the Practice of Faccination. 293 



vaccination continues to be generally practised ; at the same 

 time, that its occasional appearance there has the good effect 

 of provins the preservative power of the vaccine pock, and 

 oH rousino' the natives from their apathy on the subject. 

 Even the Bramins are now surmounting the prejudices of 

 tlieir education, and submitting to be vaccinated '*. 



It appears from a Report oi'the Central Committee of the 

 Vaccine Institution at Pans, publi'^hed on the tenth aimi- 

 versarvof its establishment, that the benefits of vaccination, 

 in augmenting the population of acoinitry, have not escaped 

 the attention of the present ruler of France, who has foriTied 

 depots of vaccine fluid in twenty-four of the principal cities," 

 comnmnicatinsr with the Central Conimiltee at Paris. Jii 

 =ome of the departments, it is said, the zeal of the prefects 

 lias been such, that there remain none to vaccinate but the 

 infants born in everv year, and that the small-pox is already 

 unknown. And the returns of the mortality in the city of 

 Paris, for the vear 1SO0, exhibit only 213 deaths by small- 

 pox. *'This number," sav the reporters, " though yet too 

 considerable, since the vaccine ofl'ered to these 2J3 victims a 

 ccrtaui method of preservation, is yet extremely small in 

 coiTiparison of that of some years, when the epidemic small- 

 pox has carried off", in the Srime city, more than 20,000 in- 

 dividuals." The Committee, consisting of sixteen of the 

 principal physicians of Paris, express their conviction of 

 the efficacy oJ vaccination in these terms : " Ten years of 

 labour and success have at length decided the important 

 question, as to the vaccine possessing the power of j)rcserv- 

 ins; all those, in whom it has regularly gone through its 

 progress, from the small pox. This has been carried to 

 such a degree of certainly by the experiments of the Central 

 Cominiilee and its numerous correspondents, as -well 

 frenchmen as strangers, that there is not at present any 

 fact in medicine better proved, or more certain, than that 

 which tsiablislies the truly anti-variolous power of the vac- 

 cinef." 



Such is the result of the progressive experience of profes- 

 sional men, in reeard to the efficacy and preventive powers 

 of vaccination : such is the confirmation, which the in- 

 ferences, dra\» n from the early investigation of this subject, 

 have received from subsequent and more extensive research ! 

 Insomuch, that the conclusion of the College of I'hysicians 

 upon the subject, in the year 1807, must now be deemed 



• See the Report from tlie Vaccine Estsbliihment. 



t A copy of tliis Report may be found in the Edinburgh Med. and Surg. 

 Journal, for Jan. 181 1, p. 117. 



T 3 indisputable. 



