80 Inefficacy of Vaccine Inoculation. 



I appeal, therefore, to persons of discernment, whe- 

 ther such mistakes, in the outset of a new practice, 

 were not sufficient grounds for a cautious man to ad- 

 mit some doubts of the danger of introducing a new 

 disease into the human system. The opinion which 

 I gave to the committee was supported by such proofs, 

 in the answers sent to their enquiries, and pubhshed 

 in their report, from Messrs. Slater, of Wycomb, 

 Grovesnor, of Oxford, Nooth, of Bath, and Dr. Hope, 

 of Haslar Hospital, that what I have seen and heard 

 since has only served to determine me not to be misled 

 by the fashionable rage. 



The steady and single opinion I have maintained, 

 in opposition to this practice, has brought me acquaint- 

 ed with some new eruptions, abscesses, and disorders, 

 which I had not before observed ; but these accidents 

 are generally attributed to a spurious sort of cow-pox. 

 This is a term I do not admit of; I know of no such 

 x[-\\w^ -AS spurious small-pox, spurious lues venerea, spu- 

 rious scrofula. We are yet left unsatisfied, as to the 

 nature and origin of what is called cow-pox. It is a 

 disorder kno\\ n only to the cow-doctor, in dirty dai- 

 ries, though we are taught to play with it as a blessing 

 revealed from heaven to this enlightened age. 



If Iwibhed to corroborate the grounds for my doubts, 

 1 might mention an almost equally fashionable rage, 

 whicli had seized too many of the faculty, previous to 

 the appearance of cow-pox, in favour of the nitrous 

 acid, as a remedy for the venereal disease. Mercury 

 was no longer to be called in aid, and the press teemed 



