

VACCINATION AGAINST SMALLPOX 203 



harmless, does not involve in itself something that in number- 

 less instances proves baneful to the human frame. 



That in delicate constitutions it sometimes excites scrofula 

 is a fact that must generally be subscribed to, as it is so 

 obvious to common observation. This consideration is im- 

 portant. 



As the effects of the smallpox inoculation on those who 

 have had the cow-pox will be watched with the most scrupu- 

 lous eye by those who prosecute this inquiry, it may be 

 proper to bring to their recollection some facts relative to 

 the smallpox, which I must consider here as of consequence, 

 but which hitherto seem not to have made a due impression. 



It should be remembered that the constitution cannot, by 

 previous infection, be rendered totally unsusceptible of the 

 variolous poison ; neither the casual nor the inoculated small- 

 pox, whether it produces the disease in a mild or in a violent 

 way, can perfectly extinguish the susceptibility. The skin, 

 we know, is ever ready to exhibit, though often in a very 

 limited degree, the effects of the poison when inserted there; 

 and how frequently do we see, among nurses, when much 

 exposed to the contagion, eruptions, and these sometimes 

 preceded by sensible illness! yet should any thing like an 

 eruption appear, or the smallest degree of indisposition, upon 

 the insertion of the variolous matter on those who have gone 

 through the cow-pox, my assertions respecting the peculiar- 

 ities of the disease might be unjustly discredited. 



I know a gentleman who, many years ago, was inoculated 

 for the smallpox, but having no pustules, or scarcely any con- 

 stitutional affection that was perceptible, he was dissatisfied, 

 and has since been repeatedly inoculated. A vesicle has 

 always been produced in the arm in consequence, with axil- 

 lary swelling and a slight indisposition ; this is by no means 

 a rare occurrence. It is probable that fluid thus excited upon 

 the skin would always produce the smallpox. 



On the arm of a person who had gone through the cow- 

 pox many years before I once produced a vesication by the 

 insertion of variolous matter, and, with a little of the fluid, 

 inoculated a young woman who had a mild, but very effica- 

 cious, smallpox in consequence, although no constitutional 

 effect was produced on the patient from whom the matter 



