CHAP. xvni. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 221 



and found twelve cases in which it entirely failed, the 

 result being exactly as with those who were inoculated 

 without previous vaccination. These cases, with ex- 

 tracts from Brown's work, were brought before the 

 Royal Commission by Professor Crookshank. (See 4th 

 Report, Q. 11,852.) 



Again, Mr. William Tebb brought before the Com- 

 mission a paper by Dr. Maclean, in the Medical Observer 

 of 1810, giving 535 cases of small-pox after vaccination, 

 of which 97 were fatal. He also gave 150 cases of 

 diseases from cow-pox, with the names of ten medical 

 men, including two Professors of Anatomy, who had 

 suffered in their own families from vaccination. The 

 following striking passage is quoted: "Doctrine. Vac- 

 cination or Cow-pox inoculation is a perfect preventive 

 of small-pox during life. (Jenner, etc.) Refutation. 

 535 cases of small-pox after cow-pox. Doctrine. Cow- 

 pox renders small-pox milder. It is never fatal. Refu- 

 tation. 97 deaths from small-pox after cow-pox and 

 from cow-pox diseases." 



The cases here referred to, of failure of vaccination to 

 protect even for a few years, are probably only a small 

 fraction of those that occurred, since only in exceptional 

 cases would a doctor be able to keep his patients in view, 

 and only one doctor here and there would publish his 

 observations. The controversy was carried on with un- 

 usual virulence ; hence perhaps the reason why the public 

 paid so little attention to it. But unfortunately both the 

 heads of the medical profession and the legislature had 

 committed themselves by recognizing the full claims of 

 Jenner at too early a date and in a manner that admitted 

 of no recall. In 1802, as already stated, the House of 



