1884.] 
Vaccination . 
127 
II. VACCINATION. 
By G. S. Gilebs. 
©4 
S ^S Vaccination scientific? The late President of the 
s Royal Society thought it involved “ a scientific prin- 
( „ . c T^ e ] > but ^ it be true, as it certainly largely is, that 
‘ Science is measurement,” then our object of research 
should be capable of definition. The importance of clear 
definition is that it relieves the mind from idle speculation. 
But here is our initial difficulty ; for the word Vaccination 
has become a sort of conventional term, and is applied to 
many things which could not have been in the mind of 
jenner. 
. Dr - Ballard, in his Prize Essay “ On Vaccination,” says, 
in reference to infant vaccination, that “ medical man and 
paienc alike, and again, in reference to adult vaccination, 
the patient and surgeon alike, should not suppose that in 
the act of vaccination they were engaged in the peformance 
of a rite, but remember seriously that the object is the inflic- 
tion of a disease.” It might be supposed that the business of 
a physician, consulted by a parent as to the health of a 
child, would be to cure, not to inflict, disease ; and equally, 
that the last thing a surgeon would do would be to operate 
in any way upon a perfectly healthy body. It is interesting 
to notice that, as vaccination is no part of either medicine 
or surgery, the author divides the objects of solicitude be- 
tween the physicians and surgeons, lest he should create 
jealousy, and hands over the infants to the former, while the 
adults have to face the latter. But whatever hesitancy 
there may have been on this point, there is none as to the 
“ infliction of disease.” And, extraordinary as this may 
appear, he is supported in it by no less eminent an authority 
than the late Dr. Farr, who, in one of his many excellent' 
letters to the Registrar-General, lays down some sanitary 
rules, and among them this: — “Fortify the body by a mild 
disease , if such is known, against a severe disease. Vacci- 
nation, or even Inoculation, if Vaccination had not been 
discovered, is properly pra<5tised under this rule.” It may 
be allowed to conjecture that such a rule would never have 
issued from the clear intellect of Dr. Farr if the pra<5tice 
had not preceded it. 
In our scientific research we have now advanced one 
step. Vaccination is the infliction of disease. We proceed 
to enquire what disease ? There are three kinds connected' 
