340 Dr. MiTRKAY on Vaccination. 



early part of infancy, experience showing thai they are not 

 much predisposed to receive it :"— and this conclusion is con- 

 firmed by Mr. Aiken, in liis account of the Variolous Epidemic, 

 which raged with great violence in the Town af Warrington, 

 in 1773 ; as well as by the experience of Dr. Munro, who 

 informs us, in his work on Inoculation, " that of 12 infants 

 whom he inoculated within a fortnight of their birth, not one 

 had the Variolous eruption." 



Mr. Kite, of Gravcsend, in his paper on Small Pox, in the 

 transactions of the Medical Society, states, that " he had 

 occasion frequently to observe that very young children had 

 been repeatedly inoculated, and for several weeks constantly 

 exposed to the worst kind of Small-Pox, without any ettect ; 

 that afterwards the Measles became unusually rife, of a putridi 

 nature, and much more contagious than he ever before or since 

 observed it ; that he attended in several families where the 

 young infants (particularly when under two months) were the 

 only part of the family that escaped this disease, although 

 exposed a considerable time to the infectious air, and lying al4 

 the night close to children passing through every stage of the 

 complaint, and consequently inhaling into their lungs the very 

 essence of infection ; nay, he had been informed of more than 

 one instance, where, in addition, the mother had the disease, 

 and the child, although constantly in her arms, breathing the 

 air reeking with putrid particles, and sucking the milk impreg- 

 nated with the disease strongly, as we should think, has for 

 months withstood the infection. 



This may suffice as authorities upon this point ; and in proof 

 of the infantile con.stitution being often imperfectly affected by 

 vaccination, I \youId adduce the well-known fact, that many, 

 particularly of those who have been vaccinated at a very early 

 age, have been found susceptible of under<;oing different 

 degrees of the disease on re-vaccination, of which I know many 

 instances, and had a very marked one in my own family in 

 J S3 1-2, when we had an alarm about Small-Pox having 

 appeared amongst the native tribes near the borders of the 

 Colony. 



At that time I ro-vaccinated my youngest child, when she 

 had attained the age of 20 months, who had been previously 

 vaccinated at the age of 3 months, when she went through the 

 disease in a reguhir manner, at least as far as regards the 

 pustules on the arms, and 1 considered her vaccination perfect 

 and satisfactory, as deritition had not commenced, and she was 

 not suffering fron» any cutaneous eruption, and was otherwise 

 quite healthy : however, after re-vaccination the Pocks again 

 came regularly forward, and during the night of the 9th day, 

 I was awoke by her crying and restlessness, and on examination 

 found her in ?. stHte of iiiuh fever, her skin red and hot, tongue 



