88 Vaccination. ^^ 



we can see no grounds for hesitation on that point ; for, as 

 they were merely stating iacts, they had every right to draw 

 from them any conclusions whatever that were warranted 

 by the premises. It may be proper, however, to observe 

 here, that that body seems to haw anticipated the possibi- 

 lity of such an occurrence as has taken place; for in their 

 Report, published in 1803, p. 65, we find the following 

 passage, \\ hich indeed they have quoted on the title-page of 

 their last Report : — " That many persons inoculated for the 

 cow-pock in the years ]799> 1800, and even ISOl and 

 1802, have already, and may hereafter, take the small-pox, 

 is a reasonable expectation, from the characteristic proper- 

 ties of the vaccina not being known to the inoculators by 

 their own experience, nor from the description of authors."- 

 We cannot dismiss this subject without observing, that 

 even if it were proved that the two cases jn FuKvood's-Rents 

 were cases of real small-pox after real vaccination, they fur- 

 nish no sound argument against the vaccine inoculation ; for 

 all that can fairly be drawn from them i«!, that one at most in 

 twenty thousand may take the small pox after the cow- 

 pock : and this surely is siiflicienlly in its favour, with all itq 

 other advantages, to deter parents and medical men fron^. 

 the propagation of a disease a thousand fold more afflicting 

 to the human race than the pestilence — a disease that ha^ 

 swept from the face of the earth a greater number of vic- 

 tims tl;.in all the wars that have occurred since the death of 

 Abel — a disease that may and will be banished from the 

 world by the best gift of heaven, the Cow-pock ! 



We freely confess that we are astonished inedical men 

 should have given soiT)uch weight to these, or to fifty such 

 cases, if as manv could be adduced ; and we maintain, that 

 before they can be considered as being fairly proved, som«^ 

 experiments that do not seem to have occurred to them are 

 called for. Dr. Thornton has shown* that the small-pox 

 which sometimes present themselves on nurses that 

 have before had the I'.isease, will, by inoculation, give 

 the small-pox. Has the efflctof rubbing variolous matter 

 into open pustules of chicken-pox or swine-pox, been 

 tried on patients that have before gone through the small- 

 pox or the cow-pock r Sin^e it is possible, that nurses 

 may have small pox after going through that disease, and 

 that matter from such pustules can give the real small- 

 pox, as stated by Dr. Thorrtton, — would it be strange 

 that some small-pox pustules, capable of giving 



* See p. £7 and 5S of our present Number. 



that 



