Inoculation or vaccination

[Moonraker]

I've come across a reference to a unit about to depart for overseas service being offered inoculation or vaccination against typhoid. The men unanimously chose the former. Presumably this was because the side effects were perceived to be less severe, though I've come across reports of soldiers being bed-bound for a day or two after either procedure.

Moonraker

[Doc2]

This is a very difficult question to answer, as during the period in question, the two terms were essentially used interchangeably. Technically, "inoculation" is the exposure to the live agent (e.g. exposure to cowpox to prevent smallpox, or exposure to smallpox scabs for the same purpose), while "vaccination" is injection with some modified version of the agent (weakened, dead, or partial antigen coating, etc.). However, during this period, and especially in the British Army starting in the Boer War period, the term inoculation was often used to mean "the giving of a vaccine". [see: Wright, AE "A Short Treatise on Typhoid Inoculation..." 1904. It's on the web.]

I would love to know what the two preparations on offer were, as I thought the WWI British Army only used whole dead-cell Typhoid vaccination (which had many side effects, including pain at the injection site). I have no idea what they could have been doing which would really meet the definition of inoculation.

There is no doubt that many Typhoid vaccines were quite painful, so it is not unexpected that soldiers, given a choice, will opt for the treatment which according to scuttlebutt (OK, I know that is a navy term, but you know what I mean) would be less painful. I just wish I knew what that treatment was. Doc

[centurion]

according to scuttlebutt (OK, I know that is a navy term, but you know what I mean)

I think the term latrine telegraph was once in use.

[Cliff. Hobson]

"There is no doubt that many Typhoid vaccines were quite painful, so it is not unexpected that soldiers, given a choice, will opt for the treatment which according to scuttlebutt (OK, I know that is a navy term, but you know what I mean) would be less painful. I just wish I knew what that treatment was. Doc"

I remember being innoculated against scrub typhus it was indeed painful.

regards Cliff.

[David Porter]

This comes from a book called "Great Bentley Past - Volume Two" by Mary Maskell.