Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1919- 
Dr.  Lyman  Spalding. 
373 
tions.  Owing  to  the  tact  that  it  soon  became  apparent  that  one 
patient  could  be  vaccinated  directly  from  the  arm  of  another,  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  using  the  vaccine  lymph  was  soon  broken  up. 
This  destruction  of  the  monopoly  was  undoubtedly  much 
hastened  by  the  unsatisfactory  character  of  the  vaccination  when 
the  thread  impregnated  with  lymph  was  used,  and  the  great  in- 
feriority of  this  method  to  the  method  of  vaccinating  from  arm  to 
arm.  The  physicians  had  many  failures.  It  is  also  interesting  to 
note  that  Dr.  Spalding,  on  two  separate  occasions,  made  observa- 
tions upon  patients  who  had  been  vaccinated  and  afterwards  placed 
in  smallpox  hospitals,  and  freely  exposed  to  the  disease  for  a  num- 
ber of  days  without  acquiring  smallpox.  Spalding  also  received  a 
letter  from  Edward  Jenner,  the  discoverer  of  vaccination,  and  sub- 
sequently a  specimen  of  vaccine  lymph  directly  from  him. 
Spalding  issued  at  Portsmouth  during  the  following  twelve  years 
bills  of  mortality — so-called — beginning  in  the  year  1801.  Copies 
of  these  bills  were  sent  to  John  Adams,  then  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  subsequently  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  Benjamin  Water- 
house  and  Benjamin  Rush.  Waterhouse,  with  his  usual  critical 
spirit,  made  reply  in  the  following  letter : 
Cambridge,  March  18,  1802. 
Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  of  the  nth  inst.  came  duly  to  hand  and  I  have 
endeavored  to  comply  with  your  request,  so  far  as  to  send  you  some  matter 
on  the  point  of  a  quill.  As  to  the  thread,  it  is  full  a  month  old,  but  was 
from  a  very  perfect  case  and  has  been  kept  in  a  proper  degree  of  tempera- 
ture ever  since.  I  am  now  so  in  the  habit  of  taking  the  vaccine  fluid  from  arm 
to  arm,  that  I  am  not  so  constant  in  preserving  it  on  the  thread  or  otherwise. 
Considerable  attention  and  patience  are  required  in  the  first  use  of  an  old 
thread.    It  ought  always  to  be  moistened  with  the  vapor  of  hot  water. 
You  mention  my  not  having  answered  your  last  letter.  I  have  received 
no  letter  from  you  since  you  wrote  to  me  in  answer  to  one  of  mine.  I  re- 
ceived a  printed  bill  of  mortality,  5  or  6  weeks  ago,  but  no  written  line  what- 
ever with  it  and  I  have  no  letter  from  you  for  4,  5  or  perhaps  6  months  past. 
I  have  just  received  "Observations  on  the  Cow  Pox"  from  Dr.  Lettsom. 
I  shall  probably  publish  a  second  pamphlet  in  a  month  or  so,  being  practical 
observations,  etc.  In  the  meantime  I  sent  a  few  to  the  Medical  "  Repository  " 
for  their  next  number. 
I  am  glad  to  find  that  you  attend  to  the  occurrences  of  Mortality.  Ex- 
cuse me  for  making  a  few  remarks  on  the  one  you  were  so  obliging  to  send 
to  me.  1.  Did  Aphthae  kill  the  infant,  or  was  it  a  symptom  of  another 
disorder,  or  in  other  words:  was  it  sympathetic  or  Idiopathic? 
2dly.    We  very  rarely  see  consumption  in  patients  above  50  years  of  age, 
