Among the old manuscripts once kept by the Karashima family in Nakatsu, there is one entitled A New Theory of Inoculation. Several ex libris seals of the physicians Karashima Chōrei (1779–1857) and his son Chōtoku (1806–1845) indicate...
moreAmong the old manuscripts once kept by the Karashima family in Nakatsu, there is one entitled A New Theory of Inoculation. Several ex libris seals of the physicians Karashima Chōrei (1779–1857) and his son Chōtoku (1806–1845) indicate that it was considered to be an important paper.It shows Western names in Japanese script, such as Edward Jenner, George Pearson, and WilliamWoodville. It describes the characteristics of cowpox, the techniques of vaccination, and various symptoms that appeared after inoculations. One would not expect to find such a manuscript in the Karashima collection because this family was famous for its Chinese-style smallpox treatment, which was brought to 17th century Japan by the Chinese monk Dai Mangong (alias Tai Mankō or Dokuryūshōeki).
The manuscript shows neither a date nor any hint as to the author or copyist, but this text must have been written during the first half of the 19th century. A search for similar manuscripts located several with slightly different titles. They bear the name of Hiradaka Ryōdai (1797–1868), a physician from the village of Shinjō in the province of Aki (present-day Hiroshima Prefecture). One of them also mentions the name “Siebold” in Chinese characters. As Hiradaka went to Nagasaki in 1823 and became a disciple of Dr. Philipp Franz von Siebold, who had arrived at the Dutch trading post of Dejima in the summer of that year, one is tempted to link these texts to Siebold’s teachings.
Siebold later claimed that he had introduced Jenner’s vaccination into Japan. However, Japanese interest in this new method of smallpox prevention had grown long before his arrival in Nagasaki, and Jan Cock Blomhoff (1779–1853), who served as chief of the Dutch trading post from 1817 to 1824, deserves much more credit for his dedicated efforts to spread information, instruments, and vaccination material. According to various entries in his official diaries, Blomhoff had already requested lancets, vaccine material, and literature from Batavia during the early 1820s, but unfortunately several inoculation trials yielded poor results.
Then, in March 1823, the physicians Mima Junzō (1795–1825) and his colleague Minato Chōan (1786–1838) came to Dejima to meet Blomhoff. Mima had read Leonardus Davids’ Dutch translation of Jenner’s Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae and indicated his intention to collect cowpox matter from supposedly infected cattle in the Amakusa area. Blomhoff, who soon became aware of their insufficient knowledge, pointed out the importance of distinguishing real cowpox from other similar symptoms. Furthermore, to improve their understanding, he provided a book that was more concise and easier to read than Jenner’s lengthy deliberations. He also asked the trading post physician Nicolaas Tullingh to conduct a vaccination for three people. This trial failed again and once more he ordered fresh vaccine. The book Mima borrowed from Blomhoff was the German physician Heimann Josef Goldschmidt’s Algemeene beschouwing van de geschiedenis der koepokken, en derzelver inënting. This was the Dutch translation of a book published in 1801 in Frankfurt am Main by Goldschmidt (1761–1835). Goldschmidt, the son of a Jewish family in the Franconian village Baiersdorf, had lost both parents in his early childhood and grew up in the house of an uncle in Königsberg (Eastern Prussia). As he did not develop much interest in his uncle’s business, a well-to-do local sponsor supported his education, including his enrollment at Königsberg university. There he became an ardent adherent of Immanuel Kant’s enlightenment philosophy. In 1790, he defended an inaugural dissertation under Johann Daniel Metzger and received a doctoral degree in medicine.
During a journey to southern Germany, Goldschmidt managed to obtain permission to practice medicine as one of four Jewish physicians in Frankfurt am Main. He was obliged to live in the narrow quarters of the Judengasse (Jews’ Lane). However, but there were wealthy and highly educated inhabitants such as the famous banker Mayer Amschel Rothschild, and despite the still restrictive policy of the authorities, the local Jewish community maintained an outstanding school (Philanthropin) and a renowned hospital. In 1808, Goldschmidt converted to Catholicism and changed his name to Johann Baptista Clemens Goldschmidt. A few years later he was appointed municipal physician for three of Frankfurt’s poor quarters (Armenquartier). After many struggles, the ghetto and all special Jewish taxes were abolished in 1811.
Goldschmidt was the first physician in that region to recognize the effectiveness and blessings of Jenner’s vaccination and wrote General Survey of the History of Cowpox and its Inoculation as the Surest and most Beneficial Method for the complete Eradication of Human Smallpox (Allgemeine Übersicht der Geschichte der Kuhpocken und deren Einimpfung als das sicherste und heilsamste Mittel zur gänzlichen Ausrottung der Menschenblattern). It is dedicated to “all sensitive and loving parents who care about the life and health of their children” and reflects perfectly the author’s lifelong endeavors to enlighten the general population. Only three years after the publication of Jenner’s book, Goldschmidt had compiled a concise history of Jenner’s discovery and the heated debates in Britain, France, and Germany, including a description of the difference between “real cowpox” and “pseudo cowpox,” and last but not least the technique of vaccination and the various symptoms that appeared after inoculations. The Dutch translation of his book was probably undertaken by Leonardus Davids, a Jewish physician from Rotterdam who spearheaded the introduction of vaccination into the Netherlands.
In his conversations with Mima, Blomhoff had pointed out three important topics related to inoculations with cowpox. Hidaka Ryōdai’s translation, titled Shutō shinsho (A New Book on Inoculation), was finished in 1825, perhaps with some help from Siebold. It comprises only three of Goldschmidt’s thirteen chapters, and these chapters cover the exact problems pointed out by Blomhoff in March 1823. Several handwritten copies of Hidaka’s translation circulated among physicians. One of these eventually ended up in the library of the Karashima family in Nakatsu.
There is another translation of Goldschmidt’s book by the prominent physician Takano Chōei (1804–1850) who went to Nagasaki in 1820, and like Hidaka became Siebold’s disciple in 1823. It is entitled Gyūtō seppō (Method of Vaccination), and like Hidaka’s text, it presents the same three chapters, but shows significant different sentence structures and wordings. Takano had obviously made his own translation.
Judging from the number of preserved copies, Hidaka’s and Takano’s manuscripts circulated to some extent, but from the 1820s to the late 1840s, the vaccine lymph brought to Nagasaki repeatedly lost its potency during the long voyage from Batavia (Jakarta) to Japan. Nevertheless, studies of relevant Dutch books continued, although Japanese physicians still had no confirmation of the effectiveness or safety of cowpox inoculation.
Interest in Goldschmidt’s book was rekindled when the trading post physician Dr. Otto Mohnike managed to provide active vaccine “crusts” in 1848. Believing in the potential merits of cowpox inoculation, physicians from all over the country rushed to Nagasaki asking for the vaccine. One of them was Arima Setsuzō (1817–1847) who in 1844 joined the famous Tekijuku school run by the scholar and physician Ogata Kōan in Ōsaka. There he soon proved to be a gifted scholar and was adopted by Ogata’s father in law Okugawa Hyakki. Arima, too, had been in Nagasaki, and received Goldschmidt’s book as a farewell gift from the reputable Ueno Tsuneashi (1790–1851). In contrast to Hidaka and Takano, Arima translated the complete book, leaving out only the supplementary part and Goldschmidt’s footnotes. As he died in 1847, his translation entitled Gyūtō shinsho (A New Book on Vaccination) must have been completed before that date. Many authors write that it was printed in 1850, but there is not a single copy to prove such an assumption. Like Hidaka’s partial translation, Arima’s text circulated only as manuscript copies, several which are preserved in collections of 19th century physicians and regional lords.
