TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 105 



cause which produces small-pox during a variolous epidemic in the un- 

 vaccinated, may and does give rise to chicken-pox in the vaccinated. 

 And 4th. That there is every reason to believe that cow-pox had its 

 origin in variola. 



On the New Vaccine Virus of 1838. B?/ J. B. Estlin, F.L.S. 



The author, in common with many of his professional brethren, hav- 

 ing long been dissatisfied with the vaccine lymph furnished by the 

 National Vaccine Establishment, and believing that small-pox after 

 vaccination had become an event of more frequent occurrence than was 

 the case formerly, availed himself of an opportunity of procuring some 

 fresh virus from a dairy farm near Berkeley, in August 1838. Parti- 

 culars respecting the source of the virus are recorded in the London 

 Medical Gazette for September 1838. The offer of a supply from this 

 stock of lymph having been made through the medium of the Medical 

 Gazette to medical gentlemen connected with public vaccine institu- 

 tions, numerous applications were made to the author for it, and in the 

 course of a few months it was in extensive use throughout England ; 

 its employment at the principal vaccinating establishments in the po- 

 pulous towns of Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, and Manchester, had 

 it been used nowhere else, would give some importance to the history 

 of its origin and progress. 



The author had carefully preserved this matter distinct from every 

 other, and had watched its course from the cow for twelve months, 

 through nearly fifty successive inoculations. 



*' During the first three months of the employment of the new lymph, 

 in a large proportion of cases, a degree of intensity of action was ob- 

 served quite unusual in the lymph previously used. After the areola 

 had formed, which seldom commenced before the ninth day, the in- 

 flammation was considerable ; the constitutional symptoms were often 

 severe ; and after the subsidence of the areola, in consequence, appa- 

 rently, of the depth in the cellular membrane to which the vesicle had 

 extended, the separation of the crust was attended by a secondary in- 

 flammation very much resembling the process which takes place in the 

 throwing off of an eschar made by caustic potass. In many examples, 

 after the coming away of the crusts, deep circular ulcerations remained. 

 Erythematous attacks affecting the body were not unfrequent, and oc- 

 casionally erysipelas came on : vesicular eruptions also occurred : many 

 cases of abscess in the axilla were met with, and sometimes a succession 

 of boils and small abscesses appeared on the arm and body." Several 

 medical practitioners, fi'om witnessing the severe effects of the virus, 

 were induced to discontinue it ; and others who had employed it, had to 

 endure a portion of obloquy from their less intelligent patients on the 

 supposition of their having been inoculating with imj^roper virus. The 

 irritability of the vesicle at this period was so great that children beyond 

 a few months old usually rubbed and broke it, so that excepting in 

 young infants, a perfect vesicle was not often met with on the eighth 

 day, and it was found expedient to inoculate in not more than two 

 places. 



