1813.] 



On Vaccination, 



at the place of the puncture, seldom a pock, or at least it very 

 speedily dried up. Inoculation with small-pox matter being 

 performed on 16 infants between the 11th and ISth day after 

 vaccination, 3 of them only exhibited a slight redness at the 

 place of the punctdre, while the 13 others had no symptoms 

 wdiatever. If the formation of the cow-pock he later than the 

 3d day, as happens sometimes, in that case the possibility of 

 small-pox infection will be extended to a time pruportionally 

 longer.* 



These details appeared to us necessary, in order to show to 

 what degree of exactness observations on the preservative power 

 of the cow-pox have been carried, and to show that the dis- 

 tinctions to which these researches have given origin are far (torn 

 beicg, as some persons wish us to believe, subtikies and subter- 

 fuges invented to excuse the want of success. 



Now in applying the remarks that have been made to the 

 alleged observations of small-pox appearing after vaccination^ if 

 we exclude ail those which want the conditions necessary for 

 rendering them creditable, we find very little which can come 

 in competition with the facts on the other side. There are, 

 however, some, against which it is difficult to start any plausible 

 objection. The Jennerian Society of London evidently admit 

 the existence of such in Articles i), 10, 11, 14, and 15, of their 

 Report. The College of Surgeons of London say, that out of 

 lf>5438 cases of vaccination there were 56', that is, 1 in 3,000^ 

 where it was insufficient to act as a preservative from the small- 

 pox. But they iiave not informed us what was the immediate 

 effect of these vaccinations, and to what circumstances their 

 insufficiency could be ascribed. The authors of the Bibliotheque 

 Britannique have inserted in their Work a letter from London^ 

 dated 5th August, 1811, stating that the National Cow-pox 

 Establishment in London had published tvv^o cases of small-pox 

 occurring after a most successful vaccination. " lliese cases,'* 

 says the letter, " are well ascertained, and admitted on the part 

 of the establishment. But they publish, at the same time, tliree 

 cases of natural small-pox occurring twice in the same indivi- 

 dual, after an interval of 11 years." f 



The correspondence of the central Committee of Paris coijtains 

 some similar examples. Six observations were communicated 

 by men well informed, and free from prejudice ; but they were 

 not accompanied with details sufficient to remove all uncer- 

 tainty. Two of these announced small-pox appearing in the 

 midst of an epidemic small-pox, which afflicted Beauvais in the 

 autumn of 1810= But the children in whom this disease 



» Tratiafo della Yacciiiazione, p.. 06, Bibl. Brit, Vol, xlv. p. 6Sf, 

 i B5bl. Brii. voU xlviii. p, 168. 



Vol. L W IV. T 



