence before this commission must be prepared to keep his temper through insults which most would resent and which few would indulge".

Although the Commission issued a preliminary report in December 1890, the final report wouldn't come out until six years later. After the final report, Wallace published his most scathing pamphlet yet on the Commission's findings. Titled Vaccination a Delusion; Its Penal Enforcement a Crime: Proved by the Official Evidence in the Reports of the Royal Commission, Wallace accused the Commission's final report as being "not only weak, misleading, inadequate but is also palpably one-sided". His critics reacted as expected and accused Wallace of simply restating all of his old arguments without providing any new evidence. Still, his crusade had some impact and the Commission's report led to changes in compulsory vaccination (penalties for noncompliance were reduced) and adoption of less risky methods of inoculation.

Wallace was hardly satisfied.  He continued to write anti-vaccinationist pamphlets until his death in 1913. As one of the most well-known scientists of his generation, he lent an air of respect to the anti-vaccination crusade that it never had since. In one of the last pamphlets that he wrote for the Anti-Vaccination League in 1904, he said that "the figures go increasing and decreasing so suddenly and irregularly that by taking a few years at one period, and a few at another, you can show an increase or decrease according to what you wish to prove". Most of the arguments that he raised against vaccination are still being used by anti-vaccinationists today. Even in the 20th century, anti-vaccination societies continued to proliferate and attracted numerous "star" supporters including Wallace and George Bernard Shaw (who wrote that vaccination was "a particularly filthy piece of witchcraft"), as well as health faddists, anti-vivisectionists, trade unionists, etc.

While compulsory vaccination was eventually phased out in Britain with the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, it still remains a thorny issue in many other countries today. The aggressive spread of vaccination campaigns across the world (in combination of containment of known cases) led to a drastic reduction in many communicable diseases for which vaccines are available. Although 50 million cases of smallpox were recorded world-wide in the 1950s, the last naturally occurring case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977 and the World Health Organization declared the disease eradicated three years later. Despite equally aggressive vaccination campaigns for other diseases, the World Health Organization missed its target date of 2000 for the eradication of polio (although the campaign is still underway). Whether similar victories will be possible with measles, diphtheria, and other diseases largely depends on the success of current vaccination campaigns and the role that anti-vaccinationists will play in opposing them. There's also the fundamental question of why children in many Third World countries are still dying of diseases that are supposedly preventable through the use of vaccines.

The autism-vaccination link may only be the latest development but the basic arguments seem pretty much the same as ever. The battle continues.

Your Framingham Risk Score and Cognitive Functioning

“Normal” age-related cognitive decline has been associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Framingham Vascular Age is age-normed cardiovascular risk which may help communicate risk to patients and identify those at relatively higher risk. A new study in the journal Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition examines the association between Framingham Vascular Age and cognition. 346 “healthy” participants (57 ± 10 years) without neuropsychiatric disorders or clinical manifestations of cardiovascular disease were studied. Cognition was evaluated using the Brief Memory and Executive Test and Framingham Vascular Age was calculated. The association between Framingham Vascular Age and cognitive performance was determined through General Linear Models to control for covariates. Framingham Vascular age was associated with poorer Memory and Executive Function/Processing Speed indices (p = 0.019 and p < 0.001, respectively). The authors conclude that Framingham Vascular Age is associated with worse Executive Function/Processing Speed and Memory. Vascular Age may help identify patients at higher risk of age-related cognitive decline with implications for communicating the morbidity associated with cardiovascular risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

"Crying" Outbreak in Indian School Baffles Health Authorities

It reportedly began on June 13 or 14 at a school in the village of Sitti in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashir.   Nearly three dozen students, mostly girls, began crying inconsolably in their classroom despite efforts by teachers to console them.   After the crying subsided, another episode at the same school occurred on the following day.   A video of the crying students,  which showed some of them rolling on the floor as they cried, soon went viral when it was posted online.   The video also put added pressure on school officials to determine what was happening and  find a solution.

In an interview with local media, Chief Education Officer Prem Nath reported that he pulled in teachers from nearby schools and even parents living nearby to help.  He also arranged for an ambulance and a medical team for the affected students.   The medical team examined the students but found no health problems that could account for their behaviour.  When parents of the students were interviewed, they stated that some of the children had shown similar behaviour at  home.   There are also fears that the crying behaviour might spread to other schools in the area.   

Though medical authorities are already calling it a case of mass hysteria, rumours about a supernatural cause are already rampant.  “There are rumours that the school is haunted by ghosts. My girl is refusing to go there after the incident took place. I am now planning to admit her in a different school,” said one mother when interviewed by news media.   To quell these rumours Dr Arshad Hussain, Professor in psychiatry at Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Kashmir has suggested that the crying might be psychogenic in nature.   "It is a common phenomenon usually invoked by intense fear and has been historically reported many, many times in schools all over world. Children are prone to it and vulnerability quickly results into mass copying of dissociative phenomena at sub conscious level ,” he said.  

To contain the crying epidemic and help the affected students, a representative of the district administration announced that the school is arranging for counseling sessions though the shortage of trained staff remains a problem.  “Psychiatry is unfortunately not taught in MBBS anywhere in India,"  said Dr.  Hussain "That is why even doctors who are otherwise good in their subjects don’t have sensitivity to mental health issues. Mere normalcy of tests or investigations doesn’t mean the person doesn’t have any distress."