NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 161 



The steady evolution of scientific medicine brings us, next, to 

 the discovery of vaccination by Jenner. Here, too, sundry vague 

 survivals of theological ideas caused many of the clergy to side 

 with retrograde physicians. Perhaps the most virulent of Jen- 

 ner's enemies was one of his professional brethren, Dr. Moseley, 

 who placed on the title-page of his book, Lues Bovilla, as a motto, 

 referring to Jenner and his followers, " Father, forgive them, for 

 they know not what they do " ; this book of Dr. Moseley was 

 especially indorsed by the Bishop of Dromore. In 1798 an Anti- 

 vaccination Society was formed by physicians and clergymen, 

 who called on the people of Boston to suppress vaccination, as 

 " bidding defiance to Heaven itself, even to the will of God," and 

 declared that " the law of God prohibits the practice." As late 

 as 1803, the Rev. Dr. Ramsden thundered against vaccination in 

 a sermon before the University of Cambridge, mingling texts of 

 Scripture with calumnies against Jenner ; but Plumptre and the 

 Rev. Rowland Hill in England, Waterhouse in America, Thouret 

 in France, Sacco in Italy, and a host of other good men and true, 

 pressed forward, and at last science, humanity, and right reason 

 gained the victory. Most striking results quickly followed. The 

 diminution in the number of deaths from the terrible scourge 

 was amazing. In Berlin, during the eight years following 1783, 

 over four thousand children died of the small-pox ; while during 

 the eight years following 1814, after vaccination had been largely 

 adopted, out of a larger number of deaths there were but five 

 hundred and thirty-five who died of this disease. In Wtirtem- 

 berg, during the twenty-four years following 1772, one in thir- 

 teen of all the children died of small-pox, while during the eleven 

 years after 1822 there died of it only one in sixteen hundred. In 

 Copenhagen, during twelve years before the introduction of vac- 

 cination, fifty-five hundred persons died of small-pox, and during 

 the sixteen years after its introduction only one hundred and 



Barbier, vol. vi, p. 29-1 ; also the Correspondance do Grimm et de Diderot, vol. iii, pp. 259 et 

 seq. For bitter denunciations of inoculation by the English clergy, and for the noble stand 

 against them by Madox, see Baron, Life of Jenner, vol. i, pp. 231, 232, and vol. ii, pp. 39, 

 40. For the strenuous opposition of the same clergy, see Weld, History of the Royal So- 

 ciety, vol. i, p. 464, note. Also, for its comical side, see Nichols's Literary Illustrations, vol. 

 v, p. 800. For the same matter in Scotland, see Lecky, History of the Eighteenth Century, vol. 

 ii, p. 83. For New England, see Green, History of Medicine in Massachusetts, Boston, 1881, 

 pp. 58 et seq. Also Chapter X of the Memorial History of Boston, by the same author and 

 0. W. Holmes. For letter of Dr. Franklin, see Massachusetts Historical Collection, second 

 Series, vol. vii, p. 17. Several most curious publications issued during the heat of the in- 

 oculation controversy have been kindly placed in my hands by the Librarians of Harvard 

 College and of the Massachusetts Historical Society, among them A Reply to Increase 

 Mather, by John Williams, Boston, printed by J. Franklin, 1721, from which the above 

 scriptural arguments arc cited. For the terrible virulence of the small-pox in New England 

 up to the introduction of inoculation, see McMaster, History of the People of the United 

 States, first edition, vol. i, p. 30. 

 vol. xxxix. 13 



