An account of the varioloid epidemic, which has lately prevailed in Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland : with observations on the identity of chicken-pox with modified small-pox : in a letter to Sir James M'Grigor / by John Thomson.

  • Thomson, John, 1765-1846.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the varioloid epidemic, which has lately prevailed in Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland : with observations on the identity of chicken-pox with modified small-pox : in a letter to Sir James M'Grigor / by John Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    medical observation, and warned, as 1 have been, by experience, of the danger of trusting to ray own judgment, even when supported by the authority of those most eminent in our profession, I cannot but feel anxious that my opinion of varioloid dis- eases should undergo a thorough investigation, and that the conclusions which I have been led to form respecting them, should be confirmed or refuted by those whose opportunities of observation, and hab- its of analytical inquiry, qualify them to direct the judgment of the public in a matter of such general interest and importance. There are periods in the progress of every na- tural science in which it becomes necessary to revise the facts and hypotheses of which it con- sists; and surely if ever there was a time when it was proper to reconsider the facts which have been ascertained, and the hypotheses that re- main to be verified respecting varioloid diseases, the present is such. The confidence of the public in the salutary powers of cow-pock inoculation, has been in some degree, shaken by the late very general prevalence of small-pox; and medical practitioners still continue to differ widely in their opinions with regard to the nature and causes of those varioloid diseases, which, in so many differ- ent places, have occurred in persons who had un- dergone the process of vaccination. You are aware, that when I first began to ob- serve the phenomena of the present epidemic, my