1803.7 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
The interefing REPORT of the commiT- 
TEE of the HOUSE Of COMMONS, oO” DR. 
JENNER’S PETITION, refpecdiing his im- 
portant DISCOVERY of VACCINE INO- 
CULATION, 
THE Committee, to whom the Peti- 
tion of E-ward pegnts DeGor of © 
h 
Phyfic, was referred, have, purfuant to 
the Order of the Houfe, examined the 
Matter thereof; which is divided into 
Three diftin’t Heads of Inquiry: — , 
The utility of the difcovery itfelf, 
which is the foundation of the petition ; 
The right of the Petitioner to claim the 
difcovery : | 
The advantage, in point of medical 
practice, and pecuniary emolument, which 
he has derived from it. 
Upon the firit head a number of wit- 
nefles of the higheft characters, and moft 
extenfive experience in the profeffion, were 
examined, whole names, with the fubftance 
of their refpective evidence ({trongly cou- 
firmed by their general practice, as well 
as by that in their own families) appear in 
the Appendix ; nér was it for want of the 
teilimony of many other equally refpect- 
able Phyficians and Surgeons, whom the 
Petitioner was defrous of producing, that 
maity other names are not inferted ; but 
becanfe Your Commitiee, after having 
received fo confiderable a body of evidence 
tu the fame purport, and with fo little va- 
riation in opinion, thought that his cafe 
_could juftain no injury in being left to reit 
upon the concurring Gepofitions of thofe 
already examined, who had both the molt 
ample experience of the faéls, and the beft 
means of forming an opinion upon them. 
The teftimony alfo cf fome perfons not 
prefeiiional, has been admitted, whe could 
fpeak to occurrences that tend to iiluitrate 
particular points connected with the fub- 
ject. The refult, as it appears to Your 
Committee, which may be collected from 
the oval teftimeny of thefe Gentlemen 
(with the exception of thiee of them) is, 
that the difcovery of Vaccine Inoculation 
is of the moft general utility, inafmuch as 
it introduces a milder diforder in the place 
of the inoculated Small Pox, which is not 
capable of being communicated by conta- 
gion ; that it docs not excite other hu- 
mours or diforders in the conftitution ; 
that it has not been known, in anv one in- 
ftance, to prove fatal; that the Inocula- 
tion may be fatfely periormed at all times 
of life (which is kivown not to be the cafe 
with regard to the inoculation of theSmall- 
pox) in the earlieft infaticy, as well as 
Monruity Mae. No. go. 
Report of the Committee on Dr. Fenner’s Petition. 9 
during pregnancy, and in old age ; and 
that it tends to eradicate, and, if its ule 
becomes univerfal, muft ablfolutely extin- 
guifh one of the moft deftruétive diforders 
by which the human race has been vi- 
fited. i ia 
The written evidence which is inferted 
in the Appendix (for Your Committee 
have judged it proper to make a fele¢tion 
from a great mals of what appeared mott 
important) is more various, but direéted 
to the fame objects : part of it relates to 
the very extenfive and fuccefsful practice 
of this mode of inoculation in every quar- 
ter of the globe, the efficacy of which does 
not feem abated by the cold of the norths 
em, nor the heat of the fouthern and 
tropical climates ; and though there are 
no means of examining the authors from 
whence fome of the’e atteftations come, it 
would be an act of injuftice to the Peti- 
tioner to exclude thete irnportant docu- 
ments, which flew the confideration in 
which this difcovery is held, and the be- 
nefit with which it has been attended, in fo 
many other countries, to at leaft as great 
an extent as in our own. 
As a comparifon between this new 
practice, and the inoculated Small Pox, 
forms a principal confideration in the pre- | 
fent inquiry, fome faéts with regard 
to the latter engaged the attention of 
Your Committee, and they have inferted 
in the Appendix (No. 44) ftatements of 
the mortality occalioned by the final! pox 
in 42 years before inoculation was prac- 
tifvd in England, and ofthe 42 years from 
1731 to 1772; therefulz of which appeans 
to be an increaie of deAths, amounting to 
17 smevery 1000: the general average 
giving 72 in every 1000 during the fit 
42 years, and 89 inthe 42 years ending 
in 3772, fo as to make the whole excefs. 
of deaths in that latter period 1742. The 
increafe of mortality 1s ttared by another 
witnels (No. 4) to beas gs to 70, com. 
paring the concluding 30 years with the 
firtt 30 of the laft century, and the average 
annual mortality from fmall pox to have 
been jatterly about 2,000 ; fer though in= 
dividual lives are certainly preierved, and 
itis true that a fmaller Iefs happens in 
equal numbers who onderge the {mall pox 
now, than there was formerly; yet it mult 
be admitted that the general prevalence of 
inoculation tends io tpread and miuhtiply 
the difeafe itfelf; of which, though the 
violence be much abated by the modern 
mode of treatment, the cortagious guae 
lity remains in fuil force. It. ceferves 
alio to be noticed, that the deaths under 
the inoculated fort ef {mall pox, with all 
Bb tie 
