Report of the National Vaccine Establishment, in London, for the year 1811 : dated 9th March 1812. To the Right Honourable Richard Ryder, Principal Secretary of State, Home Department.

Date:
1812
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the National Vaccine Establishment, in London, for the year 1811 : dated 9th March 1812. To the Right Honourable Richard Ryder, Principal Secretary of State, Home Department. 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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    sources of authentic and satisfacory information, that, in consequence of Vacci- nation, this dreadful disease has in no instance lately occurred in the Island of Anglesey, in the populous City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the Town of Petworth, or in tj§e adjoining district. Through the different counties of England, the practice of Vaccination is becoming general, and the Small Pox is gradually declining; and even in London, where the opposition to the new Inoculation has been most violent, it is prevailing, and its salutary effects are becoming daily more evident. At present, by the best estimate we are able to make, it appears that nearly two-thirds of the Children annually born in the Metropolis, are vaccinated either by charitable institutions or private practitioners; and that the number of deaths by Small Pox has proportionably decreased. Previous to the discovery of Vaccination, the average number of deaths by Small Pox within the Bills of Mortality, was 2,000 annually; whereas in the last year, only 751 persons have died of that disease, although tire increase of population within the last ten years has been 133,139. The increase of popu- lation throughout Great Britain, in the same period of time, has been 1,609,000; and to these augmentations the practice of Vaccination has probably much contributed. The Reports from the Cow Pock Institution in Dublin are of the most favourable nature, and furnish sufficient reason to beiieve, that since the introduction of the Vaccine preventive, the mortality from Small Pox has considerably declined in that city. The correspondence of the Institution affords satisfactory evidence of the pro- gressive increase of Vaccination throughout Ireland. In most of the principal towms of that kingdom, the Poor have the advantage of gratuitous inoculation with Cow Pox, either at the hospitals, or at the houses of the Physicians; and it is stated, that among :the higher ranks, Vaccination is universally adopted. The accounts from Scotland, particularly those from the Faculty at Glasgow, which have been transmitted to the Board, furnish evidence of the general and rapid increase of Vaccination in the northern part of the Island, and give the most satis- factory proofs of the success and efficacy of the practice. Notwithstanding the incontrovertible evidence of the very great advantages of Vac- cination, it is much to be lamented that there are still some Medical Practitioners, though the number of them is comparatively small, who obstinately persist in dis- seminating by Inoculation the contagion of the Small Pox, and w ho strenuously • encourage and support, especially among the lower orders of the people, the preju- dices against the new practice; rumours are industriously spread abroad, of deforming and loathsome diseases produced by this practice; and numerous mistatements of cases are published, of the occurrence of Small Pox after Vaccination.—That in some instances the Small Pox has affected persons who have been most carefully vaccinated, is sufficiently established; nor ought we to be surprised at this, when we consider that the Inoculation for the Small Pox sometimes fails, and that several cases may be produced, in which persons have been affected with the natural disease more than once in the course of life. The number of instances of Small Pox after Vaccination however is very small, and we may fairly presume, that in proportion as improvements are made in the practice, such occurrences will be still more rare. The Board have infinite satisfaction in stating the two following important and decisive facts in proof of the efficacy and safety of Vaccination, viz. that in the cases which have come to their knowledge, the Small Pox after Vaccination, with a very few exceptions, has been a mild disease; and that out of the many hundred thou- sand persons vaccinated, not a single well-authenticated instance has been coinmuni- nicated to them, of the occurrence of a fatal Small Pox after Vaccination. They cannot conclude their Report, without adverting to the mischiefs wffiich are daily arising from the diffusion of the fatal contagion of Small Pox in the community, in consequence of Variolous Inoculation, among the lower classes of the people, which constantly keeps up the contagion, and where it saves a single life, exposes numbers to a most dangerous disease. It is greatly to be wished that this evil could be checked, by such measures as Government in its w'isdom might judge proper to frame, in order to prevent the spreading of the Small Pox, and thus keeping up a continual source of infection in the heart of the Metropolis. The constant renewal of the contagion of Small Pox in this Capital, which they so deeply lament, is strikingly contrasted with the advantages enjoyed by several