The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-23 00:00:00

TI114: SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 23, 1840

INOCULATION v. VACCINATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sir,—lt is now about thirty years since I availed my-
self of your valuable columns to address two letters to
the late Dr. Jenner, stating my opinion that his dis-
covery would be found an imperfect protection
against the small-pox contagion, and called upon
him to answer my objections. I should consider it
a great favour if you would grant the inclosed a
place in your valuable and independent paper, and,
from the rapid progress of Lord Ellenborough's Bill,
the sooner you grant me this favour the better.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

THOMAS BROWN.

8, Seymour-street, Bath.
[We insert the letter, not from any conviction
of the soundness of the opinions it contains, for, in
our humble judgment. vaccination is one of the
most valuable discoveries ever made, but to gratify
a veteran who has combated the Jcnncrians for
more than thirty years.]

TO SIR HENRY HALFORD, M.D. ETC., ETC.

If the reports concerning vaccination, signed by
von and other medical gentlemen connected with
the Board of the Vaccine Establishment, annually
handed in to Government to be laid before .Parlia-
ment, were to be considered a test of your know-
ledge and information of the pence and condition
of the Jennerian discovery, and the discharge of
the duties and obligations you owe to the public, I
must be permitted to say, they ace offensively and
dreadfully deficient ; and that the public comfort
and safety appear to me to be sacrificed for what
may he denominated the character of consistency
in the leading members of the medical profession,
and that Le Sage's picture of them is still strictly
applicable to those of the present day.
You cannot, Sir, be surprised at seeing this ad-
dress from me, after the repeated exertions I have
made to fix the attention of the profession upon the
real merits and actual condition of the vaccine
practice, or that I should still consider it a duty
which I owe to myself and the public, to watch
over and attend to everything connected with so in-
teresting and important a subject.
It is now about thirty years since I ventured
I distinctly and seriously to impugn the anti-variolous
properties of the vaccine disease, and endeavoured
to prove from the whole history of the disease
given by Dr. Jenner, as well as that of the medi-
cal profession, and my own extensive experience,
that the anti-variolous powers of vaccination would
ultimately be found feeble, imperfect, and tempo-
rary ; and that the truth of this opinion would be-
come more and more evident and distinct, as well
as more disastrous, as our experience of the prac-
tice became more lengthened and extended.
Now, Sir Henry, I assert, without fear of con-
tradiction, that these results have been long ago
confirmed to the very letter, and notwithstanding,
the unblushing nature of your Report, and the seem-
ing authority and dignity of the signatures, there
shall not be found a single medical practitioner of
experience or respectability, that will come forward
and declare their unqualified approbation, either
of your Report, or that the vaccine disease, how-
ever and by whomsoever conducted, can be ren-
dered capable of bestowing perfect immunity from
the influence of the variolous contagion. But on
the contrary, such is now the extent of proof
against its power of conferring security against
small-pox, that there are now, and have been for
several years past,more deaths from its failing to give
protection than what attended the inoculation of
the small-pox ; the cases are innumerable where
other bad consequences followed—and what is still
more lamentable and distressing, the ravages of
small-pox do not fall much short of what they
were before vaccination existed. It is evidently
quite absurd and ridiculous to attempt getting rid
of this last very distressing fact, by saying that it is
owing to the neglect of vaccination ; for can it
possibly be expected that reasonable beings shall
continue to place unlimited confidence in a practice
which the most distinct and decisive experience has
proved to be an ineffectual and unworthy expedient?
Besides all this, the grand reason and claim for
rendering this practice universal must now be to-
tally abandoned—viz., the total extinction of small-
pox ; for surely, not even the Vaccine Establish-
ment will dare to contend that this consequence
can be accomplished by an expedient that cannot
prevent the occurrence of the disease itself.

But, Sir Henry, as it is quite impossible to put
into the limits of a letter intended for insertion in
a daily paper, all the arguments that may be ad-
duced for proving the deficiencies and failures of
vaccination, and for demonstrating the truth of the
preceding objections, I shall only observe, and I dis-
tinctly call upon you, and the other gentlemen who
have signed this despicably garbled and deficient
Report, to declare that the Reports of the
meeting of the members of the medical pro-
fession at Birmingham—those of Doctor Gre-
gory, of the Small-pox Hospital, and the ac-
counts from all quarters of the world, are en-
titled to no credit or attention, and are all to be ne-
gatived, cancelled, and swept away by the Report
of a few medical men, who, I will venture to say,
have no title to do so from superior personal expe-
rience and information on the subject.
I think enough has now been stated to induce
both Parliament and Government to pause before
they shall take any farther measures for securing
the extension of vaccination, but on the contrary,
to appoint a Committee of both Houses of Parlia-
ment to make a strict and impartial investigation,
which can only be satisfactorily accomplished by
calling upon the evidence of professional men from
all parts of the country, who have no purpose to
obtain, and rejecting that of those who have already
so distinctly committed themselves in the unlimited
and indiscriminate defence of its character, or who
receive any public emolument for extending its
practice.
If this plan shall be adopted, I do not hesitate
to assert that the inquiry will be found to terminate
simply into two queries :—ls it possible to contrive
any expedients whereby vaccination can be rendered
easy, safe, and permanent? And if not, ought we
not to abandon it at once, and return to the practice
of inoculation, rather than go on floundering with
all the perplexities, disappointments, and private
and public distresses which are now found to be
involved in the practice of vaccination ?

111 v intention, Sir Henry, is to investigate these
two queries ; but as this letter is already too long,
I shall defer them until another opportunity.
I have the honour to be your obedient servant,
THOMAS BROWN.
8, Seymour-street, Bath, March 17, 1840.

EAST INDIES.

MELANCHOLY LOSS OF LIFE IN THE 16TH
REGIMENT OF LANCERS.
We deeply regret to announce that advices have
just reached the Adjutant-General's Office of a
melancholy loss of life on the occasion of her Ma-
jesty's llith Lancers crossing the Jhelum, on their
march hack front Affghanistan. The stream was
so rapid as to sweep one troop on a quicksand,
where the horses fell. Captain Hilton and nine
or ten troopers perished, and Colonel Cureton with
forty or fifty more were extricated with great diffi-
culty.—Benga, Ilurkaru, Dec. 31.
Annexed is an extract from a letter from an offi-
cer of the Lancers, giving a detailed account of the
calamities of fording, which' carried away so many
of the corps

" Camp on the Chenab, Dec. 18, 1839—0 n
the 10th December, our regiment forded the Jhe-
lum, and the fords not being distinctly marked off'
by flags, of which there ought to have been a double
line instead of only a few long reeds ! the conse-
quence was that tale leading sections deviated from
the true course of the ford, and were carried away by
the current. A dragoon in heavy marching order,
as you know, is not exactly made for swimming,
nor indeed is the horse with all that extra weight
to carry ; nevertheless, though the current ran
strong, many did, by turning their horses' heads to
the stream and giving them the rein, get back to
the true line of the ford, and others swam across
the deep water to the opposite bank. Our loss was,
however, considerable, though to me it was sur-
prising it was not much greater, everything consi-
dered. Poor Captain Hilton was drowned, as were
also a corporal and nine men, and eight horses.
Colonel Cureton had an extremely narrow and most
providential escape, being at the head of the regi.
ment, which marched in sections of threes, and just
in rear of the band, when he and the whole of the
men of the band were suddenly swept away
by the current, at a point more than half way
across, where the course of the ford turned sud-
denly at right angles up stream. This point
ought to have been marked, and the danger of
getting below it made known by those whose duty
it was to have looked to it. Cureton's horse swam
well, I believe, but took fright at an un-
fortunate camel floating down the stream ; he there-
fore let go the horse, and swam for it ; when I tell
you it was ten minutes before he received assistance,
one of our men having stript and swam to help
him from the opposite ail: (for the whole advance
guard had passed safe over) and all this time the
Colonel was encumbered by his sword, belt, and
pouch, and his Lancer cap—all of which came out
safe with him—you will be aware of the extremity
he was in. Lieut. Pattie and numbers of the
men had similarly most narrow escapes. I have
entered somewhat into this detail thinking it might
possess some interest for you, as we are assuredly
the first regiment of Dragoons that ever swam
through to us (not fabulous) Hydaspes !—Fabulo-
sus Hydaspis, I think we read in Horace. Alex-
ander himself passed his army over in boats or in
rafts, by adopting the simple precaution of a line of
flags ; the horses of the 3rd Cavalry and troop of
Horse Artillery were led safely across by their
Syces two days after, by which time, however, the
Jhelum had fallen three feet."

The following extracts relate to Persia, Herat,
and Bokhara:--,

Letters from Herat to the 2d November confirm
the accounts we latterly received from Persia, as to
the conciliatory disposition towards England of the
Emperor, and state that Mahomed Shah was most
anxious to be friends with the English again on
any terms. It is said he had recalled the British
Embassy, and was about to dispatch his Minister
for Foreign Affairs to England.

The Government in Persia is represented as
totally disorganised, the Treasury empty, and his
Majesty the Shah obliged to remain in his palace
for fear of his troops, who had long been without
pay, while the Governors of the provinces looked
only to number one.
_ _

The Vizier at Herat had received a letter from
Dost aliomed, urging him to get up a religious
war to expel the English from Affghamstan, and
stating that the gate of Ghuzni had been sold, or
it never could have been taken. The Vizier had
done all he could to prevail on the Chief of Me-
shed, and other neighbouring chiefs, to come and
take possession of Herat. The former declined
his offers, and advised the Vizier to take care
of what he was about, else the English would
get hold of him ; and the other chiefs, looking
on the Vizier's proposals as a trap to catch
them, begged to be excused. Prince Kamran
had shown more energy latterly, and had
been out riding with one of the Mission, to
whom he complained of his being a mere puppet
in the hands of the Vizier ; that his orders were
disobeyed, and that net a horseman or follower
accompanied him, whilst the Vizier had two
thousand.

Accounts from Bokhara had been received,
which state that Colonel Stoddart was at liberty,
and employed in raising a troop of artillery for the
Ameer, who dreads a Russian invasion. All the
statements agree in mentioning that the Russians
were expected to march on Khiva soon. Colonel
Stoddart had the option given him of being put to
death, or of entering the Ameer's service, and men
were sent to dig his grave before his prison door,
which induced him to accept the latter alternative.
The cold at Herat is represented as very severe ;
hard frost every night.
[We regret to learn from the newspapers that
Colonel Stoddart, who had been directed to proceed
to Bokhara, by order of Government, to form a
commercial treaty with the chief of that country,
has not only been exposed in the public bazaar
there for the bigoted Mahomedans to spit upon,
but has, as an alternative, to save his life, been
forced to enter the Amecr's service, and train a
troop of artillery preparatory to the expected inva.
sion by Russia.

Jiff-rent sides of the brain, the stronger and sounder
will be the mind. If we examine the interior of the
alimentary canal, a short time after food has been
taken, we shall find it studded with minute pores,
by which means all nutriment is conveyed through
the different vessels, for the sustenance of the living
being. These small pores stand in the same rela-
tion to the animal as roots to the plant. Indeed,
in an animal the roots are reflected inwards, by
which contrivance it is rendered capable of lo
comotion AlthOlit being separated from the source
of its food. The organic life continues its func-
tions to the end without stopping ; but the ani-
mal functions get dull by exercise, until many of
them totally fail. Sleep is the repose of the senses,
rest of the muscles, and may correctly be said to be
their food. The organic functions never cease ; if
such were the case, death would be the result. The
two lives are born at different times : the one may
die while the other will live ; and, if the death of the
being be natural, the death of one mar be very much
sooner than the other. Before animal life exists,
the organic life separates the nutritious matter which
is necessary to produce the future animal. The •
child, in the first instance, bet7ays its knowledge of
causes only from a perception of their effects ; even
adults, when couched for the cataract, are a long
time before they perceive the luminary, although
they perceive its effects. Death always begins by
undermining the noblest faculties of man. Those
which are last born are the first to decay. Taste
is tile last sense to perish. At length, no sense re-
maining, death acts upon the brain. The old man
ceases to exist in the present, and lives only in the
past. The muscles of volition, the servants of the
brain, become feeble ; every motion is uncertain ;
the hand becomes unsteady, and the step totters.
The animal life being extinguished, the man passes
a second time through the state of childhood hack
to a state of infancy. When he began to exist, he
possessed only vegetable life ; and when he is ripe
for the tomb, he returns to the state of a plant.
This natural conseonence is the history of life.—
Dr. Southwood Smith.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY—THE
BYNG FESTIVAL.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin—Will you allow a constant reader of your
Paper for many years past, and a most sincere admirer
of its talents, independence, stern advocacy to the rights
of the poor, and devoted consecration to the sacred cause
of universal freedom, to trouble you with a thought or
two, produced by the magnificent festival of last week
in Drury-lane Theatre. That venerable and illustrious
patriot, and truly noble man, Mr. George I3yng, pre-
sents himself to the contemplation of every genuine
Reformer, as a rare specimen of political integrity and
excellence. If it please the great Disposer of human
events, may the worthy senator live
yet many years,
rigorously and faithfully to contend for those equal
rights and immunities of British and Irish citizens, to
which he so judiciously adverted in his wise address.
Ever;, real Reformer must also highly appreciate the
Duke of Sussex's letter, and both the Noble Chairman's
and the Duke of Bedford's speeches. Indeed, all the
demonstrations of public feeling and sentiments displayed
on that interesting and memorable occasion were of a
superior order, and worthy of men acknowledging the
people to be the legitimate source of power.
But, Sir, it was the professed friendliness to the cause
of liberty—may it be practical as well as verbal !—which
pervaded the effusions of the meeting, that above all
other considerations animated and inspired the feelings '
of your humble correspondent, and probably of thou-
sands more alike minded with himself on that transcend-
ent subject.
Et qum tante fuit Romam tibi cause videndi ?
Libertas.
Even the Honourable and Learned Member for the
Tower Hamlets, maugre his speech on Mr. T. Dun-
combo's late motion in reference to John Thorogood,
declared his judgment on the paramount question of re-
ligious freedom to the following efiect—" That none
should be punished on account of their religious opi-
nions." This is an axiom worthy the most unfeigned
friend of liberty, and especially important as emanating
from the mouth of an Ecclesiastical Judge. And I
conceive that all then and there present, when and where
Dr. Lushington so delivered himself, very cordially
responded to the grand sentiment advanced by the
learned civilian. To me, considered in itself, proceeding
from so high an authority, and proclaimed in the midst
of so splendid and influential an assemblage of Lords,
Commons, Cabinet Ministers, and others, it was truly
exhilarating, for it tended to raise and justify the delight-
ful expectation that the grand occasion on which the
parties mentioned so happily convened, would b.; suc-
ceeded by an acquisition to the claims of religious li-
berty. And it is to bo devoutly hoped that such will be
the result.
You, my good Sir, will, I trust, bear with my plain-
ness of diction, when I express my doubts that all is
not gold that glitters, and that dinner orations have
sometimes more of profession than of performance in
them. We in rural districts do not make any pretence
to metropolitan polish and refinement in the expression
of our ideas. But we, too, have our thoughts, and when
leisure will allow, indulge in the task of thinking. And
when perusing the Drury-lane Theatre speeches, and
particularly such portions of them as bore an aspect of
freedom—above all, Dr. Lushington's, in which he con-
tended for exemption from punishment on account of
" religious opinions," I should have expected that the
blessed phrenzy for liberty that seemed so generally to
predominate would have forced some champion of it to
start up upon his feet and exclaim, Church-rates, John
Thorogood,:Chelmsford Gaol, and fifty things more, in
time permitted, all subversive of liberty. But such an
exclamation would have been vulgar, coarse, and out
of place A true friend of freedom could hardly
think so ; for when so honest a being as John Thorn-
good is pining away under the pressure of prison suffer-
ing, and, for aught that appears, is destined to rot
in Chelmsford Gaol, and all this because of his conscien-
tious devotion to his " religious opinions," it is not time
to be overnice and ceremonious. Indeed I rather wonder
that honest Joseph Hume was not instantly upon his legs,
and though not appointed to speak, was asking leave to
declare his opinion. One cannot help wishing that lie
or some noble branch of the House of Russell, or some
other liberal soul, had spoken somewhat after the fol-
lowing manner—" My Lords and Gentlemen, we now
happily luxuriate in the atmosphere of freedom, and the
oxygen of that air has produced a delightful state of ex-
hilaration throughout our whole expanded systems. But
as liberty ! liberty ! divine liberty ! is so transporting a
theme and matchless an acquisition, let us cast a thought
towards those that are so unjustly and cruelly denied
its bliss ; and so, exclusively, because of their reli-
gious opinions.' And particularly let us consider this
all-important affair, since the Learned Judge has now
and here pronounced that none should be punished on
account of their religious opinions.' Let us at once urge
Sir S. Lushington, consistently with his expressed deci-
sion, immediately to get up a measure in the Commons
to forward the cause of liberty, to break down the power
of oppression, to effect the liberation and save the life of
poor Thorogood, and to beatify the Dissenters of Bri-
tain with the privilege of adhering to their ' religious
opinions' without being subject to mulct or incarceration.
Let the Hon. and Learned Gentleman pursue so de-
sirable and agreeable a course, and we will support him
in both Houses of Parliament with all our might and
influence." Sir, Lord J. Russell had left the company
before Dr. Lushington uttered the memorable sentiment
already more than once repeated. All that he can say
in answer to the cry from Chelmsford Gaol, and the
prayer of myriads of Non conformists, is, " The law must
be obeyed while it continues on the Statute Book."
Still he wished a change ; but mark, a remedy, if possi-
ble, worse than the disease. Herein Lord John has in-
flicted a wound on the feelings of his best friends, which
I fear can never be healed. But may we not naturally
hope that some advantage, practical and emphatical, to
the cause of liberty, civil and religious, may follow upon
the grand demonstration of the Byng Jubilee ; and espe-
cially from the principle laid down by the learned civi-
lian, and responded to by the company, " That none
should be punished on account of their religious opi-
nions ?"—I remain, Sir, your's, very respectfully,
AMICUS LIBERTATIS ET JUSTiTI.E.
Abergavenny, March 18, 1840.