202 EDWARD JENNER 



doctrine of secretion, but as it will not be quite extraneous, 

 I shall just observe that I consider both the pus and the 

 limpid fluid of the pustule as secretions, but that the organs 

 established by nature to perform the office of secreting these 

 fluids may differ essentially in their mechanical structure. 

 What but a difference in the organization of glandular bodies 

 constitutes the difference in the qualities of the fluids 

 secreted? From some peculiar derangement in the struc- 

 ture or, in other words, some deviation in the natural action 

 of a gland destined to create a mild, innoxious fluid, a 

 poison of the most deadly nature may be created; for ex- 

 ample: That gland, which in its sound state secretes pure 

 saliva, may, from being thrown into diseased action, pro- 

 duce a poison of the most destructive quality. Nature ap- 

 pears to have no more difficulty in forming minute 

 glands among the vascular parts of the body than she has 

 in forming blood vessels, and millions of these can be 

 called into existence, when inflammation is excited, in a 

 few hours. 10 



In the present early stage of the inquiry (for early it 

 certainly must be deemed), before we know for an abso- 

 lute certainty how soon the virus of the cow-pox may suf- 

 fer a change in its specific properties, after it has quitted the 

 limpid state it possesses when forming a pustule, it would 

 be prudent for those who have been inoculated with it to 

 submit to variolous inoculation. No injury or inconvenience 

 can accrue from this; and were the same method practiced 

 among those who, from inoculation, have felt the smallpox 

 in an unsatisfactory manner at any period of their lives, it 

 might appear that I had not been too officious in offering 

 a cautionary hint in recommending a second inoculation with 

 matter in its most perfect state. 



And here let me suppose, for argument's sake (not from 

 conviction), that one person in an hundred after having had 

 the cow-pox should be found susceptible of the smallpox, 

 would this invalidate the utility of the practice? For, waiv- 

 ing all other considerations, who will deny that the inoculated 

 smallpox, although abstractedly it may be considered as 





10 Mr. Home, in his excellent dissertation on pus and mucus, justifies this 

 assertion. 



tms 



