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brought to the grave; and that, of those inoculated, about one in one hundred
and fifty* are generally carried off. Before the Jennerian discovery, it is computed that in Great Britain alone, forty thousand people fell victims to the small pox every year. In 1520 the same pestiferous disease swept away nearly one half of the inhabitants of New Spain;-in 1733 it nearly depopulated Greenland;-in 1793 it carried off, in six weeks, no less than five thousand four hundred persons in the Isle of France;
and in a few years afterwards, it drove from their settlements a tribe of Esquimaux on the coast of Labrador,who on their return, found their village a desert covered with the white bones of five hundred human beings. On Russia the small pox laid annually a tax of two millions of inhabitants. Of those infected in Constantinople one half usually died. The capital of Thibet was deserted three years in consequence of the appearance of the disorder; the villages of Ceylon were usually left in the same manner and for the same reason; and throughout the whole of India its effects were equally alarming and terrific. All over the globe, in short, wherever the small pox has made its appearance, every effect of the most destructive plague has usually followed in the train.
Section the Second is devoted to the consideration of the effects produced by the small pox inoculation. And here we have the striking observation—that although, since the inoculation, a far less proportion of a given number infected are the victims of the disease; yet, as the prevalence now is incalculably greater than it was before, the total number who die annually is considerably augmented. In other words, the proportional number is diminished, while the actual number is increased. Antecedently to the inoculative system, the appearance of the small pox made one half of the inhabitants desert their dwel. lings, and caused those who stayed at home to be extremely circumspect and cautious about catching the infection. But as soon as its fatality was in part prevented by inoculation, no person took any anxious measures to avoid the disorder. It was the common reflection that one might as well have it first as last; and, accordingly, in places where in former times the small pox had only appeared at intervals of from twenty to thirty and forty years, hardly a single adult now existed who had not received the inoculation. Every year thousands undergo this operation (says lady Mary Wortley Montague): and
* In some publications, and in one part of that under consideration, the number is stated at two hundred and fifty. We have preferred the one given in the text,-because Mr. Pruen is inclined to disbelieve the assertion of the Bramins,—that they were enabled to save one in two hundred of their inoculated patients; a disbelief which would be obviously unfounded, if English inoculators lost only one in two hundred and fifty.
the French ambassador says, pleasantly, that they take the small pox here by way of diversion, as they take the waters in other countries.' Dr. Lettsom found upon comparing the bills of mortality in London, that whereas during the forty-two years between 1667 and 1722, before the small-pox was inoculated, only seventy-two in one thousand were carried off by that disorder,—during the forty-two years between 1731 and 1772, while the small pox inoculation was in full practice, the proportion was as great as eighty-nine in one thousand. Similar results were obtained upon collating the bills of mortality in other places; and the general conclusion is that of all the deaths in Great Britain, about one in ten was occasioned by the small pox. Of those inoculated in London, Dr. Ring computed that one in a hundred was carried off in consequence of the unwholesomeness of the air, and of the frequent necessity of inoculating children at an improper age.' In France the proportion between the whole number of deaths, and the number of those occasioned by the small pox, was about one in fourteen. During the year 1802 no less than a third of the total number of deaths in Paris were occasioned by this one disease. And it is pretty evident, upon the whole, that inoculation had rather enhanced, than diminished the evil.
We have, in Section Third, an account of the Jennerian discovery, and of the rapidity with which vaccination was propagated to every corner of the earth. In less than six years after the promulgation of the discovery, it is supposed that more persons received the cow pox, than had ever been inoculated for the small pox. National antipathies, which would have prevented the diffusion of almost any other discovery, were no obstacle at all to the general adoption of the Jennerian inoculation. It soon spread all over France; and was propagated thence in every direction throughout the other continent. In 1799, only a year after the discovery, Dr. Waterhouse obtained the name of the Jenner of America, by introducing vaccination among ourselves:—and thus by means the most pacific imaginable, Jenner is perhaps the only individual who has ever achieved any thing like an universal empire. The goddess Vaccina,' to adopt his own system of mythology, has more worshippers than all the rest of the fabulous deities put together.
Section Fourth— The Progress of Vaccination in Great Britain and Ireland. Vaccine inoculation made its way the slowest among Dr. Jenner's own countrymen; though, with all the opposition it had to encounter, its progress was sufficiently rapid demonstrate the general opinion of its utility. Societies were established for its propagation; and not only the whole medical
faculty, but ladies, clergymen, and country gentlemen, assumed the lancet, and bore a hand in the benevolent undertaking. * It would, perhaps, be absolutely impossible to estimate the
numbers who have been vaccinated, even in Great Britain;much less in every part of the globe. It may suffice to say, that neither in England, nor in America, can be found hardly a single adult individual who does not bear the marks of the operation.
The Fifth Section is on the Comparative Merits of the Variolous, and Vaccine Inoculation. The superiority of the latter over the former appears in the fact,—that, even were the variolous granted to be as efficacious as the vaccine inoculation, the loathsome and painful circumstances which attend the former would be an adequate inducement for its discontinuance. Besides being infectious when inoculated, the small pox not unfrequently excites the scrofula; proves almost always mortal to very young patients; and, -in four cases out of five, is fatal to women in a state of pregnancy,--while hardly one fætus in twenty escapes the fate of its mother. Those who do not go down to the dark mansion of death, are in a great many instances immured in the living grave of absolute blindness; and thus, on whatever side we view the subject, we see the variolous inoculation beset with such horrors as hardly to render its beneficial effects a topic of much congratulation. But, on the other hand, vaccination is the most innocent of all remedies; and while its cures are effected with ten times—nay, perhaps, with a hundred times, as much certainty as the other, —it does not, like the small pox, disfigure the body, and leave behind it any detrimental or disagreeable affection. The Jennerian inoculation is not, as we said before, an infallible specific;—but, in the circumstance of its fallibility, it is pre
** All the requisite knowledge (says Dr. Willan, one of the earliest and most zealous champions of vaccination) may possibly be obtained by clergymen, ladies, and country gentlemen; but as many incidental circumstances will occur, requiring chirurgical attention, the management of the operation, with responsibility, should be generally left to surgeons; who likewise deserve their reward, since, by adopting and encouraging the new practice, they have abandoned what has for centuries been the most lucrative part of their profession. To these sensible remarks, we may subjoin the testimony of Dr. Jenner himself. Although vaccine inoculation (says he, in a paper communicated to the Medical Journal, for August, 1804) does not inflict a severe disease, but, on the contrary, produces a mild affection, scarcely meriting the term disease,' yet, nevertheless, the inoculator should be extremely careful to obtain a just and clear conception of this important branch of medical science. He should not only be acquainted with the laws and agencies of the vaccine virus on the constitution, but those of the variolous also, as they often interfere with each other. A general knowledge of the subject is not suflicient to warrant a person ta practise vaccine inoculation; he should possess a particular knowledge.'
cisely on a par with the small pox: and, indeed, there is no article in the whole materia medica, which will not fail of effecting its cure, if improperly composed or unskilfully administered.—In the early part of the controversy which was excited by the discovery of vaccine matter, it was objected, that, although the new inoculation might be efficacious for a time, the duration of its efficacy would be very short and temporary;—and that, moreover, even its efficacy had never been tested by the epidemical prevalence of the small pox. The first objection was evidently a subterfuge; intended merely to prevent the practice of vaccination, by referring to a species of testimony which years alone could produce. The second objection was the most ingenious;—inasmuch as if the small pox should once rage epidemically after the vaccine practice, the inefficacy of that mode was demonstrated at once: and thus the opponents of the Jennerian remedy took for granted the very fact, which would have been the last to be conceded by the other side.
Section Sixth is devoted to the enumeration of the “Testimonies in favour of Vaccine Inoculation. It is rightly observed, that the most unequivocal testimony is the universal prevalence of the practice:—but then it is gratifying to receive the direct and tangible evidence of public
societies,—the resolutions, the medals, and the diplomas, which came pouring upon the discoverer, like the hats and bonnets that suffocated Draco as he entered the Aeginian theatre. It will be impossible to enumerate them all: and we can only take them in the gross, by saying that, up to 1804, the addresses, resolutions, &c. amounted to about thirty-five; the diplomas to about twenty; and the medals, &c. to more than a dozen. The medal presented by the medical society of London, bore on one side the following inscription: Don. Soc. Med. Lond. An. Salut. 1773.
Exploratam. But even before the promulgation of his discovery of vaccination, Dr. Jenner had made himself known to the scientific world, by a paper in the Philosophical Transactions (1788), intitled Observations on the Natural History of the Cuckoo.' He has always been very strongly attached to the study of natural history,—of that department, particularly, which embraces ornithology; and he has several times suggested the outlines of a paper on the subject,—which his numerous avocations, however, have not left him sufficient time to compose. About the year 1789 he was elected a fellow of the royal society; and in 1792 he took the diploma of doctor of physic.—Nothing, however, could have power to draw him from the Tusculanean retreat of Berkeley, where he still continued in the unambitious capacity of a country physician, and devoted a part of his time to the gratuitous vaccination of the indigent poor. There can be no better picture of a benevolent man than that which is drawn in the following letter to Dr. Lettsom, from a friend who had been to visit Jenner.
* About nine o'clock in the morning, I arrived at Berkeley, and immediately waited on my friend. He was just sitting down to breakfast. After the usual congratulations and inquiries respecting our common friends were over, I joined him in the repast of which he was about to partake. Our conversation, as might be expected, did not dwell long on other topics, but soon hastened to that important subject which has for some time arrested the attention of mankind, I mean the discovery of vaccine inoculation. I heard with much regret of the obstacles which envy, prejudice, and ignorance had raised to impede the progress of this salutary practice, and with heartfelt pleasure of its extensive and rapid propagation through almost every country of the globe. The parlour, in which we were sitting, looked into an agreeable lawn, one side of which ran a walk, here and there perceptible between trees, till at length it was completely lost in a thick bower. I had observed, during our conversation, a great number of females, with children in their arms or by their sides, passing down the walk, and proceeding forward into the bower, which interrupted them from my view. The circumstance very much excited my curiosity; and I could not forbear interrupting the conversation to inquire of my friend what it meant. It has been my custom for some time, said he, to set apart one morning in the week for inoculating the poor; and this being the appointed day, the people you see are come from the adjacent villages on that account. You wonder, perhaps, continued he, to see them go so regularly into the bower and disappear; I will explain it to you. In the midst of those trees is a small mansion, built in the cottage style; it consists of one room only; and was erected for the purpose of giving a rural appearance to that part of my garden. I have lately converted it into a place of utility; and the people who come to be inoculated assemble there, and wait until I come among them. It is for this reason I have given my little cottage the name of the Temple of Va ina; and like a faithful priest, added be, smiling, I am always anxious to find it filled with worshippers. But after breakfast you shall go with me, and see in what manner we proceed. I agreed to the proposal with pleasure, and in a few VOL. IX.