ceive )] 
’ [Mar. I, 
MEDICAL REPORT. 
Report of Diseases and Casuatttes occurring in the public or private Practice of 
the Physician who has the care of the Western District of the City Dispensary. 
ACCINATION occasionally fails in 
preventing the occurrence of small- 
pox, and the instances of failure have been, 
by some, considered of sufficient number 
and force to inyalidate the claims of vac- 
cinie as a safe and efficacious substitute for 
variola. 
The writer of these papers wishing to 
divest himself of all partial views and pre- 
jediced feelings, ona subject that demands 
the most unprejudiced exercise of judg- 
ment, cannot but admit—what ten years 
since he would have refused to admit— 
that there seems some reason to doubt 
whether the preventive power of variolous 
and vaccine inoculation are precisely equal. 
He still however maintains that the nega- 
tive of this proposition has not been proved, 
nor can be; butby subjecting, in tbe same 
space of time, the same number of per- 
sons to one process as to the other. The 
crowds that have been vaccinated com- 
pared with the inoculated, ought to be 
taken into account when we institute a 
comparison between the yalue and validity 
of the old and the new practice ; and it 
ought moreover to be recollected that second 
small-pox itself is by no means a very un- 
frequent occurrence. It may be that the 
natural disorder (that is small-pox occur- 
ing in the natural way) constitutes the 
greatest security against the recurrence of 
the malady—that the inoculated virus gives 
the next degree of safety, and that cow- 
pox, which the writer imagines to be essen- 
tially the same poison as variola, but much 
modified by circumstance, is a grade lower 
in the scale of preventive effect. 
There are some individuals who possess 
a constitutional inclination to eruptive dis- 
order; it is, the writer conceives, in these 
individuals, that small-pox is apt to occur 
a second time: and it is these that are 
especially obnoxious to the influence of 
variola in spite of vaccination. But how 
mild and modified in the majority of cases 
is the small-pox thus happening! and even, 
did the vaccine practice do nothing more 
than thus deprive the poison of its power 
to do material harm, it ought to be received 
with gratitude, rather than rejected with 
fear. If it be said that inoculation itself did 
all this good—the reply is, that the latter 
process is not absolutely without danger, 
and that it keeps up and diffuses an infec- 
tious disorder, while the contrary is the 
case with vaccination, It is a well-known 
fact that deaths from small-pox subsequent 
to inoculation, and prior to the commence- 
ment of the new process, were far, very 
far greater in number than before art had at 
all interfered with nature—and let the 
opposer of yaccination ask himself the 
question what is the case now? But the 
writer must not commit himself by expres- 
sions which imply the feelings of a partizan. 
He may only reiterate his announcement 
of some time since—that child after child 
of his own shall be subjected to vaccination 
till he sees and feels otherwise than he, at 
present, does in reference to the most lm- 
portant question of vaccine security. 
The season has been unusually mild, but 
coughs notwithstanding have been nu- 
merous, severe and protracted. In the 
two or three coming months are we to 
anticipate the kind of cold in the atmos- 
phere, which is the most trying to delicate 
frames, namely that which proceeds from 
the evaporating or drying power of a con- 
tinued wind from the east. ‘“ E nailed,” 
says Bonnell Thornton, “ the weather-cock 
of a nervous invalid to a westerly poimt, 
and the host of complaints which till now 
had besieged her, disappeared and kept 
away ;”” and there is not a doubt that fancy 
often acts in aid of weather to enforce’ and 
confirm those unpleasant feelings that are 
connected with atmospheric conditions— 
but it is the robust alone that can altogether 
defy the pitiless elements, and but too 
many know that there i something more 
than mere cold to contend with when the 
wind sets in from the easterly quarter. It 
is, at this time particulariy, that the manage- 
ment of the body’s surface demands espe- 
cial care; and nothing will be found more 
effectually to steel the system against the 
noxious influence of the atmosphere, than 
sponging the whole surface with cold water 
immediately upon rising, using friction with 
a coarse towel, either above or below 
the linen, according as flannel is or is not 
worn, incasing the body in wash leather. 
The writer of these essays hopes that he 
has been the humble instrument of much 
good in causing an extensive demand for 
wash leather, as an article in dress, and 
sure he feels that the more the plan is 
adopted, the more will its value be appre- 
ciated by weakly individuals, who have 
hitherto suffered greatly from the humidity, 
coldness and dryness of this our variable 
climate. 
D. Uwtiss, M. D. 
Bedford Row, Feb. 26, 1825. 
MONTHLY 
