62 Comparison of Small-Pox And Cow-Fock Inoaitaiion, 



pox rousing up scropkula in all its malignant varieties, anci 

 being tollowecJ by phlegmons, ophtlialniias, &c.; while no- 

 thing beyond cutaneous eruptions has, to the best of my 

 recollection, been imputed to the cow-pox. 



But as to n)y third assertion, its truth is so universally 

 known, that all proof is unnecessary. 



I shall go then to the inferences to be drawn from what 

 lias been premised. From the cases supporting the first as- 

 sertion, it appears, first, either that some individuals may re- 

 ceive the small-pox infection twice ; or else, that the patient 

 may be infected to a certain degree with variolous matter, 

 but not so as to make an indelible impression on the con- 

 stitution. In either case, their inoculation with the small- 

 pox has no advantage, as a protecting security, over the 

 cow-pox. Let it be said that the practitioner who inocu- 

 lated the patient supposed to be infected a second time, 

 was, in the first instance, either inattentive or deceived by 

 ^doubtful appearances; or that the first time his patient was 

 not inoculated with real small-pox matter, or with small- 

 pox matter in a proper state. To the first supposition it 

 must be answered, that in the general practice of cow-pox 

 inoculation, it is not to be believed that operators will be 

 more sagacious, more discriminating, or more attentive 

 than their predecessors have been in smalKpox inoculation ; 

 and to the second, that similar errors are just as likely to 

 prevail in vaccine inoculation : so that the conclusion must 

 be, either that there are individuals in whom the suscepti- 

 bility of the small-pox is not destroyed by a well conducted 

 process either of the cow-pox or small*-pox inoculation ; or 

 that, in the instances v>hen either the one or the other failed 

 to secure the individual againsi' future small-pox, the pro- 

 cess did not go so far as to make the proper impression on 

 the constitution : or lastly, that in the inoculation improper 

 matter must have been used; which, however, could not 

 have been the case in the two first examples given above, it 

 proving my first assertion. 



Three instances have been brought forward amidst the 

 voluminous writings for and against the cow-pox inocula* 

 tion, where it failed of securing the patient against small- 

 pox ; two by Mr. Goldson, of Portsmouth, and one in the 

 London papers of the beginning of this month. Whether 

 the patients were inoculated with genuine cow-pox matter 

 or not, 1 will lot inquire ; I w'ill admit their weakening oMt 

 confidence in vaccination to a certain degree. But these 

 three failures, amid the collected experience of the profes- 

 sion ill general, are here met by the experience of a single 



individual 



