72 Introduction of the Vaccine Disease 



I invited him to become the benefactor of the colony. 

 I also wrote to France. The war rendered commu- 

 nications difficult. At length, a French captain, 

 coming from India, had the good fortune to preserve 

 the n}irus fresh, by successive vaccinations made from 

 arm to arm, during the voyage. He had also brought 

 impregnated threads. I made a completely-success- 

 ful use of both sources, in the Hospital of the State. 

 It was from these vaccinations, that I was enabled to 

 furnish virus to the medical practitioners of the 

 colony. 



The transmission was equally successful in every 

 quarter. Its operation was visible between the 4th 

 and 5th day ; and it was always from the commence- 

 ment of the 8th to the close of the 9th day, that the 

 virus in the pustule was of a clearness and gummi- 

 ness fit for transmission. 



We have known of no adverse case in this practice, 

 which has become general in the Isles of France and 

 Reunion. It has been tried upon persons of every 

 age ; upon infants, from the 5th day after birth ; upon 

 pregnant females, without any preparation, or subse- 

 quent medical treatment ; and the effect of the opera- 

 tion has, in almost every instance, been so light as 

 scarcely to prove an inconvenience. There are some 

 fev) examples of a more violent cifect, and two or 

 tliree of convulsions : but not one of its ever proving 

 mortal. I ought to observe, that I have practised vac- 

 cination upon persons already sick, weakened, with 



