VACCINATION AGAINST SMALLPOX 213 



of those which are so thickly spread over the body in 

 a bad kind of confluent smallpox. This was more like a 

 pustule of the distinct smallpox, except that I saw no in- 

 stance of pus being formed in it, the matter remaining 

 limpid till the period of scabbing. 



Wishing to see the effects of the disease on an infant 

 newly born, my nephew, Mr. Henry Jenner, at my request, 

 inserted the vaccine virus into the arm of a child about 

 twenty hours old. His report to me is that the child 

 went through the disease without apparent illness, yet that 

 it was found effectually to resist the action of variolous 

 matter with which it was subsequently inoculated. 



I have had an opportunity of trying the effects of the 

 cow-pox matter on a boy, who, the day preceding its in- 

 sertion, sickened with the measles. The eruption of the 

 measles, attended with cough, a little pain in the chest, 

 and the usual symptoms accompanying the disease, ap- 

 peared on the third day and spread all over him. The 

 disease went through its course without any deviation from 

 its usual habits; and, notwithstanding this, the cow-pox 

 virus excited its common appearances, both on the arm 

 and on the constitution, without any febrile interruption; 

 on the sixth day there was a vesicle. 



8th : Pain in the axilla, chilly, and affected with headache. 



9th: Nearly well. 



1 2th: The pustule spread to the size of a large split-pea, 

 but without any surrounding efflorescence. It soon after- 

 wards scabbed, and the boy recovered his general health 

 rapidly. But it should be observed that before it scabbed 

 the efflorescence which had suffered a temporary suspension 

 advanced in the usual manner. 



Here we see a deviation from the ordinary habits of 

 the smallpox, as it has been observed that the presence of 

 the measles suspends the action of the variolous matter. 



The very general investigation that is now taking place, 

 chiefly through inoculation (and I again repeat my earnest 

 hope that it may be conducted with that calmness and 

 moderation which should ever accompany a philosophical 

 research), must soon place the vaccine disease in its just 

 point of view. The result of all my trials with the virus 



