VACCINATION AGAINST SMALLPOX 177 



inf-ction is new in the minds of most of the farmers in this 

 neighbourhood, but it has at length produced good conse- 

 quences; and it seems probable, from the precautions they 

 are now disposed to adopt, that the appearance of the cow- 

 pox here may either be entirely extinguished or become ex- 

 tremely rare. 



Should it be asked whether this investigation is a matter 

 of mere curiosity, or whether it tends to any beneficial pur- 

 pose, I should answer that, notwithstanding the happy effects 

 of inoculation, with all the improvements which the practice 

 has received since its first introduction into this country, it 

 not very unfrequently produces deformity of the skin, and 

 sometimes, under the best management, proves fatal. 



These circumstances must naturally create in every in- 

 stance some degree of painful solicitude for its consequences. 

 But as I have never known fatal effects arise from the cow- 

 pox, even when impressed in the most unfavourable manner, 

 producing extensive inflammations and suppurations on the 

 hands; and as it clearly appears that this disease leaves the 

 constitution in a state of perfect security from the infection 

 of the smallpox, may we not infer that a mode of inoculation 

 may be introduced preferable to that at present adopted, 

 especially among those families which, from previous cir- 

 cumstances, we may judge to be predisposed to have the dis- 

 ease unfavourably? It is an excess in the number of pustules 

 which we chiefly dread in the smallpox; but in the cow-pox 

 no pustules appear, nor does it seem possible for the con- 

 tagious matter to produce the disease from effluvia, or by any 

 other means than contact, and that probably not simply be- 

 tween the virus and the cuticle; so that a single individual 

 in a family might at any time receive it without the risk 

 of infecting the rest or of spreading a distemper that fills a 

 country with terror. 



Several instances have come under my observation which 

 justify the assertion that the disease cannot be propagated by 

 effluvia. The first boy whom I inoculated with the matter 



though dairies abound in many parts of the island, the disease is entirely 

 unknown. The reason seems obvious. The business of the dairy is con- 

 ducted by women only. Were the meanest vassal among the men employed 

 there as a milker at a dairy, he would feel his situation unpleasant beyond 

 all endurance. 



