54 Letter from Dr. Thornton on the Cow- Tot.. 



matter. My reasons are as follow : — Ann Hodges, at. 5> 

 when a year old was vaccinated at the Small-Pox Hospital. 

 She went, it may be supposed *, properly through this dis- 

 ease. That she was rendered thereby secure tVoni any at- 

 tack of the small-pox, we have the following proof's: As 

 soon as the disease was passed, she was purposely taken 

 throughout every ward in the Small-Pox Hospital, and ta 

 the bed-side of a patient in an advanced stage of that horri- 

 ble disease, but without effect. Two years after that, a 

 lodger in the house, of the name of Sewell,had two children 

 inoculated for the small-pox ; and they had a full crop of 

 pustules, and she was constantly with them, yet was proof 

 against the small-pox. At the period of two years and a 

 half, Mrs. Walker, another lodger, had her child inoculated 

 with the small-pox, who had a plentiful eruption ; and, as 

 before, she was constantly with this child, being at that period 

 secure: and six weeks back, a child over the way, named 

 Butler, took it naturally, and was shockingly bad. Ann 

 Hodges used to hang over this child, rock it, and remain 

 for hours in the room with it ; but all this while was seairc^ 

 as was her sister Mary, also vaccinated, who had the cow- 

 pock only two years back. So frequent exposure, and in that 

 degree, in two instances, not to mention casual rencounters^ 

 seemed to augur future security. All at once, however, the 

 charm f, if vaccination can be called such, ceased with both 

 children, and on the 29th of Aug. 1804, Ann became feverish, 

 and although hut a very few pustules appeared, they were 



* Dr. Jenner has insisted, that -although matter may give the vaccine 

 disease evtn until the 17th day, yet, that as the pustule after the loth 

 day sometimes degenerates, and common inefficacious pus is then only to 

 be found in the pustule, pioducing a spwioia piist!</f,-—htx\cc his goldca 

 rule is — " never to take matter after the tenth day." This rule has been 

 neglected by inoculatois, and matter taken in all stages of the pustule. 

 Whether this was the case here, is uncertain ; but tilt; escar shows that 

 the inoculation took proper effect; and the parent mentions that the arm 

 was so bad that a poukice was talked of, and it remained so for a month. 



f Posterity will be surprised that the doctrine should ever have been 

 maintained ?nd published, and by medical gentlemen, that the cow-pock 

 only secured for a time. It was hmited at first to tioo, afterwards ta 

 three, and then to faur years. Three children of Mr. Henrv Jenner, 

 inoculatcd^i/^ years ago, hsve since been repeatedly inoculated with va- 

 riolous matter, and exposed to the infection of the natural small-pox, in 

 its worst form, every year up to the present time, without catching the 

 disease. Pead, vaccinated by Dr. Jenner more than six years, and Phipps, 

 his first patient, vaccinated by him more than eight years ago, have been 

 frequently put to the same tests with impunity. In the spring of the 

 present year they were inoculated for the small-pox with matter in the 

 most active state j but they resisted infection. 



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