A letter in reply to the report of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, Edinburgh : with an appendix, containing a variety of interesting letters on the subject of vaccination, and including a correspondence with Dr. Duncan, Dr. Lee, and Mr. Bryce : from which also the public will be able to appreciate the authority of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, and to form a correct opinion of the whole subject / by Thomas Brown.

Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter in reply to the report of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, Edinburgh : with an appendix, containing a variety of interesting letters on the subject of vaccination, and including a correspondence with Dr. Duncan, Dr. Lee, and Mr. Bryce : from which also the public will be able to appreciate the authority of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, and to form a correct opinion of the whole subject / by Thomas Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and not unlike a very mild inoculated small-pox, only that they disappear- ed by the sixth day at latest, after coming out*. I do not recollect that the age of the patient made any difference as to the eruption, nor the dis- tance of period from vaccination. All the children that I visited were un- der twelve years, and mostly of the lower ranks ; but severals were chil- dren of the fii-st people in this quarter. I was called one day to see a child that I had vaccinated some years ago, but who had not taken the cow-pox, and the operation was never repeated. The people told me it had the small-pox. Upon visiting the child, I said at once that it was not the small-pox ; the woman in the house did not credit me ; however, in a few weeks, the child caught the small-pox, and liad a very considerable ei-up- tion. I mention this case merely to shew, that, in this country, when a child is once vaccinated, whether it takes or not, if you inquire' any time afterwards at the parents, they will tell you it has had the covv--pox j but if you ask particularly into the state of the arm, in sbme instances they will say the redness lasted only a day or two, in others, that it never ■was inflamed. I do not know how it is in your neighbourhood ; but in this part of the country, a great deal of mischief has been done by igno- rant people vaccinating, the disease being so mild, that every parent of a family thinks he may inoculate his child, and many actually do it. The midwives are also very active, and as they do not know at what period to take matter, nor how to preserve the virus, it is not surprising that a dis- ease should be propagated, very different from the real cow-pox. I re- collect, several years ago, of mentioning to some of the Edinburgh surgeons, when they were so anxious to give instructions for'vaccinating to the clergy of Scotland, that I. was afraid it might be attended with bad consequences. I have not heard, however, that it was so ; indeed, I believe few of the clergy vaccinated, at least in this country, and those that do, are intelli- gent men, who have studied the phenomena, and made themselves com- plete masters of the whole progress. The lower ranks here have no ob- jection to the cow-pox; but they are now rather afraid to allow the mid- wives and other ignorant people to vaccinate their children. If you wish any other information, I shall be extremely happy to give whatever is in my power at any future period.—I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, JOHN MINTO. No. xxni. DEAR SIR, MtLsselktrg/i, 23dSept. IS09. I beg leave to return you my best thanks for the ti'ouble you have taken, in complying so readily, and so fully, in answering my queries, and,_ with much pleasure, I accept your offer to give me any other information in your power. You are pleased to say, that the vesicle and areola appear to you, when going through their regular progress, the certain marks of perfect vaccination, and that any person, who has been in the habit of seeing the arm of a vac- * It is evident that this description does not at all correspond to varicella, and it seems but fair to conclude, that many of these cases were small-pox modified'from the effects of vaccination.