of Cow-pock Matter to America. 279 



anxious ourselves, as four of our six children have never been 

 inoculated." 



Nov. 13, 1800. " I am in no small tribulation for want of 

 the vaccine matter. 1 introduced it into this country ; but some 

 how or other it lias depreciated in my hands. It fails in more 

 than half 1 inoculate for several weeks past. 1 never received 

 any but from Dr. Havgarth, which was last June. 



" I have never been able to procure Woodville's last publica- 

 tion on the cow-pox. Are there any good practical treatises 

 recently pui)lished on this subject? As I was the first who in- 

 troduced it here, I am a])plicd to from all quarters, but am 

 chagrined almost to sickness because I have no confidence in the 

 matter I possess. The vaccine poison has become milder by 

 passing through a number of the human species, or else the cold 

 weathei- has d°eprived it of half its venom. As soon as I receive 

 fresh matter trom England, I will dnectly inoculate a cov/, by 

 way of obtaining active matter from the fountain head. 



'^ 1 have had several instances in the cow-pox where the sym- 

 ptoms came on prettv violently in twenty-foiu- hours. In many 

 instances I am puzzled to know uhether the patient has really 

 gone through the disease so as to secure him from further m- 

 fection. My situation is peculiarly perplexing ; for should any 

 unfortunate case occur under any practitioner, 1 shall bear the 

 blame of it. I have diffused the matter all over the country, and 

 am conscious that it has degenerated and become spurious. 

 Applications by letter and otherwise crowd upon me every hour 

 and almost every minute, to solve doubts, give directions, and 

 console disappointments ; and I have no person to apply to my- 

 self for the information which I feel I myself stand in need of. 

 I have Jenner's work, first and second part ; Woodville's first 

 publication, and Pearson's first pamphlet, and the second vohnne 

 of the Medical and Physical Journal, and could wish that Mr. 

 Mawman would send "me any thing and every tiling that has 

 or mav come out in the course of the winter iilikh tjou can re- 

 commend." 



Dec. 13, 1800. ''As I know not Dr. Jenner's address, I 

 have inclosed a letter which I would thank you to forward to 

 him as soon as ])ossible. I have written to him on a sulyect in 

 which 1 am deeply interested, I mean the cow-pox. You al- 

 ready know, perhaps, that I introduced that di'tcmper here, 

 and 'led the way in its inoculation, and that very much to my 

 advantage ; but it lias lately vvorked very perversely, and occa- 

 sioned me much |)erplexity.' Since the cold raw weather of No- 

 vember came in, the mntlcr has dclcriorated in my hands, and in 

 the hands of every one else, so tliat almost all the cases that 

 have lately occurred have proved spurious} and unless I can oii- 

 S 4 tiiin 



