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 office for Vora
inspection. _