A letter in reply to the report of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, Edinburgh : with an appendix, containing a variety of interesting letters on the subject of vaccination, and including a correspondence with Dr. Duncan, Dr. Lee, and Mr. Bryce : from which also the public will be able to appreciate the authority of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, and to form a correct opinion of the whole subject / by Thomas Brown.

Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter in reply to the report of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, Edinburgh : with an appendix, containing a variety of interesting letters on the subject of vaccination, and including a correspondence with Dr. Duncan, Dr. Lee, and Mr. Bryce : from which also the public will be able to appreciate the authority of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, and to form a correct opinion of the whole subject / by Thomas Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    c'lnated patient, can never make a mistake, but through ignorance. With this I perfectly agree; but how comes it, then, tliat vaccination may be imparted to the system, so as to give security against inoculation, or ex- posure to the epidemic, from every description of cow-pox vesicles in point of size and figure, and also every appearance of the areola ? You must at once observe, that if this is the fact, which I am certain is the case, and it Is also admitted by Jenner and Dr Willan, with what propriety can any distinction be made as to the regular and distinct appearance ? But again, if this is the fact, with what justice can Improper vaccination be charged to the account of any practitioner, for they may all surely be a perfect judge of the existence of a vesicle and areola. But this charge cannot, nor ought to be admitted against any medical man whatever, when it wag expressly stated to the contrary by Dr Jenner; and also, when, even nowj it is gravely stated by Dr Willan, that a lady in Monmouthshire has beeo able to vaccinate 1600 in the most perfect manner. But farther, the most Insurmountable dilemma is, that as the greatest number of those cases which have occurred arfe all of one character, viz. a scanty eruption, anji of a short duration, are in general from three to six or seven years after vaccination, and in general of the lower orders of society, it naturally fol- lows, they are rendered so from some cause; and I think, to a candid mind, this cause must be allowed to be vaccination. That this modified action of vaccination exists, is also distinctly allowed by the College of Physicians in London, also by Willan, and even by Jenner himself. Now, you must at once perceive, that if vaccination has this effect, it is impossible to produce it without producing a constitutional influence ; and, therefore, it follows, that although vaccination affects the system, yet it may in one case be complete, and in another incomplete. I suppose its warmest advocates will not be better pleased with the only other alterna- tive, viz. that there are two distinct kinds of cow-pox virus, the one pos- sessing the perfect, and the other the imperfect antivariolous power. The :bounds of a letter will not permit me to enlarge farther upon this point; but I shall just observe, that if you have seen my pubhcation, you wilrfind cases of small-pox attacking vaccinated children in one family, although done by three different practitioners. It surely would be quite unreason- able to argue, that the whole have been improperly vaccinated, or that all the practitioners were ignorant, or not equal to tlie Monmouthshire lady. The circumstance too of the cases belonging to the lowest orders, evident- ly shews, that it is clearly from being exposed to the contagion; for it surely would be nearly madness to contend, that we have vaccinated the higher classes perfectly, and the others imperfectly. I must still beg leave to mention another fact, and which appears to me conclusive,—that all those nice descriptions and distinctions are but of Httle consequence, viz. in those cases of vaccination where any injury has occurred to the vesicle about the sixth day, and still an areola fallowed; and although neither ve- sicle nor areola were complete or lasting, yet still such an effect was im- parted to the constitution, that if you either repeat your vaccination or inoculate, you can make nothing more of it: nay, indeed, this consequence follows, if we should only produce an extensive erysipelatous inflammation a day or two following the insertion of the virus, without any vesicle what- ever. With regard to the point of more mistakes having been committed at the commencement of the practice, besides the observations that have been