VACCINATION AGAINST SMALLPOX 193 



clear that an individual thus infected from the horse would 

 neither be for a certainty secure himself, nor would he im- 

 part security to others were they inoculated by virus thus 

 generated. He still would be in danger of taking the small- 

 pox. Yet were this to happen before the nature of the cow- 

 pox be more maturely considered by the public my evi- 

 dence on the subject might be depreciated unjustly. For 

 an exemplification of what is here advanced relative to the 

 nature of the infection when received directly from the 

 horse see Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the 

 Variolae Vaccinae, pp. 27, 28, 29, 30, and p. 35; and by way 

 of further example, I beg leave to subjoin the following in- 

 telligence received from Mr. Fewster, Surgeon, of Thorn- 

 bury, in this county, a gentleman perfectly well acquainted 

 with the appearances of the cow-pox on the human subject: 

 "William Morris, aged thirty-two, servant to Mr. Cox of 

 Almondsbury, in this county, applied to me the 2d of April, 

 1798. He told me that, four days before, he found a stiff- 

 ness and swelling in both his hands, which were so painful 

 it was with difficulty he continued his work; that he had 

 been seized with pain in his head, small of the back, and 

 limbs, and with frequent chilly fits succeeded by fever. On 

 examination I found him still affected with these symptoms, 

 and that there was a great prostration of strength. Many 

 parts of his hands on the inside were chapped, and on the 

 middle joint of the thumb of the right hand there was a 

 small phagedenic ulcer, about the size of a large pea, dis- 

 charging an ichorous fluid. On the middle finger of the 

 same hand there was another ulcer of a similar kind. These 

 sores were of a circular form, and he described their first 

 appearance as being somewhat like blisters arising from a 

 burn. He complained of excessive pain, which extended 

 up his arm into the axilla. These symptoms and appear- 

 ances of the sores were so exactly like the cow-pox that I 

 pronounced he had taken the distemper from milking cows. 

 He assured me he had not milked a cow for more than half 

 a year, and that his master's cows had nothing the matter 

 with them. I then asked him if his master had a greasy 

 horse, which he answered in the affirmative, and further said 

 that he had constantly dressed him twice a day for the 

 (7) HC XXXVIH 



