232 Vaccination. 



the extremity of the progress into the interior, a distance of SO 

 miles, it was observed that the ravines only were covered with a 

 thick mould ; the rest of the ground was rocky and full of stones. 

 The conjecture formed was, that there is a junction of the two 

 rivers, the Congo and Niger ; but from the numl)er of cataracts 

 and rapids which occur in the course of the Congo, such a junction 

 jcould l>e of no avail in a navigable point of view. The scientific 

 gentlemen, it is added, employed in the expediiion, felt no inter- 

 jest in exploring this desert region, bevond what arose from the 

 mere circumstance of their treading u))on ground which till then 

 had never been trod by any European. 



It is with extreme regret we have to add, that intelligence has 

 just been received that Major Peddie, who commanded the other 

 ex|)edition intended to penetrate from Senegal through the de- 

 serts to the banks of the Niger, has also fallen a victim to his 

 spirit of enterprise. He died before he had reached the banks of 

 the river,and was succeeded in the command by Lieut. Campbell, 

 who, we understand, proceeded to carry into execution the ob- 

 ject of the expedition. 



VACf'INATION. 



(From a Corresjiondent.) — .Mr. I'ettigrew, in his Memoirs of 

 the Life and Writings of the late Dr. Lettsom (vol. i. page 121), 

 says, "It was Dr. L. who first sent the vaccine lymph across the 

 Atlantic, and consigned it to the fostering care of Dr. Waterhouse, 

 Professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the Lhiiver- 

 sity of Cambridcre, Massachusetts, from whence it ^prea^Z through 

 the LTnited States." This was stated by Dr. W. in his Treatise on 

 the Variola Vaccina, 8vo, Cambridge, 1S02. But the incorrect- 

 ness of this assertion was clearly pointed out by Dr. Rhodes, in 

 the Phil. Mag. vol. xvi. page 252, where the following passage 

 occurs : " In the winter of the vear 1799, Dr. John Chichester, 

 a practitioner of the first distinction in Charleston, South Caro- 

 lina, and to whom I have been pu|;i!, received vaccine matter 

 from his learned friend and former teaclier, Dr. Pearson, accom- 

 panying the first publications written on the cow-pock by Dr. 

 Jenner and himself. V/ith this matter several persons were inocu- 

 lated, but the disease v.-as produced in one case only. This 

 was a mulatto Ijoy named Robert, about seven or eight years old, 

 the property of Thomas Tuuno, esq. merchant. The small-pox 

 matter was subsequently inserted in the most careful manner 

 without effect. It was some time after the occurrence of the 

 above case before those which have been published as the first 

 instan-ces in America really happened." 



Every fact connected with tliis great discovery will be consi- 

 dered of importance by posterity ; and when its advantages to 



the 



