NEW ENGLAxND FARMER. 



4l)i> 



euiization of the vaccine crus(s themselves. If 

 '.he scab produced in any case, or the vaccina 

 i.A.//'is found to lie perfect, the operation in 

 'iich c;>se may always be declared to linve 

 jteii perfect also ; and the patient may be pro- 

 nounced without any other evidence, or inquiry 

 oaoerning liis case, !o be secure from the 

 • mall pox during lite ; while, on the other 

 riand. if the scab is found to be wholly or in 

 narl only imperfect, so also may the patient 

 concerned be declared to be imperfectly vnc- 

 ;inated, and informed accordingly of his con- 

 inued liability to suffer, if exposed either to 

 ;he variolous or varioloid contagion. 



Q. If such important information as this can 

 Tc derived from the vaccine scabs, should not 

 hose who are vaccinated take care to save 

 :hcm? 



J. Certainly; and they should always submit 

 ;hem as soon as practicable, to the examination 

 )f some vaccinist, whose knowledge of their 

 proper organization would enable him either 

 IV his eye, or by the use of good glasses, to 

 letcct any irregularity or imperfection that 

 aar be discovered in them. 



Q. It would seem as if this method of prac- 

 ice. dispensing with all the labor of a personal 

 ittendance upon the patients concerned, would 

 ifTord great facility in the proper use of the 

 vine pock. Have any defects been discovered 

 a this method of conducting vaccination ? 



..'3. The laws of nature are in no case more 

 iniform and unchangeable, than they have been 

 )bserved to bo, in regard to the production and 

 brmalion of the vaccine crusts. But they are 

 )ften lost through the carelessness of the pcr- 

 ons upon whom they are produced ; and there 

 ire but few practitioners, who yet know how 

 examine them, or who tuve yet acquired 

 hat perfect knowledge of their nature and or- 

 ganization, that is essentially necessary, to ena- 

 jle them to give a correct opinion on any case 

 )f vaccination, that may be submitted to them 

 n this way. 



Q. What other tests of perfect vaccination 

 lave we to depend on? 



.ff Several have been proposed. Dr. Jenner's 

 hief dependence was upon the peculiarity of 

 he symptoms usually attendant on the kine 

 lock, and the regularity with which they suc- 

 ;eed each other. The evidence to be ob- 

 ained of the perfection of the vaccine 

 "irocess by this method, is sufficiently sat- 

 sfactory; but the constant attendance of an 

 experienced vaccinist, for at least two weeks, 

 ? required, to enable him to assure the patient 

 n this way, of his safety from the small pox. 



An ingenious test of vaccination has been 

 iilely offered to the world, by Dr. Bryce of 

 t^dinburgb, a vaccinist who has stronger claims 

 ■ ipon our implicit confidence in his skill in this 

 jausiness, than any other person living perhaps. 

 'Dr. B. states, and he states the truth, that if any 

 :jerson who is vaccinated in one arm, will take 

 .he- matter from the pock as soon as it can be 

 Dbtained, and insert it in the other arm, both af- 

 fections will terminate simultaneously. But 

 ihis new test, however useful it may be in par- 

 ticular cases, (as a leading string to the blind,) 

 r.ill, it is feared, be productive in the end of 

 nauch mischief, by deteriorating the vaccine 

 ■natter itself; and thus involve the ignorant in 

 ■ till greater difficulties than they esperience at 

 ;hi5 present time. 



Some learned doctors deny that any positive I 

 opinion can be given on any case of vaccina- 

 tion ; and they assert, " that if there has been 

 discovered any criterion bywhich we can pro- 

 nounce a subject completely guaranteed against 

 the invasion of the small pox by vaccination, it 

 is to be found in that insensibility to the vac- 

 cine virus, which is the result of repeated vac- 

 cination, until not even a local vaccine inflam- 

 mation can be excited." But this is a slander 

 upon the kine pock ; and it is hoped it will be 

 soon abolished from the schools where it is 

 taught and consigned forever to the regions of 

 error, whence it originated. 



Q. What was the opinion of the illustrious 

 discoverer of the kine pock, in regard to the 

 vaccine scab ? 



A. It cannot be discovered from his writings, 

 that he placed any dependence on the appear- 

 ance of the scab, as a test of the security of any 

 person from the small pox, A vaccine scab was 

 transmitted to him some years before his death, 

 by the writer of these answers, and was acknow- 

 ledged to have been used by him " with perfect 

 success ;" a fact that is sufficient of itself to es- 

 tablish the propriety of using the vaccine 

 crusts, against which some pretenders in Amer- 

 ica to superior skill in vaccination, yet disingen- 

 uously exclaim. 



Q. How, when, and where was the kine pock 

 first discovered? 



A. The fact was known in England " time 

 immemorial," that those who took the kine 

 pock casually, were not liable to take the small 

 pox at any time thereafter during their lives. — 

 But the first direct experiment in vaccination 

 was made by Dr. Edward Jenoer on the 14th 

 of May, 1796, with matter taken from the hand 

 ef n dairy maid who was infected from milking 

 her master's cows. Of the actual origin of the 

 kine pock itself we know nothing more than 

 we do of the origin of any other distinct natu- 

 ral production. Neither is it necessary for the 

 general welfare of mankind that we should be 

 informed precisely how, when, or where this 

 remedy did first appear. 



Q. What was Dr. Jenner's opinion of the 

 origin of the kine pock ? 



v3. He viewed the kine pock as an animal se- 

 cretion, derived at first from the grease of the 

 horse ; ana from their diseased heels, he sup- 

 posed it was communicated by those who dres- 

 sed them to the udders of the cows, and from 

 the cows again to the persons who milked them. 

 Jenner never suspected that the vaccina was re- 

 ally a completely organized production of its 

 own kind, living in its own proper place, per- 

 fectly distinct, and properly fitted for the con- 

 tinuance of its own species. 



Q. How long is it supposed the natural small 

 pox has prevailed in the world? 



A. The silence of the ancient Greek and Ro- 

 man writers respecting the existence of the 

 small pox, has induced physicians generally to 

 consider this plague as one of late origin. But 

 the minute description we have of leprosy in 

 the 13th and 14th chapters of Leviticus is so 

 properly applicable to the small pox, as a con- 

 tagious disease, and the meihOu crJsrcd by Mo- 

 ses to prevent its spreading among the Israelites, 

 is so replete with wisdom that those who will 

 read these chapters attentively will find in them 

 many good reasons for believing that the small 

 pox prevailed among men from the earliest 



ages of the world. The word Leprosy in the 

 original Hebrew language is not the name of 

 any particular disease, but a general term sig- 

 nifying any thing out nf mhich evil may come, or 

 from which injuiy uviy bo derived. 



q. How is the natural Small Pox known? 



A. The patients are generally seized with a 

 chill, succeeded by fever, pain in the head, 

 back, and limbs, sick .stomach, kc. On the 

 3d day small spots or "risings in the skin" 

 arc pei-ceptible, first on the face and afterwards 

 on the body and limbs. On the 5th and 6th 

 days the pimples contain a clear limpid fluid, 

 that changes in two or three days more into a 

 yellowish or purulent like matter. About the 

 12th day these eruptions begin to dry, and they 

 soon afterwards terminate in dark colored scalia 

 or crusts and fall off, leaving deep pits or scars 

 for lite. This is the mildest form in which the 

 di.Uinct small pox appears. When the disease 

 is more severe the eruptions are more nume- 

 rous or confluent ; and the whole body some- 

 times becoming covered with them assumes the 

 most loathsome and horrible appearance imagi- 

 nable. In this form the natural small pox mo.it 

 generally proves fatal between the 9th and 14th 

 days of the disease. 



Q. Why will not any person take the small 

 pox more than once, and why not subsequently 

 as well as previous to vaccination ? 



A. This question has never been seriously at- 

 tempted to be answered by any competent au- 

 thority. Neither can it yet be satisfactorily 

 solved by any person. Some who believed that 

 the small pox matter was no other than a par- 

 ticular humor secreted from the persons of those 

 who had it, have supposed that the individuals 

 concerned were divested of it entirely by its 

 being thrown out of their systems, and that 

 having no more of this particular matter or hu- 

 mor left In their blood they could give out no 

 more of it during the remainder of their lives. 

 The absurdity of this supposition, however, re- 

 quires no other refutation than to mention it. 

 And the same may be said of every other hy- 

 pothesis heretofore advanced on this subject. — 

 It is probable, notwithstanding, that this ques- 

 tion may yet be solved ; and that it will be 

 found there is actually something left or depos- 

 ited in the system of every individual, affected 

 either by the small pox or kine pock that re- 

 mains with them during life; rendering inope 

 rative the sporadia or gcinmce contagionis, on 

 which the natural increase of these peculiar 

 fungi depend. 



Q. Have any imperfect or adulterated varie- 

 ties of the variola been yet observed ? 



A. Undoubtedly several distinct varieties have 

 been noticed. But that which claims our most 

 particular attention at present, is that species of 

 adulterated contagion or seed that has been 

 produced by an admixture of the vaccine with 

 the variolous matter, and from which a new 

 plague has lately sprung up among us, now well 

 known by the name of the varioloid disease. 



Q. This is an extraordinary novelty in the 

 history of diseases, and has of late excited great 

 uneasiness. How can this new plague be pre- 

 vented ? 



A. The kine pock and small pox are no other 

 than two several species of the same natura! 

 genus of plants ; and they adulterate each oth- 

 er when they are propagated in the same vicin- 

 ity, upon a well known principle. It was wise- 



