Is it true that orphanage in the Russian Empire created an rations to vaccinate smallpox?

There is an opinion that the entire system of charity of orphans in the Russian Empire was built in order to put medical experiments on the children without parental care, including checking the safety and efficiency of challenging. We decided to check if such a practice really existed.

Information about such a purpose of orphaned institutions can Meet Mostly on social networks, in particular there they indicate that “the first orphan house in Moscow appeared in 1764. And what do you think the purpose of its creation? You probably say - care for orphans? But no, it turns out, in fact, tests of the first vaccine from smallpox on children were tested there. In this syrupolous house, the mortality of children reached 87 to 100% per year. ” About cruel experiments on orphans even Filmed YouTube film.

Smallpox is one of the oldest viral infections, some biologists even suggestthat in the biblical plot about the ten executions of the Egyptian under the phrase “and in public and in livestock, inflammation with abscesses, in the whole Egyptian land” is understood the epidemic of smallpox. Mortality from natural smallpox was extremely high-every sixth-eight-eight, sick adult and every third child died. Unlike the plague passing through the waves, the smallpox was steadily present in the population. In German, even existed The saying “few people manage to avoid smallpox and love”, and in France the police indicated the absence of Oppin on their face as a special signs of the wanted person. 

The story of the prevention of smallpox shares In two stages - the stage of variration and the vaccination stage. Varilation is a method of preventing the severe course of the disease by placing the contents of the constant pustula of the patient with smallpox to a healthy organism. Written references to her Date VIII century. There were different technologies of the conduct - the pumped out contents rubbed into incisions, introduced subcutaneously, a thread was urinated in it and it was carried out in a puncture under the skin. In this case, the vaccinated disease developed, which most often occurred in a slight form. However, immunity did not always react predictably, moreover, the rules of the procedure were often violated, which led to additional infection with other infections (erysipelas, syphilis). The English doctor Gesberden Calculatedthat with the introduction of “purulent rubbings” in 40 years in London, Osopa took 25,000 more lives than in the previous forty -year period.  

The first public vaccination took place in 1796, its Spent British doctor and naturalist Edward Jenner. He noticed that the ill -fried cow's smallpox do not get sick, so he took off the OSPU from the hand of a girl, a sick cow's smallpox, and instilled her subcutaneously an eight -year -old boy James Fipps. In the child, at the place of administration, a local reaction developed with a slight malaise, but without the general course of the disease. Then Jenner, after a month and a half, introduced the boy in natural OSPU, while his disease developed. Based on this, Jenner concluded that the vaccination of cow smallpox is more effective and safer. That is, in orphanage in 1764, for chronological reasons, experiments with Osopa vaccination and logical - with a variration used for almost a millennium, could not be experimented. 

The need to create state institutions for children without parental care was understood by Peter I. In 1715 he published Decree "On Making in cities at the churches of goshpids for the reception and maintenance of illegitimate children", earlier the same initiative was locally implemented Novgorod bishop IOV in 1706. In the educational house they took underlims and illegitimate, and anonymity was guaranteed to the one who brought the child.

In 1763, Catherine II established the Moscow Imperial Educational House. From the very day of laying an educational house, children began to bring there. Due to the fact that there were still neither the building nor the staff, the children were placed in foster families and mortality in the early years was really enormous and Could Come up to 870 deaths per 1000 children. The figure looks awesome compared to the fact that in 2020 infant mortality Compiled 4.5 by 1000, that is, almost 200 times lower. However, for many reasons, it is incorrect to compare the indicators of the 18th century with today: the methods of nursing premature babies have radically improved, vaccination is practiced from the first days of life and a more caring attitude to motherhood and childhood from the state, as well as the general quality of life has improved significantly.

Historians report that the average infant mortality in the middle of the 18th century reached 30%. At the same time, again, it was incorrect to compare the average mortality in the country and mortality in state -owned institutions, children with congenital diseases were originally received in the same Moscow educational house, weak, unwanted and weakened by their nonads, both their mothers during the bearing. Also mortality is regular Raised In the summer months, since the nurse were busy in field work, and children often excreted from the chest often died due to severe enteritis (inflammation of the small intestine). 

Assessments of real mortality in the shelters diverge-Soviet pediatrician E.M. Konus I wrote on mortality exceeding 80%, but modern scientists They think Its figures are high, as it analyzed the data during the years of outbreaks of infectious diseases. In particular, using the figure from the report of the chief physician of the Moscow Educational House N.F. Miller at 81%, E.M. Konyus does not mention that it dates back to years when an epidemic of natural smallpox raged in Moscow. So here the investigation is essentially replaced by the cause. Establishing by Jenner's method in the Moscow Educational House Started Only in 1801, therefore, the numbers indicate mortality from Ospa itself and from socio-economic causes, and not from vaccination.

And although experiments on orphan orphanage in the Russian Empire were not conducted, in the world this practice existed. In particular, the British king Georg I, before deciding on variration for himself and other members of the royal family, conducted an experiment on seven prisoners sentenced to death, in exchange for pardon and six orphans from a shelter. All participants in the experience survived, and the royal family was still vaccinated against smallpox. Even more controversial experimentBut with another virus, Dr. Sol Krugman spent in the USA. From 1955 to 1970, he deliberately infected the pupils of Willoweka-a shelter for children and adults with serious developmental disorders on Staten Island in New York-hepatitis by injection, as well as the introduction of chocolate milk in the diet mixed with feces of those who are illuminated to the formation of immunity to this disease. 

Thus, orphanages in the Russian Empire were created only to improve social conditions. We were not able to find convincing evidence in favor of conducting the Ospa vaccination experiments there. However, in history there are confirmed examples of orphan institutions, where wards really became experimental in unethical medical experiments, sometimes even without their consent.

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What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Burned cat and death from plums: how they were vaccinated in Russia
2. How vaccines changed the world. The history of vaccinations from the 18th century to the present day
3. Paevsky, corrugated: generally plague! History of diseases from fever to parkinson