The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-03-02 00:00:00

PE PI P`l

OF rt!.. c'ENTRAT. commirm AT ?ARIA,
ON Tex SUBJECT OT THE VACCINS OR CO'R-PON. ;
gADE ON THE 24TH 14011EMIZA 1802.

On undertaking the itrTortant commission which
has been entrusted to this Committee, they deter-
mined to submit the Cow-Pox to every kind of ex-
periment which they thought might lead either to
establish its efficacy, or to put an end to the prac-
tice of it altogether ; and they pledged-themselves
to communicate the rest It of their observations to
the public. Up to this time the Committee have
fulfilled those engagements : a great number of
proofs have been obtained, by inoculating different
subje&s with the small-pox, each of whom had been
previously vaccinated; and the constantly favour-
able results of these trials have been published with

fidelity and exaetaess.
Amongst other experiments, vaccinated subjects
had been placed in the most intimate communica-
tion with persons having the small-poi, obliging
them to inhabit the same room, eat and drink to-
gether, sleep in the same.bed, and wear the same
clothes.
These experiments, which were afterwards fre-
quently repeated exactly in the same manner with
the former, and tried on several occasions upon a
great number of persons at the same time, have
evall'; succeeded, and the details have been made

public.
The Commitee, however,- till this moment, were
not of opinion that the task they had undertaken
was entirely completed. A still more decisive proof
was wanting to their enquiry ; which was, to see
nature struggling with the cow-pox under circum-
stances where, either from the effect of the state of
the air, from the disposition of the body, or from
these two causes united, the infection of the small-
pox was actually spreading itself, and exerting the
most active, as well as the most dreg ful influence.
Alreadycaaterat number of facts, which had been
communi to the Committee from different
parts of France, had informed them, that the cow-
pox had been triumphant in the struggle. There
are scarcely any of the departments Which, during
the last two or three years, have not seen the small-
pox reign epidemically in a great number of towns,
or in the country. There has nut been one example
to prove, that amongst thousands of individuals in-
oculated with the cow-pox, a single one has been
infected with the small-pox, though living in the
midst of the contagion.
But these numerous proofs were not yet sufficient
for the Committee, who had bound themselves, not
to speak only of what they had heard, but to form
their opinion upon what they had actually seen.
The small-pox infeaion which has reigned at
Paris, from the month of July in the last year, and
which is at present so generally spread, has fur-
nished them with the mrans of completing their
proofs. They have taken the greatest pains to make
the enumeration of all the individuals who, by the
direction of the Committee, had received .he cow-
pox ; they have taken the most exaa measures to be
informed of all that might happen to them ; and
the result of their enquiries at this moment is, that
amongst the number of those individuals, which
amounts to nearly ten thousand, not one has been in-
fiCted with the contagion of the small-pox.
This great and important result is firmly estab-
lished, and it does not admit of a single exception.
Two other faas, not less conclusive, have also come
to the knowledge of the Committee. The cow-pox
having been constantly praaised upon the children
in the Hospital de la Petie (eleves of their country),
and upon those of the Hospital of Orphans,- in the
Faubourg Saint Antoine, the infection of the small-
pox has never been able to enter either of those two
houses, although situated in two of the quarters of
Paris where the small-pox has been most prevalent.
Two hospitals therefore have clezuly been preserved
from the contagion, by the effect of the cow-pox ;
and this is, in miniature, a proof of the possibility
of attaining to the entire extirpation of the small-
pox, and of banishing it from the Continent, and
indeed from the whole world.
We cannot, however, doubt the malignity and
extent of the reigning infection of the small-pox.
The vet y exact accounts of the mortality which the
Committee have procured in the environs of Paris,
announce that a quarter of the deaths in some, in
others a third, and in several of them nearly one-
half, are owing to the small-pox. It is principally
in the quarters where the streets are narrower, the
houses more fully inhabited, the circumstances of
the inhabitants nut so affluent, the people less in-
formed—it is in those places where this proportion is
the largest : whilst the more airy environs, inha-
bited by a class of people in an easy situation of life,
have suffered less from the contapon.
The Committee, desirous to submit their labours
to the public in the most satisfactory manner, have
inserted tables of the mortality in Paris, during the
last two months of the last year (the year 10) and the
two first months of the present year (11.) It belongs
to the Magistrates, charged to watch over the health
of the public, to take such measures as under these
circumstances shall appear to be most expedient.
On their part, the Committee have redoubled their
zeal ; they have for four months multiplied the ino-
culations with the cow-pox in Paris : they•have ren-
dered their assistance particularly to indigent fami-
lies.'f he hospital committed to their care, in the
housC of Saint Esprit, near to the Hotel de Vale, has
been cunstantly open to the public ; andthe number
of individuals, who come daily to be inoculated with
the cow-Pox, is observed to increase.
The Committee will always continue to consider
the information of the public as their first duty, and,
on this occasion, will be eager to contribute with the
public authority, for the extirpation of the present
malignant disorder.