::>: 3i K • >,: '.- " : -'- l -"S 'LIBRARY of congress. S *ML$ ,~&.J?. .. \ # £ If UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.! * ^^^*^ jv^^*^ _ AN APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC, ON THE HAZARD AND PERIL OF VACCINATION, OTHERWISE Coto $0?, BY THE LATE JOHN BIRCH, ESQ. TOGETHER WITH HIS SERIOUS REASONS FOR UNIFORMLY OBJECTING TO VACCINATION; AND OTHER TRACTS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. y — THE THIRD EDITION. LONDON : .SOLD BY J. HARRIS, CORNER OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH- YARD; MR. CALLOW, CROWN-COURT, SOHO : MR. HIGHLEY, FLEET-STREET; MR. COX, BOROUGH; MR. HATCHARD, PICCADILLY ; AND BY EVERY BOOKSELLER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 1817. & Ji, Bfjfef, Prink r, Bridge-street, Blackfriars, London. AD VER T IS EM EN T. IN consequence of the earnest solici- tations of many respectable Friends of my much-lamented brother and myself, and who too well know the truth of that clear and convincing stile of argument, pursued in his " Serious Reasons for uni- " formly objecting to the practice of Vac- ° cination," and other Tracts of his, I have been induced to offer to the Public a Third Edition, sincerely hoping that they may carry conviction to the minds of those who have been hitherto unhappily under the influence of popular prejudices, and that the baneful consequences of the Cow Pox may be no longer engrafted on the human system : and of this I am the more inclined to be persuaded, since the heat of dispu- tation has in a considerable degree sub- ADVERTISEMENT. sided, and the Public in general have long seen through the misrepresentations which have obscured the truth, and which they have, alas ! felt too keenly, from their own experience of the Cow Pox experiment. Hoping, therefore, the well- known character of my late brother will overbalance the misrepresentations of de- signing persons, I remain his affectionate and grateful Sister, Penelope Birch. Sept? 181 7. A COPY OF THE ANSWER TO THE QUERIES OF THE Hott&ott College of gorgeous; AND OF A LETTER TO THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, RESPECTING THE EXPERIMENT OF COW POX. BY JOHN BIRCH, SURGEON EXTRAORDINARY TO THE PRINCE OF WALES, AND SURGEON TO ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL. TO WHICH IS ADDED, THE SECOND EDITION OF SERIOUS REASONS FOR UNIFORMLY OBJECTING TO THE PRACTICE OF VACCINATION, &c. Naturam expeUasjurca, tamen usque recurret. PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1807. H. Buyer, Fnnt.er, Rrideweil Hospital, London, PREFACE. SOME time has now elapsed since the College of Physicians was directed to report on the experiment of Vaccination, and to ascertain why a practice, which had received the sanction of Parliament, instead of encreasing, seemed evidently to decline. The method the College took was the most unexceptionable that could be devised. The London College of Sur- geons was applied to, and a number of queries by their means, was sent to the most respectable practitioners, not only in the metropolis but in every part of this Kingdom. B2 IV On the returns to these, and other Queries, the answer of the College of Physicians has been formed : but those returns have been so imperfect, that it is of importance, the Public should be informed of the real state of the question. The College of Physicians indeed, though they cannot deny a partial failure of the Experiment, still think themselves justified in recommending it: but it is difficult on any grounds of just reasoning to acquiesce in their decision. In the answers returned to the Queries issued by the London College of Surgeons, they have been informed of Fifty-six cases of failure, of Sixty six of consequent erup- tion, of Twenty-four of bad arms, and of Three of death : now these facts alone disprove the assertions made before the V House of Commons, on which the vote in? favour of Vaccination was passed ; and would have been sufficient to have over- thrown the practice of Inoculation, when that experiment was first introduced. The Public however ought to be in- formed that of more than eleven hundred persons, to whom Queries were addressed by the College of Surgeons, only four hundred and twentv-six returned answers. Why nearly two thirds of those Gentle- men were silent, when so many of them had been, in an earl y stage of the experi- ment, the warmest advocates for it, I do not mean to enquire ; but I must argue that the College of Physicians, were not authorized to draw any conclusions in favour of Vaccination from the facts before them. If so many cases of Failure, Eruption, and Death, have been admitted VI from so small a return to the Queries issued, what might have been the number, had all the answers been received ? why were not these answers sent ? why was not the cause of silence ascertained ? or how could so general a conclusion be war- ranted from such imperfect premises ? These are circumstances of importance toward enabling the Public at large to form their opinion on the merits of the Experiment. I have therefore thought it a duty to publish my answer to the Questions of the College of Surgeons, and my letter to the College of Physicians. In the last of these I have adduced no less than seven cases of death caused by Vaccination, and occurring not among the inferior orders of Society. I could add more but for the reasons Vll assigned in the letter itself, to which I refer the reader. The cases adduced however are enough to confute the assertions made to the House of Commons, that Vaccination might be safely adopted because it was never fatal. I have been induced to republish " The Serious reasons for objecting to the prac- tice of Vaccination/ ' because the sale of that Pamphlet convinces me the Public are satisfied that the arguments it con- tains are just : and that it has produced some effect, notwithstanding the gross misrepresentations in the Edinburgh Re- view of January, on the subject of Vac- cination. Did my professional avocations give rae Vlll time, and did I not think it an hopeless* undertaking to answer those, who only write for pay, and care not whom, or what they attack, so long as they may make their book sell, I could easily ex- pose the false reasoning, and still falser assertions advanced in the Article alluded to. As it is, I shall pass it by in silence, satisfied that those opinions alone will ultimately prevail which are supported with truth. QUERIES, $c. Question I. HO W many persons have you vaccinated £ Answer. I have attended several who have been vac- cinated, but never vaccinated any myself. Question II. Have any of your patients had the small pox ? — In the case of every such occurrence, at what period was the vaccine matter taken from the vesicle? How was it preserved ? How long before it was inserted P What was the ap- pear mice of the inflammation and the variolous eruption P Answer. I have seen some patients labouring under the natural small pox by inoculation after vac- cination ; I have also seen patients vaccinated in a variolous atmosphere, with an intention to prevent the small pox, but it did not suc- ceed. 10 How the vaccine matter was obtained, or how preserved, I cannot take upon me to say ; but I conclude the rules prescribed by the Jennerian Society were strictly attended to, as the Operators in ail these cases were expe- rienced and approved Vaccinators ; and the appearances on the vaccinated arms were such as according* to the rules then established, au- thorized them to declare that due vaccination had taken place; such as would perfectly se- cure the patient from all danger of small pox. If however after all, so nice a discrimination is required in taking the matter, and if the wounding of the cutis by the lancet is so dan- gerous, these circumstances of themselves form an insuperable objection to the practice ; since the Vaccinator must frequently rely on the ac- curacy of another person for the genuineness of the lymph, and consequently the safety of the operation; whereas from smallpox taken in any stage of the disorder, and from any patient whatever, nothing but small pox can be com- municated ; and the wound of the cutis 9 though unnecessary, is never productive of fatal effects. Besides the many cases of failure in vacci- nation that have fallen under my own know- ledge, I have authentic proofs of similar 11 instances in various parts of the country : and I learn from the Reports both of the Royal Jennerian, and of the Original Vaccine Insti- tutions, that after the most perfect vaccination some of their experiments have failed ; so that their reports confirm my own observations and the observations of others. Question III. Have any bad effects occurred in your ex- perience in consequence of vaccination ? and if so, what were they P Answer* I have known several bad effects occur in consequence of vaccination. The case of *Rebecca Latchford is published : she is not yet well ; spring" and fall she is usually visited with some eruption or suppuration about the face or arm. I have also seen more than two cases similar to that of Jowles, in which the face has been principally attacked. By some Vaccinators these eruptions were called Scrophula : but how can this be reconciled with the positive * She lost the sight of one Eye this year. 12 assurance of a justly celebrated Surgeon, or> which Parliament implicitly relied, " that nei- " ther scrophula, nor any other disease was " excited by vaccination?'* Besides the sin- gular eruptions above mentioned, I have seen many others of a very itching nature, and some shrivelled, scaly skins, consequent on cow pox, for the cure of which, in the erup- tive stage, mercurial remedies have been re- sorted to. Capt. Butts, of the Navy, lost an infant from an eruption which took place imme- diately from the affection of the arm. The cases of Mr. Watts's children are well known, and were promised by Dr. Wiilan to be published ; why they have been withheld is a question I conceive highly worthy the consideration of the Committee. I have information from Hertford of five cases, where natural small pox has occurred after vaccination, in four of which the patients died. In Lambeth Workhouse also several died of small pox subsequent to vaccination ; so that the assertion that vaccination renders the natural small pox more mild, seems to be al- together void of foundation. 13 •*' It is our duty," says the Original Vaccine Institution, " to acknowledge that four or five ** cnses have proved fatal, from the affection ■" of the part vaccinated." Question IV. Is the practice of vaccination increasing, or decreasing in your neighbourhood? If de- creasing, to what cause do you impute it ? Answer. The practice of vaccination is certainly de- creasing in London, as far as my observation goes ; and is falling into disrepute. In answering the latter part of this query, which calls on me to assign the causes of this decrease in the practice of vaccination, I hope I may be allowed to enter more fully into the business than at first sight I might appear warranted from the query itself. One of the principal causes of the decline of Vaccination I conceive to be, the disagreement of the two Societies instituted for its support, upon many essential points : for their state- ments are so discordant, so opposite, that I do not see how any dispassionate person can 14 make up his mind as to the opinion he ought to form, or the guide he ought to follow. A second cause is, that Dr. Jenner's account of the disorder originating from the greasy heel of the horse, is not satisfactory ; and if it were so in point of fact, it would require much persuasion before considerate parents would be induced to communicate to their children a disorder originating in a poison of such a foul and noxious quality, that in the horse itself is always difficult to manage, and often incurable. A third cause is the acknowledged uncer- tainty of the experiment ; for it is now ad- mitted by one of the Institutions, and also by a Correspondent of Dr. Willan's, that vacci- nation must be performed twice to insure suc- cess. Does not this test imply, that it is difficult to ascertain when vaccination may be depended on ? The different opinions maintained by the two Societies which have been formed in this metropolis to prosecute the experiment of vaccination, are well known from their Re- ports ; but I must beg leave to remind your Committee, that those Institutions were ori- ginally one, which circumstance is of great 15 importance in the present question. Men embarked in the same cause do not separate on slight or trivial grounds of difference. Had the experiment answered with any to- lerable degree of accuracy the promises made to Parliament; had there been no failures; no consequent eruptions ; no deaths ; the So- ciety could not have been split into two; that they are thus divided, is a proof that the ex- periment is doubtful both in its principles and application. This is evident from the discordant opinions the two Societies maintain; a discordance not in points of inferior consideration, but of fun- damental import. Thus the Royal Jennerian Institution insists on two sorts of Cow Pox, a a genuine and a spurious; while the Original Institution maintain there is only one sort, and that a patient must be twice vaccinated as a test of security. The subsequent conduct of the Eoyal Jen- nerian Society, wan by no means calculated to do away the unfavourable impressions this dis- agreement excited : it served rather to inspire distrust into the minds of the friends of vacci- nation, as well as into the Public at large; for that society again divided, and opposed its 16 rival Institution, by ^handbills delivered in the street, after the manner of Empirics, and with an acrimony incompatible with the con- sciousness of a good cause. Surely, if the practice of vaccination be not a fallacy, its success will recommend it. The family of the Suttons subdued all opposition to inocu- lation by success. How then shall we account for that contemptible and disingenuous pro- duction, which would have disgraced the pu- ritanical Zealots of a former age, printed and published at 6s. 6d. per dozen : and sent forth to our Colonies, placed in our Sunday Schools, and exhibited at the several stations of the * A CAUTION. To persons desirous of obtaining Inoculation for the Cow Pox Gratis, under the sanction of the ROYAL JENNERIAN SOCIETY. Whereas Doctor John Walker has, under various pre- tences, obstructed persons going to the central house of this Society; the Public are hereby warned to be upon their guard against any insidious representations, the connection between Dr. Walker and the Society having ceased, and Dr. Knowles having been appointed the Resident Inoculator at the Society's house, N° 14-, Salis- bury Square. By Order of the Directors and Medical Council 9 9th October, 1806. 17 Jennerian Society ? I again repeat, if the Cow Pox were not a fallacy, it could not, it would not have had recourse to such mean expedients as the print I now send for the in- spection of the Committee. If the respectable Members of the College of Physicians, who in the first instance sub- scribed their names to the support of an Insti- tution which stoops to such degrading methods, had been apprized of these proceedings, I firmly believe they would have been earlier led to a more minute investigation of the subject, and have doubted the propriety of upholding by their credit an experiment, that stood in need of such arts, as a liberal profes- sion has uniformly rejected, and Empiricism only has ventured to resort to. What will be the opinion of Parliament when these flagrant improprieties are laid be- fore them is easy to imagine.* The last reason which I shall assign is, that among those who have vaccinated their chil- dren, even though they say they have confi- * The comparative view of the effects of Small Pox, &c. was sent to the College with this paper, and is now in the hands of one of the Secretaries of State. C 18. dence in the experiment, I have found very few whose confidence is real ; a restless, anx- ious doubt is left behind, a doubt which under the present existing circumstances, no medical man who has made it his business to enquire into the practice of Cow Pox and its results, can fairly remove. According- to my view of the subject, in respect to the consequences of vaccination, I am compelled to declare, that I see new and anomalous eruptions following' this disease; eruptions which in the- whole course of my former practice I never met with, and which I must conscientiously refer to this novel practice, and to this alone. In my opinion, therefore, the admissions of the Institutions, established under the inspec- tion and protection of so many eminent medi- cal characters, for the express purpose of ex- terminating the Small Pox by Vaccination ; go, not only toward refuting' the earlier testi- monies given by those Gentlemen to the Com- mittee of the House of Commons, but form a sufficient answer to the fourth query of this College — Why the practice declines in this metropolis^ where it has been introduced, and 19 prosecuted with every possible attention, BECAUSE THE EXPERIENCE OF SEVEN YEARS, HAS PROVED IT TO BE A FALLA- CIOUS EXPERIMENT, INCAPABLE OF RE- ALIZING THOSE SEVERAL ADVANTAGES WHICH IT PROMISED TO PARLIAMENT, AND WAS EXPECTED TO HAVE ACCOM- PLISHED. (Signed) John Birch, Spring Gardens, 28th January, 1807 C 2 A LETTER TO THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, TO REPORT THEIR INVESTIGATIONS CONCERNING COW POX. Gentlemen, On the Report of the Committee ap- pointed to examine into Dr.' Jenner's Dis- covery, Parliament gave a liberal reward, because the Report asserted " Vaccination effectually secured the Patient from Small Pox." " That it never was followed by Erup- tions ;" " And it had never been known to be fatal/ 1 In the same Sessions a reward of £.6000 was adjudged to a Physician for another Dis- covery to fumigate Ships ; but the Admiralty having lost three vessels by the experiment, it was thought proper to desist from further trial of it. Perhaps this circumstance may 22 have given rise to the present enquiry, re- specting- the efficacy of Cow Pox. Parliament now demand the reason, why, after having been persuaded to give a reward for the discovery, the practice seems to de- cline ? An answer to this plain question is all that is required. If the Small Pox has been known in seve- ral instances to have attacked persons pre- viously vaccinated — If Eruptions and Glan- dular Complaints have followed Vaccination, so as to have been excited by Vaccination — If death has succeeded so immediately to Cow Pox Inoculation, as to be owing indis- putably to it ; then w r e must conclude, that the beneficial effects which the Faculty and the Public were induced to expect from the report of the Jenneriah Committee, have not been accomplished; and the total failure of their promises, is the reason why an anxious, restless doubt remains on the minds of pa- rents, as to the propriety of Vaccination : a doubt, which under' the present existing cir- cumstances, no medical man, who has made it his business to enquire into the Practice of Cow Pox and its results, can fairly re- move. 23 If any other reason need be assigned for the dislike which the lower class of people have taken to the practice of Vaccination than their conviction of its inefficacy ; the Deception which has been so frequently and injudiciously practised upon them by vacci- nating" their children, when they relied upon the honour of the operator, that they should be inoculated with Small Pox, might be ad- duced. This Deception, and the too frequent Eruptions and Glandular Tumours which fol- lowed, have tended to create a spreading distrust, as well of the honour of the Faculty, as of the soundness of the practice ; and the College of Physicians, who are esteemed from their education and rank in life, the guardians of that honour, will doubtless be attentive to this circumstance. A sufficient number of Failures, of Erup- tions, and of Deaths, is evident from the re- turns made to the College of Surgeons, al- though in my opinion, the method adopted by that College, was by no means the best for ascertaining the truth. Fifty six Failures, Sixty -six Eruptions, Twenty-four Bad Arms, and Three Deaths, are admitted, and these are sufficient to con- 21 tradict the report of the Jennerian Com- mittee. A similar number would have been sufficient to have overturned the high reputa- tion of Mr. Sutton, and Baron Dimsdale, each of whom singly inoculated almost as many patients as the whole amount of the vaccinated in the returns of the College of Surgeons. Perhaps I need not inform the Committee, that very lately the Small Pox appeared in several parts of Devonshire and Somerset- shire, where Vaccination had been practised, and the people insisted on Inoculation, with which some of the Faculty were obliged to comply, seeing the infection spread so fast. That Mr. Goss, of Dawlish, had resorted to a general inoculation, and had submitted his own children, whom he had formerly vacci- nated, to the test, two of whom received the Small Pox, and one resisted it. That Sir George Dallas's children, two of whom had been vaccinated by Mr. Knight, of London, and one by Mr. Goss, received the infection in the most decided way ; and although Dr. Borland and Mr. Ferguson were sent over to explain, yet Inoculation from these children put the matter beyond a doubt, which other- 26 wise probably would have been objected to, although Small Pox was decidedly charac- terised by the judgment of Mr. Goss, Mr. Sheldon, and others. Two children at Teignmouth, caught the Small Pox after having been formerly Vacci- nated. Similar circumstances have occurred at Wywelscomb, and in its neighbourhood. What happened in the Gloucestershire Militia, and the Parish of Beckshill, in Sussex, where several took Small Pox after Vaccination. What has happened in the Hertfordshire Regiment, in the Barracks at Hyde Park ; in the parish of Walthamstow ; and in Mr. Goslin's family, have probably been reported to the Committee. If the Committee should have reason to complain that their wishes have not been sufficiently attended to, much necessary in- telligence must have been kept back. Certainly it is not in the English law, to make a man accuse himself; and those must have done so, who have been unsuccessful, if they had answered the queries of our Col- lege: therefore it is worthy of remark, that 26 to eleven hundred letters^ only four hundred mid twenty-six answers were received, and the confessions made in these answers must be esteemed voluntary confessions. What would have been the calculation, if the six hundred and seventy-four who have not re- plied, had answered with candour, remains for the consideration of the Committee ; and if the failures and accidents of the Apothecaries, Men Midwives, Clergy, and the Ladies, were added to the numeration, I am very well assured it would be striking. Three deaths were only brought forward ; but it will not be difficult to prove that two children of Mr. Watts, in St. Mary Axe ; one child at Islington ; the child of Mr. Haslam, Bethlem Hospital ; one of Captain Butts, R. N. besides Dr. Smith Stewart's, and Captain J. H. Linzee's, have fallen vic- tims to the puncture of lancets armed with Vaccine Virus. I miffht add to this fatal list some in- stances which have occurred in the most respectable families, but the reluctance they feel to have their names made public, as I am not at liberty to use them, compels me to silence. 27 ■Although the College of Surgeons have rejected alt cases brought forward of per sops Vaccinated by one practitioner, feni reported to have had Small Pox by another, which obviously sets aside a large portion of evi- dence, that would otherwise have been ad- duced ;* the House of Commons cannot in justice reject them, since their reward was given on a majority of hearsay evidence. The cases Vaccinated by Mr. Knight, and [noculated by Mr. Goss, cannot there- fore be rejected on this plea. It is affirmed that Mr. Knight declared if these cases failed, he would give up Vaccination, and they have been proved by the test of ino- culating from them, as recommended by the Committee of the supposed Small Pox cases in Holborn ; therefore it remains with Mr. Knight to disprove them, or give up Cow Pox. The proposal I made to the Court of As- sistants of the College of Surgery, to investi- * In an answer to Q. 3d. of the College of Surgeons, one eminent Practitioner replied, " I presume this Quere does not go to an enquiry of what mischief I have seen in the practice of others." 28 gate this important matter in an Open Com- mittee, having been overruled, I think my- self at liberty to offer these sentiments to the College of Physicians, from whom the public look for an impartial decision on this mo- mentous subject. Signed, John Birch. SERIOUS REASONS FOR UNIFORMLY OBJECTING TO THE PRACTICE OF VACCINATION, %c. TO THE HON. BARON DIMSDALE, AS BEST QUALIFIED TO DECIDE ON THE MERIT OF THE EXPERIMENT AND THE TRUTH OF THE ARGUMENT; THESE REASONS ARE, WITH DUE RESPECT, INSCRIBED BY HIS FAITHFUL FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. Spring Gardens, June, 1806. SERIOUS REASONS FOR UNIFORMLY OPPOSING THE PRACTICE of VACCINATION, &c. THAT the enthusiasm with which Vacci- nation was at first adopted should subside, and that the Public should express regret that what ought to have been admitted as an experiment only, had been adopted as prac- tice, are circumstances which it was easy to foresee, would sooner or later occur. In ail investigations, and in all enquiries, Truth must ultimately prevail. In the present it would have long since prevailed, had not the patrons of Vaccination had recourse to such expedients to interest the passions, and mis- lead the judgment of the Public, as could hardly fail of obtaining for their system, a temporary kind of success. But the triumph of prejudice and novelty will always be transient. The empire of Truth alone is i> 34 permanent. I entertain no doubt therefore but that we shall soon see what yet remains of popular opinion favourable to the cause of Vaccination, vanish into thin air ; and that the speculatists in physic, like the speculatists in polities, will be brought back to the old standard of sober reason and experience. Impressed with this conviction 1 should have patiently awaited the event, and con- tenting myself with having declared my opinion publicly, should have forborne taking any part in the controversy, had it not been for considerations of humanity, which super- cede every other. Whereever I go I find the minds of parents distracted with doubt, and labouring under gloomy apprehensions. They tell me that the fluctuations of medical opinion concerning the origin, and nature of the Vaccine disease fills them with alarm ; and they say they are in the most fearful state of suspense, dreading lest what they were persuaded to do in the hopes of saving their children from one disease, may not prove the means of plunging them into another, at once novel and ma- lignant. Much as I lament their being in so dis- 35 tressing* a state of suspense, I cannot wonder at it. For while on the one hand they hear of repeated instances of the failure of Vacci- nation 3 on the other they find, that reports from the Jennerian Committee, subscribed by names, some of the highest respectability, are widely circulated, full of seeming argu- ments and assertions in favour of the expe- riment ; assertions which they have not the means of contradicting ; and arguments just plausible enough to excite doubt, but not sufficiently strong to operate conviction. If under these circumstances I can adduce what may enable persons of this description to form a fixed opinion on the merits of Vacci- nation, and thus rescue them from the misery of uncertainty, I shall consider myself as having discharged one of the most important duties I owe Society. Such is the primary motive for my writing" the following pages : a secondary motive is, that as the Jennerian Committee have sent me their Report of last January for my sigv. nature, I may candidly tell them why I have hitherto forborne to subscribe it, and why I shall never subscribe it. To this report, therefore, and to a very ingenious pamphlet D 2 m written by Mr. James Moore, certainly the ablest and most candid writer that has ap- peared in support of Vaccination, I shall confine as much as possible my remarks. The bitterness of invective, and the unhand- some sneers, with which the partisans of Vaccination have assailed their opponents, as they offer no argument, merit no reply. The Report opens by stating, that the Medical Council appointed twenty-five mem- bers of the Jennerian Society as a Com- mittee to enquire into the truth of various cases that had occurred, exciting prejudices against Vaccine Inoculation ; and it is the result of their enquiries, that is submitted to the Public. Now, without calling in question the judgment of the Medical Council, I must observe that it became them, in a matter of such importance, to inform us who these twenty-five persons were. For as the Society is very numerous, comprehending many of both sexes, and of all professions, the Com- mittee might have been formed of persons, not altogether competent to the task; since evidently, besides what may be called a knowledge of Vaccination, it was neces- 37 sary there should be likewise a thorough knowledge of medicine. In other words the Public ought to have been assured that the Committee was composed of regular and experienced physicians and surgeons, before they could be in reason expected to assent to its decisions : instead of which we have a Committee made up of persons whose very names we are unacquainted with. I confess this circumstance, in my mind, throws as much suspicion over the Jennerian Reports, as it would over a verdict in a common court of law to be told, that it was the verdict of a jury, no one member of which the defendant was permitted to challenge; whose names, conditions and character were studiously concealed : and who had never so much as appeared in court during the trial. This however is not the only circumstance that makes me regard with an eye of sus- picion the Reports of the Committee. The several articles of that Report are couched either in a style so dogmatizing, that the Committee seem more intent on imposing a law, than on producing conviction ; or else in terms so vague and ambiguous, that the reader must be at a loss to obtain any fixed 38 and definitive idea of the subject. The former of these faults I will pass over, as it may be attributed to the force of the con- viction entertained by the Committee of the justness of their positions : but the latter as an honest man I cannot, since it has a ten- dency to mislead, rather than direct the judgment of the Public. Surely the Com- mittee are aware that nothing* is more sus- picious than the use of equivocal expressions ; and that there is nothing the candid disputant more scrupulously avoids. By means of these, confessions of error, extorted by truth, may be made no confessions at all : may be so worded as to produce no effect, and yet carry with them the appearance of candour, and concession. I will instance the truth of this remark in the Ninth and Tenth article of the Jennerian Tteport. The Committee being at last compelled to acknowledge that cases have been brought before them, in which it was incontestibly proved that persons having passed through the Cow Pox in a regular way, had after- wards received the Small Pox; contrive to destroy the effect of the concession, by the following ambiguous expressions. 39 whereas in many cases in which it recurs after Inoculation, 47 it is particularly severe and often fatal. Thus arbitrarily to assume the fact, that Small Pox does occur after Inoculation, a fact de- nied by the Advocates of Vaccination them- selves, and then to build on it an argument in favour of their system, is in my mind a mode of proceeding bordering on criminality. For if the Committee were addressing their Reports to Medical Men only, no great mis- chief would ensue, since the fallacy would be immediately detected, and any ai'gument built upon it w r ould of course fall to the ground. But as the Committee are addressing their Report to Parents, who being ignorant of the history of Diseases, are compelled to rely implicitly on those who profess to tell them the truth, they ought to have remembered it was a solemn duty in their statement of the case, to have " turned neither to the right hand, nor to the left." They ought to have told their readers, that the recurrence of Small Pox after Inoculation was a fact, sup- ported by such slender evidence, so contrary to the laws of nature, and so generally dis- credited, that when it does occur, as is sup- posed a second time, this is considered as a proof that the disorder which the patient 48 nad m the first instance, was not the Small Pox. That the Committee therefore omitting' all this should boldly beg the question, and argue from that as proved, which is one oi the points in dispute, is such an instance of unfair reasoning as perhaps it would be dif- ficult to parallel. The assertion of the Committee in the XX th article, that the * Diseases which are said to originate from Cow Pox are scrophulous, and cutaneous, and similar to those which arise from Inoculation, is according to my obser- vation quite incorrect. Many of the eruptions are perfectly novel. As far as my experience and my information go, I will venture to affirm they are eruptions of a nature unknown before the introduction of Vaccination ; and peculiar to those who have been Vaccinated. Such was the case of the child in Jermyn Street : such was that of a child near Guild- * The words of the Committee are — " Complaints re- presented as the effects of Vaccine Inoculation, when in fact they originated from other causes." This is another instance of the bold manner in which the Committee assert, to get rid of difficulties. What proof is advanced that the complaints did originate in other causes ? Nont but the ipse dixit of the writer. 49 ford vaccinated by Dr. Elliot ; and of many more whose names, from respect to the pa- rents, I forbear to mention. As for Latchford's child*, that case differed as much in every essential characteristic from Scrophula as possible. The first appearance, the encrease, the colour of the suppurating 1 part, and the indelible dark Eschar, all marked a new and undescribed disease. Scrophula is a useful name on various occa- sions. But its symptoms are well known and defined ; they cannot lon^r be confounded with those of any other disease : and when a little experience shall have made the distinction clear, then, if I mistake not, many a babe whose parents transmitted to it the fibres of health and vigour, shall lament the dire effects of unsatisfactory experiment ; w hile those who may escape the ravages of any new disorder, will still tremble lest that dreaded evil, the * I saw her father yesterday, she is now fifteen years old, and a living monument of Cow Pox, since Mr. Birch's death, she is in and out of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, a deplorable object, just now in an Infirmary by the sea side, and happy if Heaven would release her. August, 1817. P* BIRCH. 50 natural Small Pox, which they sought to avoid, should in a luckless hour overtake them. It is not my intention to pursue further the Report of the Jennerian Committee. I have answered whatever applies materially to my argument : to expose all the errors and fallacies it contains, would be a painful task : I should however be unjust to the Public and myself, did I not state, that besides those I have al- ready noticed, there are in it assertions so un- founded, and expressions so ambiguous, that these alone would have deterred me from sub- scribing it. Thus in Article XVI. it is said, that by means of Vaccination, the Small Pox has in some populous Cities been wholly extermi- nated. In Article XVIII. that the prejudice raised against Vaccination has been, in great mea- sure, the cause of the death of near 2,000 per- sons this present year, in London alone. In Article III. that the cases published to prove the failure of Vaccination, have been for the most part fully refuted ; and In Article IV. those Medical IVlen who dis- sent from the Jennerian Committee, are stated generally, as acting perversely and disingenu- 51 ously ; persisting in bringing' forward unfound- ed and refuted reports; and even misrepre- sentations, alter they have been proved to be such. Of these Articles I am compelled to say, and am ready to prove, that the three first are absolutely unfounded. Of the last I must de- clare, that it seems to me conceived in a spirit of illiberality and ungenerous censure, such as I should have imagined a Committee formed of Gentlemen never would have used; and which certainly no circumstances can justify. I presume not to judge the motives of ac- tion in others; I know my own, and 1 am conscious of my sincerity. If I could be actu- ated by party spirit, I should be unworthy the confidence of the Public. I seek for Truth^ and Truth alone. With indignation therefore do I reject the charge of acting perversely, and disingenuously. When I am convinced of error, I shall take a pride in acknowledging my mist ike; 'till then I shall consider it my duty to declare my opinion openly, and to state the reasons, why I have from the first asserted, and why I still continue to assert, that I fear the experiment of Vaccination will fi2 52 be found injurious to the peace, the health, and the welfare of society.* But since motives of action are called in question, let me mention a few of the circum- stances that have contributed to influence my conduct : they will be found to bear more upon the argument than may at first be ima- gined. I will afterwards proceed to offer a few strictures on Mr. J. Moore's pamphlet. * Though I admit with the Committee, the impropriety of discussing subjects of serious investigation in any other than a serious style, I must object to the manner in which they have worded their Vth Article. Having said, some " printed accounts, adverse to Vaccination, have treated " the subject with indecent and disgusting levity," (ex- pressions I think much too strong and coarse) they add, " as if the good or evil of society, were fit objects for sar- " casm and ridicule." This seems to me an invidious, and an unfair manner of stating the question. The good and evil of society never were the objects of ridicule. But a system being advanced, which it was apprehended would ultimately prove an evil, not a good, it was thought proper to attack that system : and while *some chose the sober method of argument, f others preferred that of ri- dicule : still however, it was the system, not the good or evil, that was ridiculed : and that system was ridiculed only so far as it was judged likely to injure, rather than benefit society. * Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Lipscombe. f Dr. Moseley, Lues Bovilla m The paper which I published in the Gentle- man's Magazine, and which I shall here re- print, shews the ground I had to stand upon, in opposing 1 the experiment at its very com- mencement. I have never changed my opi- nion ; I have uniformly maintained that it was a dangerous practice to introduce a new source of disease into the human frame. If I have been firm in my sentiments, it is because I have met with nothing in the sequel that has shaken my judgement. It is true the opinion of some of my col- leagues was in direct opposition to mine. I, therefore, felt it incumbent on me, carefully and dispassionately to observe the result of the experiment. I did so : I read what was pub lished ; and I found from time to time such contradiction in the Reports of the advocates for Vaccination ; such fluctuation in their opinion; such inconsistency in their practice; that the most favourable conclusion I could draw was, they knew not what they were doing. Surely this did not authorize me to alter my original position. To obviate the objections naturally raised from this extreme uncertainty, and which evi- dently affected the soundness of the principle 54 on which the System rested ; Vaccination was divided into Spurious, and Genuine. I fore- saw the consequences. 1 was satisfied that the Jennerian Society, having* once embarked in the cause, would have recourse to any ex- pedient, rather than abandon it : and finding I stood nearly single, and that the tide of opinion set strong against me, I patiently submitted to have my judgement called in question for a season, resolving to wait a proper period to explain my reasons of dis- sent. The Cases of Mr. Hodge's Children oc- curred, confirming the truth of Mr. Goldson's Reports. I then thought it my duty to print my opinions in support of what that Gentleman had advanced. What I then wrote, and all I have written since, has been couched in the language of seriousness, and candour, not of levity or prejudice. Never shall I be ashamed that I was the first to express a doubt whether Inoculation, so perfectly understood, and so successfully managed as it was, ought to be abandoned for a mere Experiment; holding the change too serious a matter to be trifled with : neither shall I ever be ashamed to say, that I viewed with indignant scorn the 55 ungenerous artifice adopted by the Jennerian Society, of sticking up in every Station house, in the Vestries of fanatical Chapels, and in Sunday Schools, that false, Comparative view of the Effects on Individuals, and Society, by the Small Pox, and the Com Pox, ornamented with tablets like a School-boy's writing-piece, representing to the gaping multitude a fright- ful picture of Inoculation, with the supposed misery attendant on it ; and exhibiting repre- sentations equally false and exaggerated of the blessings of Vaccination. When 1 saw this, and afterwards understood that these dis- graceful Pictures were intended for the use of our distant Colonies, where the Truth would long be concealed, and Argument be totally lost, I was compelled to suspect, still more and more, not only the goodness of the cause itself, but the Candour of those who stooped to such means in its support. Soon after this I heard with great surprize that an application had been made to Dr. More, Archbishop of Canterbury, persuading his Grace to direct the Clergy of the Church of England to recommend Vaccination from their pulpits. I received a letter from the Palace at Lam- 56 beth, desiring to know if I changed the opinion I had originally advanced; and a re- spectable Clergyman waited on me from his Grace to talk with me on the subject. With- out entering into any argument, I contented myself with relating to him all I knew : shewed him my correspondence with other medical men on the subject, and left him to judge for himself. — He retired from me, saying, " His Grace must not commit the " Church" — This transaction is perfectly well known I believe to all the Partisans of Vac- cination. Why it has never been hinted at by any of the writers in favour of the Cause, and why it has been concealed, is a secret best known to themselves, and the Jennerian Com- mittee. These circumstances occasioned an en- creased degree of distrust in my mind ; and called more loudly for care and circumspec- tion ; especially when 1 recollected the Anni- versary dinner of Mr. Guy's hospital in 1802, where I expected to meet the Professors, the Medical Gentlemen, and the Students ; on the same terms as usual. What was my surprise then to find, that the sole business of the meet- ing was to begin a canvass for names to a 57 petition to Parliament, in support of Dr. Jenner's bill? it was presented to me, and I refused to sign it. My surprise was increased after the dinner, to find that toasts, songs, and compliments from one Professor to another in honour of Vaccina, were the order of the day. As I had seen, among" the various business of life, some political manoeuvres, and the management of some party schemes, I was not at a loss to conjecture in what manner the cause of Vaccination would be carried on. The Royal Patronage, the authority of Par- liament would be made use of, beyond what the sanction given warranted : the command of the Army and Navy would be adduced, not merely as the mean of facilitating the experi- ment, but as proof of the triumph of the cause : and above all, the monopoly of the press, and the freedom of the Post Office would be em- ployed to circulate the assertions of the friends of Vaccination, and to suppress the arguments of their opponents. What I foresaw happened : and such was the influence of the Jennerian Society, that many publishers, and booksellers refused to print, or sell such works as might be deemed 68 adverse to Vaccine Inoculation : in conse- quence of which it was hardly possible, at the first moment, to contradict any thing the Society chose to assert. It was in vain to argue against the system ; for even the Ladies themselves w 7 ere prejudiced, were influenced, and employed in its defence. Men midwives found their interests were essentially connected in its success ; and they foresaw that if they could vaccinate at the breast, without danger of conveying infection, they should secure to themselves the nursery, as long as Vacci- nation lasted : no one could enter to interfere with them; they would prescribe for the Apothecary, and hold him at a distance ; the Physician and Surgeon would be set aside; and if any accident occurred that rendered a dissection after death necessary, some ana- tomist, friendly to the cause might be called in to quiet the alarms of a family. The College of Physicians seem at last to have opened their eyes to the innovations of these practitioners, who, like the Jesuits of old, through the medium of the female branches, aim at managing the whole family. They have therefore forbidden them to pre- scribe in future for children above two years 59 old ; that safe age, before which, unless in peculiar cases, according to Baron Dimsdale, Inoculation ou^ht not to be performed ; and that for self evident reasons. For if the loss of beauty, or the probability of danger are proportionate to the crop of pustules in the face, who, but one ignorant of Surgery, would advise that bed of roses, the blooming cheeks of an infant, during the eruptive fever of Small Pox, to be applied to the warm breast of a well fed nurse? What maturating poultice is more likely to invite the pustules to that part ? Against this practice every notion of sound sense revolts ; and I will venture to affirm that the majority of children who suffer from Inoculation, are those inoculated at the breast. When therefore such pains are taken to magnify the numbers that fall victims to Small Pox, why is not this pernicious custom, which every sound practitioner reprobates, taken into the account ? and why is it not remembered that in the populous parts of the Metropolis, where the abundance of children exceed the means of providing' food, and raiment for them, this pestilential disease is considered as a merciful provision on the 60 part of Providence, to lessen the burthen of a poor man's family? Let the College of Physicians, who exa- mine the Apothecaries' shops in the narrow streets and suburbs of London, report the state of the medicines, the scales and mea- sures, and the annual reproofs they are con- strained to make to many, where, *' among the shelves A beggarly account of empty boxes, Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses Are thinly scattered to make up a shew/' and then, we shall in some measure be able to determine how little can with justice be urged against any particular mode of practice, from the frequency of deaths among the poorer classes of mankind.* * One of the most prevalent causes of death among infants, is the loss of their mother's milk. Women who abandon their own children, to sell their milk to a stranger, will be found too frequently to have destroyed their deserted babes. An Hospital under the Queen's patronage, was settled at Bay's- Water, to receive the children thus deserted, but it subsisted a very short period, for all the children died. The Foundling Hos- pital, the Enfant trouve at Paris, and the registers of large parishes, will elucidate this fact ; but it is never mentioned in the Bills of Mortality. 61 Enough has been said to explain why from the first, I was led to regard with a certain decree of suspicion, the conduct of the friends of Vaccination ; and why I have uniformly disapproved their proceedings. It remains to make some observation on an in- genious pamphlet written by Mr. J. Moore, hitherto the best defender of the Jennerian cause. What Dr. Thornton will produce, who has announced himself employed by the Committee, to answer the wit of Dr. Moseley, and the sober arguments of Mr. Lipscombe, the event will prove.* With respect to Mr. J. Moore, he certainly deserves some praise for the pleasant manner in which he has treated the subject : but much more for the candour he has shown. I must do him the justice to point this out, lest the Reader, seduced by his pleasantry, should suffer himself to misconstrue the author's in- tentions. I cannot, however, discover in Mr. J. * Dr. Thornton, after suffering himself to be made the Instrument of t v -_ Jennerian Society, has been refuted by Dr. Moseley, and complainsthat he is disgracefully treated by the College of Physicians. 62 Moore's pamphlet, any answer to the argu- ments of Mr. Rogers ; or any thing like a reply to the five questions in my printed Letter. A particular reply indeed I was not to expect; for it is the plan to unite all the writers against Yaccination in one class ; wishing that a censure applicable to any one of them individually, may attach to them all generally. As I do not approve this method, which is unfair and sophistical, I shall not follow it ; neither will I pay his ingenuity so bad a compliment, as to couple him with Mr. Ring, to whom, perhaps, Mr. Squirrel is a more thane qual antagonist. Mr. Moore, in the beginning of his book, for what reason 1 cannot discern, pays a studied compliment to the humanity of the Faculty of Medicine, at the expense of Surgeons. But he must allow me to say, it is the j . euliar boast of Surgery, to have softened the malig- nity, and to have discovered the cure of two of thegi eatest evils that afflict mortality ; in the judicious practice of Inoculation, and by the improved treatment of Lues Venerea. Surgery has positive grounds to rest upon, which will for ever secure to it the gratitude, and the support of mankind; if it ever 63 should lose any part of its due estimation, this will be owing- to the unwarrantable presump- tion of some, who practise it without being* properly educated in its principles. Every Apothecary's journeyman, lectured for six months to pass an examination for the lower ranks of the Army and Navy, now pretends to be a proficient in this art. The fatal consequences that result from uneducated practitioners in every branch of medicine assuming the province of the Sur- geon, and experimenting on Inoculation, is justly depicted in the Report of the Jenne- rian Society. Mr* Moore makes the same observation, and tells us, that the results from this general practice were so different to the accounts of Dr. Jenner and his friends, that many experiments were set on foot, in order to establish a permanent t; jory. By these it was ascertained, that Dr. Jenner's account of the origin of the disease was unfounded, and untrue. This was a distressing circumstance to befal the great Father of the Experiment, as he was called, who ought certainly to have been, morally speaking, sure of his principle of action, before he ventured to propose it to the Public, or petition Parliament for a re- 64 ward for his discoveries. It was now asked, what had he discovered ? What had he re- commended ? What were his principles as well in Theory, as Practice? These were auk ward questions ; to answer them was difficult: therefore to avoid the perplexing appeals that were daily made to him, and the messages that were perpetually sent re- questing him to visit untoward cases, the Doctor retired from London. Had matters gone on smoothly, the Doctor would have found it his interest to have remained in the Metropolis. The horrihle description which Mr. Moore paints of the Confluent Small Pox, and of the Lues Venerea, may be just : but as they happily are not often seen, if ever, where proper treatment can be procured, and will be followed ; they stand as extreme cases, on which the rhetorician may declaim, indeed, but from which the sound reasoner can draw no conclusive argument. I see not, there- fore, what Mr. Moore gains to his cause by the description. I must, however, thank him for it, as he thus affords me an opportunity of saying, that it is the pride of Surgery, to have reduced the mortality consequent on the first 65 of these disorders, to one in a thousand ; and that attendant on the last, to nearly the same proportion. The Natural Small Pox might almost al- ways be avoided, if Inoculation were duly performed : and instances of persons dying of Lues Venerea, except in ill conducted Work- houses, are almost unknown to regular Sur- geons. Mr. Moore asserts that Vaccination was opposed before any facts could be alleged against it. But in so early a stage of the business as when before the Committee of the House of Commons, I brought three cases, and named Jour others, of Small Pox fol- lowing Vaccination. Was this opposing without facts? Nay, it was these very cases that taught Dr. Woodville, what he had mis- taken for an Hybrid Eruption, was real Small Pox -, and which made Mr. Cline acknowledge, that Vaccination would not prevent Small Pox, where the patient had breathed variolous atmosphere. Our Author goes on to relate the rapidity with which Vaccination was spread through every part of the world. That the progress of Vaccination was rapid, beyond almost F m belief, I readily admit: that this circum- stance is a proof of the merits of the System I deny. — We live in a capricious age ; an age that is fond of believing paradoxes, and of grasping at novelty. And this alone might account for the wonderful avidity with which the experiment was adopted. But there were other causes that co-operated, and 1 have already specified them. So long as the liberty of the Post Office was allowed, and the Press was in possession of the Society, had their scheme been more objectionable than it is, it would with facility have been at home propagated ; and as for the Continent, English faith stood so firm there about that period, that any thing from England was received as sterling. Yet I had accounts even from the Continent, very different to Mr. Moore's representation ; accounts which la- mented the too easy faith of some Hano verian parents, whose children were the victims of this new experiment. Mr. Moore's candour begins to shew itself about the ninth page, where he admits this Cow Pox to be erroneously attributed to that gentle Animal. " No Cow that is allowed " to suckle her own Calf, untouched by the # " Milker, ever had this complaint." He concludes therefore, that the Vaccine Disease is some pollution imposed upon the harmless Animal by contact of the Milker. This I can readily believe to be the case. We do not understand indeed by what law of Nature the corrupt humour of a human disease, acting- on the teats of a harmless animal, can generate a new disorder ; but it seems to be the only rational way of accounting 1 for the phenomenon ; and nothing remains for us but to enquire what that disease is, which being communicated from the Milker, pro- duces the Vaccine Matter. — Is it the Itch? the Lues Venerea ? or the Small Pox itself? — It evidently must be something common among the lower orders, for with them it originates: I could almost be tempted to think it was often the Itch. A man applied to me at St. Thomas's Hospital to examine his hand and arm, which were full of ulcerations. He said he belonged to a milk house near the end of Kent street ; that several of the milkers were in the same condition with himself; and that most of the cows' teats, belonging to the house, were affected in a similar man- f2 68 ner ; he added, he had been told it was Covr Pox. As I had not been accustomed to see the natural Cow Pox, I asked one of my Pupils from the country, what he thought of the case. He replied, that the patient exhibited every symptom of having the itch, in that stage, which is commonly called the Rank Itch. On farther examination, the appear- ance about the fingers confirmed his observa- tion ; I directed the man to use Jackson's Itch Ointment, and he appeared again, at the end of a week, quite cured. From this accidental circumstance, and from the tormenting itching which some chil- dren, when vaccinated, are afflicted with, it will be worth while for the Committee to en- quire whether the itch may not be one of the diseases that form the base of the Vaccine Mat- ter. At all events, since the Cow is proved innocent, and the Milker alone guilty, it will be proper to ascertain what the complaints are to which the Milkers in Gloucestershire, and in Holstein, are liable. Dr. Jenner's theory of the grease of the horse, is now given up, even by his best friends : but surely, it is time either for him- m self or them to find us some just criterion that may enable us to distinguish the genuine source from which it originates. Why, how- ever, are we forbidden to inoculate from the Cow herself? Does her simple food increase the virulence of that disease with which the foul milker contaminates her teats ? Or again, must the disease be meliorated by passing through some human victim, who is perhaps to be sacrificed in consequence, before it can be fit for general use ? What the Small Pox is, we know ; and we know also, that when given properly by Ino- culation, it will communicate a mild disease to the human frame. I say we are fully ac- quainted with the benefits and the manage- ment of that meliorated contagion; a ma- nagement so simple, that we have little to ap- prehend even from the unskilfulness of igno- rant practitioners \ and a benefit so unalloyed, that the experience of now near a century has proved, that the use of it does not contribute to swell the catalogue of human woes by new disorders. I see not therefore what wisdom there is in wishing to drop Small Pox Inocu- lation altogether, (for that is the clamorous demand of the Jennerian Society) ; and in- 70 oculate from a disease, the nature of which we know not : a disease so varying, and so ambiguous in its appearance and effects, that even the most skilful Vaccinator, even Dr. Jenoer himself, who has proudly suffered him- self to be called, " The man destined to expel contagion/'* cannot be certain when it is communicated, and when not; when it is ge- nuine, when spurious \ a disease that has al- ready given suffering mortality a new ma. lady, which, whether it shall be called the Cow Evil, from the animal, or the Jennerian * When Dr. Jenner's bust was exposed at the Exhi- bition last year, it was subscribed, if I mistake not, with the following lines of the (Edipus Tyrannus of Sopho- cles. The Man- By great Apollo's high command ordain M T* expel the foul contagion from this land ; Nursed there too long, but to be nursed no more. Dr. J. was, I understand, wonderfully pleased with the application, which certainly was very ingenious, and only wanted truth to be really admirable. If a second Bust were to appear, I apprehend a more appropriate, though less splendid motto would be Davus sum, non CEdipus. 71 Evil from the inventor, posterity will deter- mine. But why do I say the inventor ? I beg pardon of this" expeller of contagion," if I state, that the Cow Pox has been known for generations. If it has not been brought forward before, the reason is, that the Physicians of former days, less confident, and less empiiick than some of the present, thought it unbecoming their cha- racter, and what they owed Society, to ob- trude any experiment, which they were not fully satisfied was a salutary one. They there- fore tried it in silence ; they found, notwith- standing an apparent success at first, that it failed ultimately, and they dropped it. I shall instance no other name than that of Sir George Baker, who had Dr. Jenner's inven- tion mentioned to him forty years ago -, it was tried ; it failed, and no more was said of it. Mr. John Hunter did not give the Experi- ment much credit. The event justifies their conduct: for surely it does not do much honour to the cause, much less does it accord with the positive assurances given Parliament, for Dr. Jenner to lay down a Theory, to be obliged to recant it, and to leave the Public nothing satisfactory in its place : it does us 72 nationally no great honour to have the Cow Pox make so much noise all over the world, and then to be declared no Cow Pox : neither does it argue much in favour of the wisdom of the Faculty, to adopt so bliinily a praciice, which the first Leaders seem to know nothing about after seven years experience, except, that it fully contradicts the evidence they pro- duced in the House of Commons in its favour^ It is allowed by all the writers among the Vaccinists, that from the Cow is to be got a genuine and a spurious matter. I cannot un- derstand this doctrine; it seems contrary to the general Laws of Nature ; she has given us a genuine but no spurious Small Pox : a genuine but no spurious Measles. More mer- ciful in her operations than Vaccinators ; she gives us a specific evil, that we may know how to administer specific remedies; and when we may be securely freed from the dread of its recurrence. But since a genuine and a spurious Cow Pox is admitted by Vaccinists, how do they account for it? 'Till wiser heads than mine have determined this point, 1 will suggest the following conjecture : — It is allowed on all hands, that Cow Pox is 73 generated by some disorder imparted by the milker. Now if that disorder should happen to be the Small Pox, then the Pustule so occa- sioned, and the matter coming from it, may inoculate Small Pox, and the patient thus inoculated may be for ever secure from that disease, for in fact he will have received Small Pox Inoculation. But if the disorder generated on the Cow's teats, have for its base Itch, as I apprehend has sometimes hap- pened, then the patient will be inoculated with a disorder, which, though it may suspend the capacity for Small Pox for a season in the constitution, will ultimately prove no security. Notwithstanding Mr. Moore's pleasant way of treating the subject, be cannot laugh away this simple argument. If there is no such disease belonging to the Animal as Cow Pox, if she must be subject to infections from the hand of him to whom she spares her milk, and sacrifices her calf, let us be acquainted with the nature of these infec- tions, and do not let us so inhumanly submit our babes, while smiling in the mother's face, to, iv e know not what. In the Small Pox, and other infectious dis- orders, I repeat, we know of nothing spu- 74 rious ; the matter inoculated from a patient who may die afterwards of the Confluent Small Pox, will produce nothing but a mild disease ; nothing but Small Pox. When the Societies quarrelled, and parted, they were almost upon the point of declaring, that one was the genuine, the other the spu- rious Society, for exterminating the Small Pox. This would have been a death blow to the whole system. The friends of both par- ties saw this ; an accommodation was effected; like the contending heroes on the stage, they said, " Brother, brother, we are both in the wrong ;" they shook hands, and agreed at all events to support the Experiment. I shall not take notice of that part of our Author's pamphlet, which attacks the Physi- cians ; not only because 1 conceive it beside my immediate subject, but because 1 consider " The Commentaries on the Cow Pox," lately published by Dr. Moseley, to contain a full answer to all that Mr. Moore has asserted on this head. Those pages which are employed in de- scribing the nature of Small Pox, and other infectious diseases, are well worth attending to j though they are written with such affec^ 75 tation of wit, that if hastily perused, they may be mistaken. However, I admire Mr. Moore's candour, as I collect from these pages, that he is of opinion the Small Pox cannot be twice re- ceived; and observe, that he admits so ne cases to have occurred, where the Small Pox has appeared on persons who had apparently passed through the Cow Pox, in a regular way. He then concludes, " A trne Pbilo- " sopher knows there is no real exception to " the Laws of Nature; apparent deviations " are common, but the Laws of Nature are ff immutable." And again he observes, (( If " Medical men were as ready to own their " errors as Chemists, they would not so often " accuse Nature of being so capricious as tc they do. M To admit that a few individuals organised " like others, are susceptible of having cer~ u tain diseases twice, while the flood of man- u kind can only have them once, is almost a " contradiction in the uniformity of the Laws " of Cause and Effect." These are sentiments so just in themselves, and conceived in such a spirit of candour and liberality, that although Mr. Moore discovers 76 sometimes a little flippancy of wit he had bet- ter have spared, and although he sometimes deals too much in authoritative assertion which does not sit well on him, I nevertheless sin- cerely wish he had been employed earlier in the controversy : the question then probably would have been more easily decided. I lament, however, that he will not suffer his own principles to produce with himself that conviction I apprehend they ought. If a true philosopher knows there are no real exceptions to the Laws of Nature, then a patient cannot have the Small Pox twice. But Mr. Moore admits that patients have had real Small Pox after Vaccination ; the disease therefore which the Vaccine matter excited, could not have been Small Pox ; and conse- quently, those patients (except in the cases suggested in page 41) remain liable to it, as soon as the suspending power of the Vac- cine disease shall have ceased. This argument is so simple a one, and the conclusion in my mind so just, that I feel con- fident its force must be felt by every impartial person. What Mr. Moore says of the primary, and secondary Small Pox, in which all sound 77 Practitioners will readily concur with hini, proves every thing I could wish in favour of my argument. Whoever has read the Report of the Com- mittee of the House of Commons, would con- clude from the multitude of evidence there adduced, that the practice of Vaccination was at that time perfectly settled and understood . But Mr. Moore informs us, " All the peculi- " arities of this curious complaint were not " detected at once. In the first two or three iC years it was not to be expected that the Art