290 
GEORGE FLEMING. 
Grassner, Thiele, Ceelv, and Badcock—outbreaks of small-pox re¬ 
sulting. Have the widespread epidemics of small-pox in recent 
times been to any extent due to these inoculations of the cow 
with human variola, with the view of obtaining vaccine lymph ? 
However these questions may be answered, one thing must be 
looked upon as definitely settled, and that is, that small-pox is not 
cow-pox; they are independent and distinct members of a family 
group, and can no more be transmuted or converted into each 
other than can two dissimilar plants or animals. The error in 
supposing that they are transmutable—or rather, that small-pox 
can be converted into vaccinia—was due, in all probability, to in¬ 
acquaintance with experimental methods, an inability to appreci¬ 
ate the results of experiments, and imperfect knowledge of ani¬ 
mals and animal disorders. Ho crucial experiments were resorted 
to, as witli those of the Lyons and Turin Commissions, and what 
may have looked like vaccinia was accepted as vaccinia. In no 
other way can I account for what must now be considered a 
grave error. 
In insisting upon the correctness of this view, and urging its 
importance not only with regard to comparative pathology, but 
also the prevention of an odious and destructive human plague, I 
am well aware that I am placing myself in an attitude of antag¬ 
onism to very high and estimable medical authorities in this coun¬ 
try ; and especially Sir Thomas Watson, who, in a paper in the 
Nineteenth Century (which paper lias been recently republished in 
a small volume), says, “ The truth is, that the vaccine disease is 
really small-pox rendered mild by passing through the system of 
the cow ; the great object of inoculating the small-pox was to pro¬ 
duce a benignant form of the disease by diminishing the number 
of its pustules.” 
I have shown that there is no relationship between the preva¬ 
lence of the cow-pox and small pox, and that the one may, and 
does, prevail in localities, and at times where and when the other 
is not seen. In Denmark, for instance, small-pox is all but ex¬ 
tinct, and yet cases of cow-pox are far from rare. The difficulty 
experienced by those who believe in the unity of the two diseases, 
in accounting for this circumstance, is attempted to be got over 
