REPORT ON THE COW-POCK INSTITUTION. ... 
tan hardly attend to the perceptions of 
their own’ senses, we find nothing but 
what might as well be extracted from 
Mr. Haslam’s and Dr. Pinei’s excellent 
books on insanity. 
Upon the whole, we believe that the 
end held in view by Dr. Beddoes, when 
he published this Hygéic, has never been 
seriously submitted to the controul of his 
judgment. It is a work undonbiedly 
which comes from the hand of genius, 
of a man whose conceptions are always 
‘grand, whose style is bold and fascinat- 
ing. It is much to be regretted, that he 
743 
has ever misconceived the application of 
his talents. ‘This last performance is 
unworthy of his pen; it will be censured 
as too superficial by his brethren, and it 
will be considered as too abstruse and 
splenetic by other classes of readers.— 
The principle of popular medicine is funda- 
mentally wrong ; and all attempts to rer 
vive, under a new garb, the spirit of uni- 
versal quackery, ought to be deprecated 
and shunned, as prejudicial to the ad- 
vancement of science, and to the happi- 
ness and comfort of our fellow-crea- 
tures. 
Art. XXII. The Report on the Cow-pock Inoculation, from the Practice at the Vaccine 
7 
Pock Institution, during the Years 180) and 1802, Sc. 
Jnstitulion.. 8vo. pp. 150. 
TOGETHER with the History of the 
Vaccine Institution, this publication con- 
tains the results of the practice carried 
on within its walls, up to the end of 
1802. The number inoculated to this 
‘time is stated to be 1202, a number com- 
paratively small, but amply sufficient for 
the basis of the valuable pathological ob- 
‘servations here laid before the public by 
the physicians to the institution, Drs. 
Pearson, Nihell, and Nelson. 
These observations are given as cor- 
mentaries upon the principia of vaccina- 
tion, which are’ drawn up inthe aphoris- 
tic form with eminent skill, perspicuity, 
and accuracy. These aphorisms or pro- 
positions are twenty-three in number, 
and they briefly discuss both the acknow- 
ledged points, and those that are still 
controverted. A few of these we shall 
notice : / 
Proposition 2.— No one. has died 
from the inoculation of the cow-pox.” 
‘The authors are aware that this assertion 
requires some modification, and the fol- 
lowing is given: 
_ Here however, perhaps, we ought to 
except a few instances, which have been pub- 
lished, of deaths of very young children, ap- 
parently occasioned by ulcerations of the ino- 
eulated part. “These ulcerations were, in all 
probability, occasioned by exposure to cold, 
scratching, pressure, adhering of the linen to 
the ruptured vesicle, or sore from the torn off 
seab, together with the application of dirt, or 
other extraneous matier among very poor 
seople, whose children were half starved and 
itd naked. It has been too commonly the 
practice to blame the inoculator in. these in- 
stances, by imputing the inischief to uging 
matter from a pock older than the ninth day ; 
and also, on equally unjustifiable grounds, to 
refer these bad consequences to using some 
@iher matter different from the vaccine, or to 
Written by the Physicians to the 
the mode of inoculation. We have heard of 
no death from the ulceration or inflamma- 
tion among children duly nursed.” 
We agree with the author, that there 
has often been too much readiness to 
throw blame on the inoculator or the 
matter; but such cases of excessive in- 
flammation are certainly not always to 
be imputed to carelessness in -nursing 
and external injury, as indeed is allowed 
in the very next page, in speaking of the 
extent of iocal iniammation. . 
«¢ We do not, however, mean to allege, 
that in no instance do such sore arms eccur, 
independent of mechanical injury, from the 
irritation of the vaccine yesicle or scab itself; 
for, in truth, we have seen such eases in pri- 
vate ‘practice, particularly in scrofulous pa- 
tents.” 
The next proposition contains several 
most important points, which will admit 
of some discussion.~ |The’ proposition 
states the general uniformity in the pro- 
gress and appearance of the vesicle dur- 
ing its growth and maturation. ‘The fol- 
lowing exceptions require some notice: 
“The red areola generally took place, 
but when it was absent, in other respects 
the pock was the usual one; and the sus- 
ceptibility of the small-pox was equally 
destroyed, as when the most extensive 
erythema appeared on the incculated 
parte?) 5° 
‘«« In some cases a large pimple, or gnat 
bite-like eruption oniy was exeited, but per- 
manent for tlre usual time, yet, on reinocu- 
lation with the vaccine and variolous matter, 
the susceptibility of the small-pox appeared 
to have been destroyed. 
«« By scratching, the common appearance 
of the vaccine pock was altered, but the ctfect 
of unsusceptibility of the smali-pox was pro- 
duced. 
SBS 
