VACCINATION. 



one of tliis order, is reported to enrich the millt of cows, 

 but has not come into any general notice. See Silen'E, 

 feft. 2, and Spergula, n. i. 



VACCARY, Vaccaria, in our Old Writers, a houfe or 

 place to keep cows in ; a dairy-houfe, or cow-pafture. 



VACCEI, Vacceans, in ^Indent Geography, a people 

 of the interior of Hither Spain, S. of that part of the 

 country which was inhabited by the Ailuri. According 

 to Diodorus, the Vacceans were the moft. gentle and po- 

 l!(hed of the Celtibsrians. They were fubjugated by L. 

 Lucullus and Ch. Marcellus. It appears that they were a 

 confiderable people by the number of towns which Ptolemy 

 afligns to them. 



VACCINATION, or the Coiu-pox inoculation, in Sur- 

 gery, one of the greateft and moft important difcoveries of 

 modern times. The difcovery of the circulation of the 

 blood, made by the c -lebrated Harvey, has unqueftionably 

 been the fource of infinite improvement in every part of the 

 healing art, and produced incalculable benefit ; but vaccina- 

 tion, the difcovery of anotlier Enghfhnian, the immortal 

 Jenner, is a thing, which in its confequences certainly out- 

 does every previous innovation in pradlice, fince it may be 

 faid to fave annuallv the lives of n.lUions. 



Vacciiiation being the only known means of arrefting al- 

 together the fatal ravage; of the fmall-pox, the moft depo- 

 pulating contagion upon the face of the eartn, mankind wiU 

 probably for ever feel a deep intereft i.i the fubjed. In 

 faft, nothing lefs tlian the well-eftabliftied total extermina- 

 tion and permanent cefTation of the imall-pox, could ever 

 juftify a diminution of the laudable folicitude of the public 

 for the continuance of vaccination. For it is not to be 

 prefumed, that a Hill milder and more effeftual means of 

 rendering the human body infufceptible of the elfefts of the 

 fmall-pox contagion, will ever be difcovered. A milder 

 method, indeed, is hardly conceivable ; fince the fymptoms 

 produced by it amount only to a very flight indifpofition, 

 which never has any fatal or unpleafant confequences. Its 

 efficacy alfo is now fully confirmed by abundance of evi- 

 dence, coUefted from the united obfervations and experience 

 of the beft informed praftitioners, who, it is obvious, can 

 have no intereft in the fuccefs of vaccination, but the gene- 

 ral good of their fellow-creatures. Were medical men fo 

 bafe as to fuffer their judgment to be influenced by merce- 

 nary confiderations, they would decry with all their force 

 the praftice of vaccination, which occafions too trifling an 

 indifpofition to put many fees into their pockets ; and they 

 would neceffarily praife the fmall-pox inoculation, by which 

 a frequently long and lucrative attendance on their patients 

 might be calculated upon as a matter of certainty. 



A general account of the origin of vaccination has been 

 dehvered in the article Cow-pox, and on this interefting part 

 of the fubjeft we ftiall therefore merely recapitulate a very 

 few particulars. As, however, it is an objeft of the firft- 

 rate importance to be perfeftly acquainted with every cri- 

 terion of the genuine difeafe, we mean to introduce into this 

 article fome valuable inftruftions, which have been publiftied 

 by the lateft and beft medical v.-rilers, or which have been 

 circulated by the National Vaccine Eftabliftimcnt, refpeft- 

 mg the appearances of the true affedlion, and of fome 

 others, which are either fpnrious, or not to be depended 

 upon. In this account will be comprehended a brief ex- 

 planation of the method of praftifing vaccination. The 

 reft of the article will be principally devoted to the confi- 

 deration of the occafional failures to which the praftice is 

 liable. 



It was an obfervation made long ago in feveral of the 

 dairies in England, particularly in thofe in Giouceilerftiire, 



4 



that the milch cows were frequently aSfe Aed with an eruptioB 

 upon their udders and teats, which was communicated not 

 only from one cow to another, but frequently alfo to the 

 hands of the milkers ; and farther, that fuch of the milkers 

 as had been thus affefted, were never afterwards infefted 

 with the fmall-pox, either by inoculation, or by expofure to 

 the moft virulent contagion of that difeafe, even although 

 fuch perfons had not previoufly undergone that dreadful 

 malady. 



It is curious, that the knowledge of a fa£l of fo fingular 

 a nature, and one of fo much importance to the general in- 

 terefts of fociety, fhould have been confined, from time im- 

 memorial, almoft entirely to thofe occupied in the bufinefs 

 of dairies, without being fully inveftigated by fuch perfons 

 as could duly appreciate its value. 



Dr. Jenner, a phyfician at Berkley, in Gloucefterlhire, 

 was the hrft perfon who fet himfelf about examining this 

 fubjeft with that care and attention which its importance 

 feemed to demand. 



In the year 1798, after much dihgent labour and invefti- 

 gation. Dr. Jenner pubhftied " An Inquiry into the Caufes 

 and Effefts of the Variolae Vaccinas ;" and his obfervations 

 foon excited the attention of the whole medical world. For 

 a confiderable time, the accuracy of the account was received 

 among medical men with hefitation. The charafter, how- 

 ever, of Dr. Jenner, and the fingularity and important na- 

 ture of the ailment, led to farther inveftigation ; and al- 

 though many arguments were urged, and circumftances 

 ftated, which feemed adverfe to the plan of the general 

 introduflion of cow-pox among mankind, yet the great 

 utility of it was at laft clearly evinced. Every ftatement 

 made by the accurate Jenner was confirmed, and the credit 

 of the cow-pox, as a preventive of fmall-pox, was efta- 

 bhftied on a bafis too firm to be ftiaken by the ftiafts of 

 envy, malice, or ignorance — the bafis of immutable truth. 



Dr. Jenner, not fatisfied with the affertions of the dairy 

 farmers and fervants, that perfons who had been affefted 

 with cow-pox were rendered thereby fecure againft the at- 

 tacks of fmall-pox, determined to afcertain the truth of this 

 facl by the teft of experiment. He inoculated for fmall- 

 pox many perfons who had formerly undergone the cow- 

 pox, fome fo long as thirty and even fifty years previoufly ; 

 anJ thefe he uniformly found, as had been predicted to him, 

 completely refifted that difeafe. 



So far the nature of cow-pox was known to others before 

 it was known to Dr. Jenner. In the year 1796, however, 

 this ingenious gentleman puftied his inveftigation farther ; 

 and on the 14th of May, he firft intentionally infefted the 

 human conftitution with the virus of cow-pox by inocula- 

 tion, with the defign, as he informs us, of obferving more 

 accurately the progrefs of the infedtion. The experiment 

 fucceeded ; and the affeftion, though remarkably flight, was 

 clearly marked in all its ftages. 



Dr. Jenner next conceived the idea of inoculating this 

 perfon with the virus of fmall-pox, in order to afcertain 

 whether fo flight an affeftion as had taken place from the 

 cow-pox, could poftibly give fecurity from that dreadful 

 difeafe. Several flight punftures and incifions were accord- 

 ingly made in both arms, and the virus of fmall-pox was 

 carefully inferted, but no difeafe followed. Some months 

 afterwards, the fame perfon was again inoculated for fmall- 

 pox, but ftill no fenfible effeft was produced upon the con- 

 ftitution. 



This is to be reckoned the firft difcovery of Dr. Jenner 

 refpefting the nature of cow-pox, -viz. that the matter of 

 cow-pox, taken from the veficles on the cow, and inten- 

 tionally inferted into the human fubjeft, produces an afFec- 



tioii. 



