The National Register. — London, England, 1812-09-06 00:00:00

SEPT. 6. without any signature of tine Preiitlent, which is so remark nble, that it is a doubt with many medical men whether it is to be considered a genune or a spurious report. I am, sir, your humble s..rvant, V ER AX. On the precedieg letter we have to observe that VLRAX 11:15 lit his first sentence laid and overturned his own posi lion. He has shown that to the queries respecting the ino culation of Dr. .1 ENNER . 4 son, an answer cen be given, and has been given, for be quotes one himself, we suppose from Dr. JENNEIes publication, and should we not receive one (ruin that (lentleman's own pen, it will only show that he is satisfied both with the answer which he has already publish ed, and with the fidelity with which it has been quoted. We have, however, to add a medical fact with which VERAX is perhaps unacquainted. and which clears Dr. JENNER of all inconsistency in inoculating his son with the small-pox, even should he have been supplied at the time with cow-pox lymph, which be states he was not. Vaccination, it has been found by experience, takes more time to get into the system than inoculation, and the' efor e would be unable to overtake the di case in a child that should have caught it by infection, in time to disarm its violence; whilst ae!ing more raiddly, would anticipate its e ter ts aed soften tl e disorder. In any c. se, there- I tee in wh:ch a chiid has been so expreed as to leave but little doubt of its having been infected, inoculation may succe d in mitigating the disease, which vaccination would S. act too slowly to prevent. And such seems to have been the case with Dr. J.esissa's son. His vaccinating the child of a iend the next day has therefore no hearing on the question at all, as it is evident he did it because that child had not: been exposed to the same danger. The feebleness in numbers of the enlightened opponents of vaccinaton which excites Velax's surprise is easily ex plained. Ile rejects the reports of all the medical colleges, and the information received from the continent ; that is, ail well authenticated, and official statements of the con tinued progress and efficacy of vaccination with the evidence el hundred; of millions of human beings, to admit the mere assertions" of a few practitioners in this metropolis," whose interest it evidently is to delude and frighten the people with tales, in older to keep their practice. But men in general act differently. They sec through those motives, and give dne credit to what is duly authenticated. !knee the enlightened, with very few exceptlons indeed, arc the open supporters of vaccination, whilst the ignorant are easily worked upon to become, and form, in fact, almost its • only opponents. The admissions said to have been made by ale college, only prove the fallibility of every thing that is human, and no more tend to discredit vaccination, than the acknow ledgment that eating sometimes produces indigestion, would discourage the pretty general and salutary practice of dining. It is remarkable, that in all the exaggerated cases of unsue cessfil vaccination, the disease has never proved fatal, whilst the contrary constantly happens in inoculation. The destruction of the Jennerian Societies, &c. although followed by others less active for the public gond perhaps than they ought to 'be, furnishes an additional pledge of the efficacy of vaccination, instead of " proving the weakness and fallacy of that practice." We have now before us the returns of deaths by Small-pox for the last twenty-four years, by which it appears that whil-4 in 1798, previous to the in troduction of vaccination, the deaths within the bills of mortality amounted to 11,i37 ; in 1804. when the Jennerian Society flourished, they only came to 62i, having decreased about three-fourths. Since the destruction of that society, 551 and through the exertions of the opponcrits of vaccination, :he deaths have again cncrcased, and in 1819 the number that died was i 198, or nearly one-half more t!.an in 1804. Thee are facts which mere assertions cannot ove!to' P. As to Mr. Bt.:am:T . l' we know nothing more of hi•n than our correspondent Expositor has stated. The " ;abourer is certainly worthy of his hire," but if he II(' employed in doing unintentional harm instead of intended go,d, •s ire worthy of any hire at a!1? The man him , elf may be blaule less, but are not the consequences of his errar as porn canes as if it was voluntary ? Zeal without knowledge is a blind impulse, and a blind practitioner who, through humanity, should profess to set or amputate dislocated or broken limbs gratis, would run a chance o; crippling more patients than he could effect cures ; yet his motives would in themselves be good and laudable. Supposing, what it is og too far to assert, that Mr. BURNETT should have inocu'ated 8000 persons succes.fally with. the Small-pox. how many has he inoculated unsuccessfully Y If it is ttue that he inoculates fifty daily, at it is commonly reported, he communicates the Small-pox to, leaving Sundays out, 1.5.650 patients a year, and if out of that large number only 8000 ca•es have sue • ceeded, there remains 7650 in which he has failed ; or very nearly one-hail of the whole. But there is another consideration still more important than the success of inoculation on the persons on whom it has been practised, we mean the numerous sou'ces of variolous infection which are thus opened throughout the metropolis and the country. Every inocu4ed patient may communicate the disease in all its violence, to ten, twenty, or any number of persons that come near him, whilst vacci nation is not contagious. This is not an imaginary or im probable case. An instance of it will be found in Dr. NV rLL AN'S memoirs of disorders. A child having-been in oculated with the Small-pox at a chandler's shop, nine of the customers caught the disorder and pet ished, though the child, survived. Thus granting . that 8000 of Mr. 13catiErte's. patients have recovered, they have endangered the liVes• of • more than ten tunes that number, whilst had they been vac cinated, they would have incarred no peril themselves, and • occasioned none to any part of the community. As to the last assertion made by Verax, that the copy of the teleirt is without the signature of the President, we assure him that he is misinformed, as the copy which we re ceivc3, and from which we made the extracts given in our paper three weeks ago, was signed by the President's own. hand. We shall order it to be left at our of f ice for Vora inspection. _ THE NATIONAL REGISTER. THE CITY. A Court of Common Council was Thursday held it Guildhall, when, after some other business had been dispos ed of, Mr. Deputy Box aildressed the Court 'on the propriety of voting an Address to the Piince Regent, congratulating his RoyaL Highness upon the occasion of th,.l Victory of Salamanca. He spoke of the great advantages deny able from the victorious exertions of the Marquis of Wellington; made a few observa:ions upon the cou ra g e and enagy displayed by all the troops employe.: upon this glorious and de..islve occasion, unequa4 as they were in number to the enlny, and opposed to the vcteraft troops of France; and coded with a due acknowledgment of the tran scentlant military skill and valour of the. Marquis of Wellington.—Mt. Quin seconded the motion in a speech, in which he re-echoed the s- ntiments of the proposer of the Address.—Mr. Blundell observed, that a:ter the battles tit Barr° a, A lbitera, Badajoz, arc. the Cit) had voted their thanks directly to successful Commanders. He thought that this would be a barter course to pursue at present, than that which was proposed of an Adtress to the Prince Reg..nt, which ap peared like comp) ii.enting the M inistcrs.—M r. Deputy Box inbrined the worthy Mcm: , er, that his ruction would be followed up by alto. ther :or mat purpose.—Mr. Watchman stipportecl the Address, and :leclarco that he himself should have brought forwittd the pret-c-nt motion, but for his Apprelielision to at his conduct would be 10;:k , .3 uptin da id.l attempt to gain popularity. He trusted that now the