Dr. Veai-fojis Circular' Letter. 23J 



COW-POX. 



\VE have already given an account of Drs. Jenner and 

 Pearfon's publications on the cow-pox, which tended to 

 eftablifh the important fact, that thofe who have had that 

 difeafe, which never proves fatal, and which may always be 

 fo managed as never to disfigure the patient, are not capable 

 of afterwards taking the fmall-pox infection — a fa£t which, 

 if properly followed up, promifes fair to extirpate the latter 

 difeafe, to which more have fallen victims than to the pefti- 

 lence itfclf. Drs. Pearfon, Jenner, and Woodville, with a 

 zeal that does them great honour, have fince beftowed much 

 attention and labour in afcertaining, by proper trials, how- 

 far it is prudent to perfeverc in fubftituting a difeafe that 

 has hitherto appeared no way dangerous, for one that fu 

 often proves mortal ; and, we are happy to add, with a fue- 

 ccfs equal to the moil: fanguine expectations that could have 

 been formed : in confef[uence of which, the following cir- 

 cular letter has been addreffed to the gentlemen of the faculty: 



c: Lciccfter Square, March 12, 1799- 



I hope you will pardon me for taking the liberty to inform 

 you, by way of additional evidence to the teltimonies I have 

 published on the fubjccT; of the cow-pox, that upwards of one 

 hundred and fixty patients, from two weeks to forty years of 

 age, principally infants, have been inoculated fince the twen- 

 tieth of January laft by Dr. Woodville and myfelf fepa- 

 ratcly. — I {hall at prefent only communicate the following 

 obfervations : 



1. Not one mortal cafe occurred. — 2. Not one of the pa- 

 tients was confidered to be dangeroufly ill. — 3. Although the 

 extreme cafes of the fevere kind which ordinarily occur in 

 the fame number of cafes in the inoculated fmill-pox did 

 hot occur in the above practice, and although many of the 

 patients were even more (lightly difordered conftitutionally, 

 yet the whole amount of the eonflitutional illnefs l'cemed to 

 be as great as in the fame number of patients in the inocu- 

 lated 



