1813.] On Faccinatiorio 5?3 



to the deaths which have followed soon after Inoculation witli. 

 cow-pox virus. 



The instances of this kind contained in the correspondence of 

 the society of Paris are 11 in number. Four childien died of 

 the small-pox coming on the 2(\, the 6th, the Sth, and the 9tb 

 day after vaccination. This disease had of course been con- 

 tracted before vaccination, or at least before it could produce its 

 preservative effects. Two other children died of convulsions. 

 One of these was only three months oldy and had been subject 

 to convulsions from its birth. The other was tormented with 

 convulsions in consequence of worms, and the disease had 

 existed before vaccination. Five infants newly born, two of 

 whom were afflicted with a syphilitic disease, and three were in 

 a state of marasmus, died soon after vaccination. These are the 

 only examples noticed in the registers of correspondence out of 

 more than two millions and six hundred thousand persons vac- 

 cinated, and not one of them can be ascribed to the cow-pox^ 

 since independently of it there existed diseases sufficient to occa- 

 sion death. 



The extracts inserted in the Bibliotheque Britannique furnish 

 us^ likewise, with examples of death following soon after vacci- 

 nation. Several, during the time that the small-pox was epidemic, 

 were occasioned by the small-pox itself, which appeared imme- 

 diately after vaccination. This happened both at Geneva and 

 in other places.* In other cases death was occasioned by peculiar 

 eruptions complicated the cow-pox, and we have seen what 

 ought to be concluded with regard to such a complication. A 

 fatal accident, which happened at Nottingham in 1801, was 

 occasioned by an universal erysipelas observed upon two infants^ 

 and which carried off one.f 



If we now compare the number of deaths with the number of 

 vaccinations which terminated fortunately, we shall find that the 

 infant mentioned by Dr. Woodville in 1798 was still the only 

 one in 1/99 out of 6,000 vaccinated;! and that in 1807, 

 according ro the report of the surgeons of London, only three 

 deaths had been observed out of 16.4,381 vaccinated, which 

 amounts to I in 54,793*6. § 



From the facts v»^hich we have stated, it appears that the fatal 

 accidents observed during inoculation with the cow-pox have 

 taken place in the case of eruptions produced by the small-pox: 

 existing at the same time, by convulsions for the most part 

 existing before vaccination, in one case by the croup, by 

 marasmus already far advanced^ by the syphilitic virus, and by 



* Bibl. Brit. vol. xv. p. 84, 85 ; xliv. 290, 29U 



+ Bibl. Brit. vol. xvi. p. 298. 



% Bibl. Jgrit. vol. xii. p. 325: xiv. 200. 



§ Bibl. Brit. vol. xxxvi. p. 3TL J 



Vol. I, IV, S 



