The value of vaccination : as shown by an analysis of 10,403 cases of smallpox / by W. Gayton.

  • Gayton, William.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The value of vaccination : as shown by an analysis of 10,403 cases of smallpox / by W. Gayton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    No one who lias come much into contact with those suffering O from Smallpox (a disease justly described as the most loathsome disorder to which the human subject is liable) can hesitate, one would think, to state in the most emphatic manner that vaccination exerts a wonderful and powerful influence on the form, the progress, and the result of the disease ; and this, indeed, becomes self-evident, when contrasted with the unvaccinated and those doubtfully pro- tected ; but the grand result which Jenner anticipated—viz., the total and complete extinction of the scourge from our species—has not yet been arrived at, and in large cities probably never will be ; and, indeed, until the public mind is satisfied of the authenticity and honesty of results as they are compiled, the universal vaccina- tion of children, of the educated and uneducated alike, will not be effected; personal eccentricities, prejudice, and strong convictions, whether well-founded or not, are together almost insurmountable difficulties to combat. Even the medical profession itself cannot be said to be unanimous in their assent to the practice, although the number of dissentients is certainly infinitesimal. The subject has been so elaborated in many essays that to some it may appear quite possible that nothing remains to bo said. I venture, however, to hope that I may at least be credited with good intentions in bringing my share of information under notice, and in endeavouring to show that epidemics of this appalling disease which have appeared within our memory, have been merci- fully stripped of the horrors of those before our time by the immortal benefactor to whom mankind owes so much. It must be remembered that only during 15 or 16 years have any extended