The Sun.
London, England, 1802-12-23 00:00:00

REPORT

OF THE
CENTRAL 'COMMITTEE. AT PARIS,

ON THE SVSJECT OF THE VACCINE OR COW[' PDX,

MADE ON THE 24. TH NOTEMBEE, rBoz.

-ON undertaking the important commission which
Ila.s 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 praflice
of it altogether ; and they pledged themselves to
communicate the result of their observations to the
Public. Up to this time the Committee have ful-
filled those engagements : a great number of proofs
have been obtained, by/ inoculating different sub.
jests with the Small Pox, each of whom had been
previously vaccinated; and the constantly favourable
results of these trials have been published with
fidelity and exaaness.
Amongst other experiments, vaccinated subjeas
had been placed in the most intimate communication
with,persons having the Small Pox, obliging them
to inhabit the same room, eat and drink together,
sleep in the sanie bed, and wear the same clothes.
These experiments, which were afterwards fre-
__

quently repeated exaElly in the same manner with
the former, and tried on several occasions upon a
great number of persons at the skittle time, haVe
equally succeeded, and the details have been made

public.
• The Committee, 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 inquiry ; which was, to see
Nature struggling with the Cow Pox under circum-
stances, where, either from the effet of the state
of the air, from the disposition of the hod}', or from
these two doses united, the infeelion of the Small
Pox was actually spreading itself, and 'exerting the
most aaive,, as well as the most dreadful influence.
Already a great number of fa&s which_ had been
communicated 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 lass two
or three years, have not seen the Small Pox reign
epidemically in a great number of towns, or in the
country. There has not been one example to prove,
that amongst thousands of individuals inoculated with
the Cow Pox, a single .one has been infeged with the
Small Pox, though living in the midst of the conta:
Sian.
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 aetually 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 furnished
them with the means of completing their proofs.—
They have taken the greatest pains to make the
enumeration of all the individuals, who, by the di-
redion of the Committee, had received the Cow
Pox ; they have taken the most exams measures to
be informed of all that might happen to them ; and
the result of their inquiries at this moment is, that

amongst the number' of those indivdivals, which
- omm:its to nearly 10,000, not one has beex infeBed
with the contagion of the Small Pox.
"This .great and important result is firmly esta.
blished, and it does not admit of a single exception.
Two other fats, not less conclusive, have also
come to the knowledge of the Committee. : The
Cow toxilaVing been constantly pia&ised upon the
children in the Hospital de la Pitie (eleves of their
countrV), and upon those of the Hospital of Orphans;
Tn the'Faubourg- St. Antoine, the tnfeCtion of the
Small Pdx 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
clearly been preserved from the contagion by the
effea 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 inreftion of the Small Pox.—
The very exalt accounts of the mortality which the
Committee have procured in the environs of Paris,
announce drat 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 not scs aflluent, the people less in-
formed—it is in those places where this proportion
is the largest : whilst the more airy environs, in-
habited by a class of people in an easy situation of
life, have suffered less from the contagion.

The Committee, desirous to submit their labours
to the Public in the most satisfaaory manner, have
inserted Tables of the Mortality in Paris during the
last two months of the last year (the year to), and
the two first months of the present year 11. tit be-
longs 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 expe-
dient. On their part, the Committee have, re-
doubled their zeal_:, they have for four months
multiplied the inoculations with the Cow Pox in
Paris :
,they have rendered their assistance particu-
lark, to indigent families. The Hospital committed.
to their care, in the house of St. Esprit, near to
the Hotel de Ville, has been constantly open to the
Public; and the number of individuals who come
daily to he Inoculated with the Cow Pox, is ob-
served to increase.

The'Corninittee will alWays continue to consider
the; information of the publie as their first duty,
ohd, on this occasion, will be eager to contribute
with the public authority, for the 'extirpation of
the present malignant disorder.