1813.] 



On Vaccination, 



20S 



matter calculated to produce disagreeable eiFects, and which 

 ought to be thrown out by eruptions similar to those of the 

 small-pox : 



That the eruptions, which at first frequently followed vaccina- 

 tion, were owing not to the nature of the virus itself, but to 

 other circumstances, most of them well known and easily 

 determinable, during the existence of which the cow-pock 

 matter was applied : 



That the unfortunate results of vaccination sometimes ob- 

 served ought to be ascribed to causes foreign to vaccination, 

 which have made their appearance during its course, or which, 

 having previously existed, acquired an intensity which ought to 

 be ascribed not to the virus of cow-pox, but to the peculiar 

 state of the subjects vaccinated : 



That the disorders which have been sometimes observed to 

 follow vaccination, when they are not owing to diseases already 

 existing, are evidently particular cases, owing to the condition 

 of individuals, and which bearing no proportion to the number 

 of cases exempt from all such disagreeable results, can give no 

 room for drawing a general and unfavourable conclusion : 



That these observations, even supposing them incontestable, 

 are more than compensated by the numerous examples of 

 chronic and obstinate maladies which have been completely and 

 unexpectedly cured by vaccination : and that these examples, if 

 we compare them with similar examples in favour of small-pox 

 inoculation, if to this comparison we join the differences in the 

 essential character of the two species of virus, and in their con- 

 tagious eifects, give to vaccination an incomparable advantage 

 over small-pox inoculation, considered as a preventative of 

 small-pox, and as a remedy for other diseases : 



Finally, that the preservative effect of the cow-pox virus, 

 when this virus is pure, and has produced genuine cow-pox, is 

 at least as certain as that of the virus of small-pox itself 3 and 

 that when considered relative to society in general, vaccinatioa 

 has an advantage which small -pox inoculation caimot possess ; 

 namely, the advantage of stopping, diminishing, and destroying 

 epidemic small-pox ; of diminishing the mortality of children, 

 and of increasing the population ; and that the results already 

 obtained give hopes of seeing the small-pox, one of the most 

 dismal diseases under which mankind has groaned, removed 

 entirely from the face of the earth. 



Berthollet, Percy, Halle, Reporter. 



The Class approves of this Report, orders it to be immediately 

 printed, and to be inserted in the next volume of Memoirs. 

 SepU 7, 1812. G. CUTIER, 



