206 EDWARD JENNER 



As the subject of the smallpox is so interwoven with that 

 which is the more immediate object of my present concern, 

 it must plead my excuse for so often introducing it. At 

 present it must be considered as a distemper not well under- 

 stood. The inquiry I have instituted into the nature of the cow- 

 pox will probably promote its more perfect investigation. 



The inquiry of Dr. Pearson into the history of the cow-pox 

 having produced so great a number of attestations in favour 

 of my assertion that it proves a protection to the human 

 body from the smallpox, I have not been assiduous in seek- 

 ing for more; but as some of my friends have been so good 

 as to communicate the following, I shall conclude these 

 observations with their insertion. 



Extract of a letter from Mr. Drake, Surgeon, at Stroud, 

 in this county, and late Surgeon to the North Gloucester 

 Regiment of Militia: 



"In the spring of the year 1796 I inoculated men, women, 

 and children to the amount of about seventy. Many of the 

 men did not receive the infection, although inoculated at least 

 three times and kept in the same room with those who 

 actually underwent the disease during the whole time occu- 

 pied by them in passing through it. Being anxious they 

 should, in future, be secure against it, I was very particular 

 in my inquiries to find out whether they ever had previously 

 had it, or at any time been in the neighbourhood of people 

 labouring under it. But, after all, the only satisfactory in- 

 formation I could obtain was that they had had the cow-pox. 

 As I was then ignorant of such a disease affecting the human 

 subject, I flattered myself what they imagined to be the cow- 

 pox was in reality the smallpox in a very slight degree. I 

 mentioned the circumstance in the presence of the officers, 

 at the time expressing my doubts if it were not smallpox, 

 and was not a little surprised when I was told by the Colonel 

 that he had frequently heard you mention the cow-pox as 

 a disease endemial to Gloucestershire, and that if a person 

 were ever affected by it, you supposed him afterwards secure 

 from the smallpox. This excited my curiosity, and when I 

 visited Gloucestershire I was very inquisitive concerning the 

 subject, and from the information I have since received, 

 both from your publication and from conversation with med- 





