1805. ] 
-—Of this defcription is a writer in the 
Times, of O&ober 3, who with a degree 
of eager hafte, which did not allow him to 
poflefs himfelf corre&ily even of the facts 
of the cafes which engaged his attention, 
bas endeavoured, upon the ground of one 
ortwointances, in oppofition to as many 
milliens of a contrary defeription, to eltab- 
lifh conclufions againit the fecurity af- 
forded by this practice. This is not. all. 
With an uawarrantible freedom, in my 
opinion, he has made ule of the names of: 
no lefs than feventy- two medical men who, 
with (#711 many more, happened merely to 
have vificed the children in queltion, artfully 
placing them at the bottom of his ftatement, 
as if they had been fo many individual fig- 
natures. The effet has correfoonded, in 
fome degree at leaft, with his intention ; 
for many readers, probably from a mere 
hafiy perufal of the paper, have been led 
to fuppole that thofe gentlemen had given 
their authority to this writer’s reprefenta- 
tion ; and hence a report has been propa- 
gated in the lefs inteliigent circles ot {c1e- 
ty, that the inoculation of the cow-pox 
was about to be abandoned even by thofe 
who had been amongft its moft ftrenuous 
fuppoiters. I cannot difmifs the review 
of this communication in the Times with- 
out adverting to the conduct of the Editor 
of that paper, in declining the infertion of 
a letter which was fent to him with a view 
of correcting the above erroneous flatement, 
{to call it by no harfher name) throvgh 
the fame channel as that in which it had 
been given tothe public ; and which letter, 
therefore, after confiderable delay, was in-- 
ferted inthe Morning Chronicle ot the sth 
ultimo. 
The cafes in Fullwood’s Rents, cn 
which this writer has grounded his unfair 
and uncandid repre!entations, have, doubt- 
lets, excited much intere(t, not only amonetft 
medical men, but amongtt. perfons of 
all ranks and defcriptions in the metropo- 
lis; being, perhaps, nearly the firtt well-at- 
tefted inftances in which the firall-pox 
has been known to take place in patients 
whole previous vaccination there appeared 
no reafonable ground to call in quettion. 
It is uoneceflary now to enter into 3 parti- 
cular confideraticn of their circumitances,as 
they have already been fubjected to a very 
caieful examination by a great number of 
praStitioners; and a Medical Committee, 
including feveral phyficians of eftablifhed 
name and cwiaracter, and formed for the ex- 
pre's purpole of invefligatingthem,bas pub- 
lithed, in its Report, a minute and faithful 
account of every faé& by which their hif- 
tory can be elucidated. After admitting 
Mr. Addington on Vaccination. 
507 
the regular progre’s of the previous vacci- 
nation of thele children, and the exittence 
of the {mall-pox, more thantwo years after- 
wards, 10 one of them, for it was only to 
one of the children that the Committee had 
an opportunity of applyiag any. particular 
examination, and in that one the di'eafe 
was marked by fome @riking peculiarities, 
as-wi.l appear in the hiftory, the Report 
clofes with the tollowing obfervations: 
‘©The Committee, however, feels it a 
duty to remark, that the above fais are 
not tobe conficered as militaiing againit 
the general pra€tice of vaccination. Some 
well authenticated, though rare cafes, have 
been ftated, ia which the natural fimall 
pox cecuried twice in the fame perfon. A 
tew other inflances are recorded of perfons 
who, after having undergone the inocu- 
lated fmall-vox, never. helels tock the dif 
eale by infeétion: yet thete cafes were not 
deemed conclufive againit the advantages 
of variolous inoculation, nor do they feem 
to have impeded its progrefs. 
“ In every countiy where European 
fcience is diffufed, the general preventive 
power of vaccine inoculation, with regard 
to the fmal! pox, has been fully afcertain- 
ed, and cannot now be affected by the re- 
fult of a few detached cafes, which, by 
future obfervations and experiments, may 
be accounted for fatisfaétorily. The Com- 
mittee, therefore, with one accord, fub- 
fcribes to the eftablifhed opimion, that if 
vaccination were ‘univerlally adopted, it 
would afford the means of finally extir- 
pating the fall pox.” 
Some cales of fuppofed fmall-pox, after 
cow-pox, bave been Isid before the public 
by Mr. Goldfon, of Portimouth, from 
which he concludes that the preferving 
power of vaccination is only of temporary 
duration. Oxhers; which were the refults 
of trials to afcertain this point, have been 
publifhed by Dr. Rollo ; and, notwith- 
ftanding the latter of thefe authors is led 
to infer, from his experimen’s, thatits per- 
manent efhcacy is completely fupported, 
an inference, by the bye, with which fome 
of his own obferva'ions are noi perfedtly 
confiftent, yet nothing is more apparent 
than the general refemblance which moit 
of the cafes adduced by thefe gentlemen 
bear to each other; nor, that from pre- 
mifes very nearly alike, the writers, both 
men of protcflional refpeétability, have 
ingenioufly contrived to draw corclu- 
fions diametrically oppofite; a firikiag 
proof of the ambiguity of the cafes them- 
felves, as well as of the force of pre-= 
pofleffion on the minds of their authors. 
A large proportion of Mr, Goldfon’s 
3U2 cales 
