Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-01-06
1nocuIa,lon and Vasclns,Ion.

InOcuIatiOn and Vaccination.
1t is true that circumstances have so often
evolved great results through the agency of
individuals whose lives and surroundings are
in striking contrast with the subject develop
ed, that we have come to look upon the mar
vellous features of any new process with quiet
competency so that the repetition of the
story telling Of the channels through which
England and America learned Of one Of the
greatest boons ever conferred upon mankind,
may have little more than passing interest
to the readers of The PHOENIX. However,
the unusual prevalence of smallpox through
out the country has attracted the attention of
a large share of the community to the sub
ject of vaccination, and will, therefore, at
tempt to give bare outline of its discovery,
and some of the events which preceded it.
In tracing the history of vaccination. it
may be interesting to sketch the course of
prior method of preventing smallpox, which,
though open to many objections, was uniyer-
sally relied upon for three. quarters of a Gen.
fury before Jenner announced his discovery
of vaccination. incubation consisted in tax
ing matter from one afflicted with smallpox,
and introducing it under the skin of a healthy
individual, which procedure would induce a
mild varioloid in the person so operated up
on, and render him proof against further in
lection from the disease. Prior to 1921 Eng
fish speaking people were wholly destitute of
any adequate protection against smallpox.
II Ill -.
larger communities, and individuals who had
not had it were as scarce as those of the
present day who have. Epidemics frequent
ly appeared, sweeping off thousands indeed,
nearly all, except those who had been fortu-
nate enough to have it when prevailing in a
less malignant form. 1t is impossible to con-
ceive, at the present day, of the extent of
this terrible malady, as it prevailed in Eng
land and America two hundred years ago. A
perusal of the mortality statistics of any Euro
pean city of 10000 inhabitants ought to con-
vince the most rabid anti-vaecinist that Jen-
ner's art is beyond all comparison the most
important ever conferred upon the human
race.
In 1716, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, a
celebrated wit and beauty of the period, &C
companied her husband Lord Montague, to
Turkey, he having been appointed to repre-
sent England in that country. While there,
she learned that the inhabitants had means
of protection against the smallpox, a disease
that had carried of her only brother, and de-
stroyed her own beautiful eyebrows. Tradi-
ton says, and facts partially prove, that in
oculation had been practised in China Persia
and Turkey for centuries, but until Lady
Montague tested its virtues on the person of
her own child, Englishmen were ignorant of,
or certainly had never practiced it upon their
own people. Upon her return home in 1921
she laid the subject before the authorities,
and, to demonstrate the faith she had in the
measure, submitted another of her children
to incubation, and through her influence at
court five condemned murderers were placed
at the disposal of her physician, and as they
all passed safely through the ordeal, she had
the satisfaction of seeing the result of her la
bors placed before the public in favorable
light But she did not escape the usual lot
of those who, engaged in like work, fol-
lowed after her. She was hailed from some
quarters as demon, the clergy accused her
of taking events out of the hands of Provi-
dence, and the rabble cried out against her.
Still she lived to see her most violent traduc-
ers advocate incubation with as much fervor,
as they had formerly used to revile her name.
The honor of first calling the attention of
the people of the then American colonies TO
incubation undoubtedly belongs to Rev.
Cotton Mather of Boston, son of Rev. In
crease Mather, whose name is prominently
connected with the history of Salem witch
craft. 1t is probable that he had received no
intimation of the introduction of the process
into England by Lady Montague, but had his
attention attracted to it by reading an article
or articles published in the transactions of
one of the learned societies of Europe, which
had been loaned him by DIR. Douglas, who,
it seems, had failed to grasp the golden OPP
portunity himself. The articles referred to
described incubation as practised in Turkey
together with an account of the way in which
1t was performed DR.. Mather at once grasp
ed the importance of the idea, should it prove
to be what was claimed for it in his reading
so that, soon after when smallpox began to
prevail with unusual severity in the town, he
copied the articles, and, writing an autograph
letter, urging trial of the method upon the
physicians of Boston, sent duplicates to every
member of the profession in the place. With
one exception, they looked upon the whole
proceeding as ehimerieal, probably regarding
it as the faneiful idea of a man who, in those
days, was thought to have too much learning
and the matter might have dropped out of
sight, until revived by the example of the
mother country, had it not been for DIR.
Boylston, who had the wisdom to see its DOS
sible utility, and the courage to test its viz
tues in actual practice. DIR. Boylston was a
comparatively young man, enjoying fair
practice, but not in a position to bear the
odium Of an unpopular measure. However,
on the 26th of June, 1921, he essayed his first
attempt at incubation, and, like Lady Mon
tague, chose his own son as the first upon
whom to test the new process About the
same time he inoculated two negro servants
employed in his family, and, soon after, 9th.
ers In the vicinity, so that, by the end of the
following January, he had inoculated pa
persons. At first, those inoculated had the
disease mildly, and the most favorable results
were anticipated for it by the friends of the
measure, which, strange to say, included all
the clergy together with few of the people,
while its strongest opponents were found
among the physicians. Not many months