immemorial, and that a vague opinion prevailed that it was a preventive of the small-pox.”

Other writers corroborate the fact that in the agricultural districts of Europe the cow-pox had long been known to dairymen as a protection against small-pox. Pearson,* in 1800, in writing upon vaccination, said: "The safety of the practice is confirmed by the inoculation [vaccination] so long practiced among the peasants in several parts of England, in the rudest manner, with pointed knives, awls, etc., time immemorial."

Barry, a practitioner and writer contemporaneous with the authors just mentioned, says much upon the antiquity of cowpox and its being known among the peasants as a protection against variola. He says: "The Irish name of the disease (Shinach) belongs to the old written language of the country, and has no relation to the modern colloquial dialect; this I consider a strong proof of the antiquity of the distemper. It is evident from the facts I have stated, and from the remainder which I have myself collected, or received from friends, that the belief of the anti-variolous power of the disease is as ancient as that of the existence of the disease itself."

It would seem that Jenner's great discovery was simply the recognition of facts which were familiar to many of the common people; but it was reserved for him to demonstrate to medical and scientific minds the value of these facts which in a simple way were best known to milkmaids. His own words best describe his progress in proving his theories:† "During the investigation of the casual [natural] cow-pox, I was struck with the idea that it might be practicable to propagate the disease by inoculation, after the manner of the small-pox, first from the cow, and finally from one human being to another. I anxiously waited some time for an opportunity of putting this theory to the test. At length the period

* Pearson did everything in his power to rob Jenner of the honor of the discovery of vaccination, by asserting that he had done more than Jenner to diffuse the knowledge and place it upon a basis to be thoroughly understood by all. His attempt, however, was an ignominious failure.

† Loc. cit., p. 507.

arrived. The first experiment was made upon a lad of the name of Phipps, in whose arm a little vaccine virus was inserted, taken from the hand of a young woman who had been accidentally infected by a cow. Notwithstanding the resemblance which the pustule, thus excited on the boy's arm, bore to variolous inoculation, yet as the indisposition attending it was barely perceptible, I could scarcely persuade myself the patient was secure from the small-pox. However, on his being inoculated some months afterwards, it proved that he was secure. This case inspired me with confidence; and as soon as I could again furnish myself with virus from the cow, I made an arrangement for a series of inoculations. A number of children were inoculated in succession, one from the other; and after several months had elapsed, they were exposed to the infection of the small-pox- some by inoculation, others by variolous effluvia, and some in both ways - but they all resisted it. The result of these trials gradually led me into a wider field of experiment, which I went over not only with great attention, but with painful solicitude. This became universally known through a treatise published in June, 1798. The result of my further experience was also brought forward in subsequent publications in the two succeeding years, 1799 and 1800. The distrust and scepticism which naturally arose in the minds of medical men, on my first announcing so unexpected a discovery, has now [1801] nearly disappeared. Many hundreds of them, from actual experience, have given their attestation that the inoculated cow-pox proves a perfect security against the small-pox; and I shall probably be within compass, if I say that thousands are ready to follow their example, for the scope that this inoculation has now taken is immense. An hundred thousand persons, upon the smallest computation, have been inoculated [vaccinated] in these realms. The number who have partaken of its benefits throughout Europe, and other parts of the globe, are incalculable; and it now becomes too manifest to admit of controversy, that the annihilation of the small-pox, the most dreadful scourge of the human species, must be the final result of this practice."

The opinion expressed in the last part of the above quotation will not be taken with surprise by any medical man who has studied the subject of vaccination. It probably was not conceived in the mind of Jenner that quackery, superstition, ignorance, and dishonesty would combine to defeat the results which he predicted; neither will any one regard him as over enthusiastic in describing its prophylactic powers, when it is stated that within five years after giving his discovery to the world, six thousand persons, who had been previously effectually vaccinated, were inoculated with the poison of small-pox, and not one of the number contracted the disease.

Dr. Woodville, of London, within two years after the announcement of the discovery of vaccination, inoculated one thousand well vaccinated persons with the virus of small-pox and none received the infection.

The protection given by vaccination was so conclusively proven that, as a further test, physicians, and in some instances ministers, placed their children in houses infected with the worst type of small-pox, with impunity.

men.

* * * 66

Vaccination was performed to quite an extent by clergyIndeed, the better educated among them used every honest endeavor to awaken their parishioners to the great value of the operation. Rev. G. C. Jenner vaccinated "three thousand persons without meeting with one unfavorable case, although he had inoculated [vaccinated] persons from the earliest infancy to eighty years of age." Upwards of two hundred of his patients have since been inoculated with active small-pox matter, and at least an equal number exposed to contagious effluvia, but in no instance was the small-pox produced."* The proofs of its efficacy were so strong that the operation was introduced from England with great rapidity into every civilized country.

Dr. Waterhouse, "Professor of Physic at Cambridge in New England" obtained some vaccine virus from a friend in Bath, England, and acknowledging the same under date of Aug. 4, 1800, said: "Accept my best thanks for the phial

* Testimony before the House of Commons, 1802.

of vaccine poison. Its activity I have experienced on my nearest connections. I have inoculated five of my own family, and roused the public attention even beyond what I had imagined. The symptoms and appearance in the inoculated part were exactly similar to those described and pictured by Dr. Jenner. I shall try the variolous matter on them in a week or two. I consider this as a very important thing to my country, where the dread of the small-pox is still great.

"I have ventured to give a new name to the vaccine disorder. I observe that people revolt at the term cow-pox. I have therefore changed it to kine-pox, from kine, the plural of cow. As I am the only one in America who has published anything on that new disorder, I am in hopes to establish that name instead of the former. If it should obtain, I can foresee that the e will be changed in time into d."

This, indeed, is a significant letter and shows from what source the name, which has been so commonly used in this country, was derived. Dr. Waterhouse wrote a small work upon vaccination, in acknowledgment of which he received the following from the president of the United States:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25, 1800.

SIR, I received last night, and have read with great satisfaction, your pamphlet on the subject of the kine-pox and pray you to accept my thanks for the communication of it. I had before attended to your publications on the subject in the newspapers, and took much interest in the results of the experiments you were making. Every friend of humanity must look with pleasure on this discovery, by which one evil more is withdrawn from the condition of man; and must contemplate the possibility, that future improvements may still more and more lessen the catalogue of evils. In this line of proceeding you deserve well of your country; and I pray you, sir, accept my portion of the tribute due to you, and assurances of the high consideration and respect with which I am, sir,

Your most obedient and humble servant,

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

To Dr. Waterhouse, Cambridge.

The literature of vaccination, published within three years after its discovery, shows that the subject had been ably considered in all its details, bovine and humanized virus, communication of disease, spurious vaccination, decomposed virus, etc., etc. The anti-vaccinationists presented the same line of pseudo-arguments, and employed the same senseless and demagogical allegations in support of their assumed position as now perhaps in some respects even exceeding them.

They based one of their strongest points in opposition to vaccination upon the hope of instilling into the mind of the ignorant, the idea that it was a beastial disease, or humor, and that by introducing it into the system they received a disease which did not belong to the category of ills, placed by divine favor or disfavor, as the case might best suit the purpose of their argument, upon sinful mankind.

*

The beneficent discovery was, however, not allowed to be assailed unanswered. To the charge above mentioned Dr. Henry Jenner, a surgeon of London, forcibly said: "If this very weak and futile objection were worthy of reply, we might observe, that the cow is of all others the most healthy and the most cleanly of our domestic animals, and might also remark, that no females are so healthy as our dairy maids, whose morning and evening hours are spent amongst the cows." * * * "How void of foundation then must be the objection to the insertion of an atom of matter taken from the teat of the cow, once in the life only, when every person is in the daily habit of introducing into his stomach various parts of the same animal. The human stomach revolts not at beef, butter, cheese, and cream; yet every one acquainted with the animal economy must know that these aliments are quickly mingled with the constitution."

In as logical a manner was every objection to vaccination met, but the extent of the absurdity to which the opposition was carried by ignorant and bigoted fanatics, may be illustrated by a single quotation from a paper on vaccination, written by

* An address to the public on the advantages of vaccine inoculation, with the objections to it refuted. London, 1800.