Doctors, vaccination, and utilitarianism.

  • Constable, H. Strickland (Henry Strickland), 1821-1909.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Doctors, vaccination, and utilitarianism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    who invoked the eternal wrath of heaven upon his adversary on account of his opinions upon the preter-plus-perfect tense. It is a matter for in- vestigation, not wrath. Moral wrong alone should rouse that. The opponents of Vaccination must not expect an inborn faith, that has got to form a part of the human nature of this generation, to vanish quickly. It took hundreds of years for Englishmen to cure themselves of belief in witchcraft; and the forces ranged on the side of Vaccination, are perhaps nearly as strong as those were on the side of witch-, craft. There is, first, the pecuniary interest of the whole medical profession, a profession composed for the most part of excellent, honorable, kind-hearted, well-educated, and often highly intelligent men, who have the run of all our houses, who are believed in by most, and who exercise the influence such men must exercise. Secondly, there are all our habits of thought on the subject, both inherited and acquired by educa- tion. And thirdly, there is female vanity. Whenever Female van- I think of this last force I despair. And yet this very force ought to be ranged on the other side. Many opponents of Vaccination assert that all life-long skin affections are the results of Vaccination. This of course is an exaggeration. And yet from instances I (though without experience) know to be true, I cannot doubt that Vaccination very often does leave this consequence. I am afraid that a man is rather a selfish animal. He hears of abuses, but so long as they do not touch himself, he swims with the stream and dis-