•On the Vaccine Inoculation. 3Q15 



rcafon, to judge of what is fit for the art, and that it is which 

 makes it an art indeed : a trifling fkill will enable a man to 

 become a mere imitator. It muft be obferved, however, that 

 if our composition does not rife above common nature, it 

 Will be lefs interefting than a more indifferent local fcene, 

 fitted to increafe our topographical knowledge. 



From the whole of our inquiry it refults, that the mind 

 ihould never ceafe from its purfuit after whatever is beautiful 

 or grand ; let us then, by an abftracl inquiry, endeavour to 

 create a nature of our own, if poflible, more dignified and 

 noble than the one that ftrikes our fenfes: we mould feel 

 an enthufiafm in our purfuits not to be facialied with any 

 perfection fliort of divine. 



II. Letter from Profeffbr De Carro to Dr. Pearsox, en 



the Vaccine Inoculation. 



I 



DEAR SIR, Vienna, OR. 12, 1S00. 



Cannot wait any longer to communicate to you my 

 further fuccefs in the vaccine inoculation. A dreadful epide- 

 mic fmall-pox has given this autumn a new luftre to that 

 practice, which, from the fenfation it has created in this 

 eity, is not likely to be ever laid afide. 



This extenfion of practice, which hitherto has been en- 

 tirely, or nearly fo, in my hands, has enabled me to eftimate 

 the accuracy of your obfervations on the inefficacy of a cow- 

 pock that comes too rapidly to its height, and which does not 

 follow the laws of that difeafe. I muft candidly confefs, that 

 until this autumn I had not a very exact idea of the vaccine 

 puftule; that is to fay, I knew very well how it mould be 

 to correfpond with the defcription of the Englifh inoculation, 

 fuch as I had feen it on my own children; but I was not 

 aware that h muft be absolutely fo, and that every appear- 

 ance alter inoculation was not to be looked upon as a true 

 vaccine. The aftonifhing likenefs of my vaccine puftule in 

 my fixty lad inoculations has given me a true knowledge of 

 it, and I fcaicely believe that 1 can in future be miftaken. 



