month old, fell ill on 26th May, 1811; in a few days smallpox developed, became confluent, and the lad narrowly escaped with life. There was no mistake about the vaccination; the mark on the boy's arm indicated "the perfect disease"; he was attended by Sir Henry Halford and Sir Walter Farquhar, and was visited by Jenner, who happened to be in town; and, in short, the evidence of the impotence of vaccination to avert smallpox was complete and indisputable. The commotion was intense, and in a letter from Jenner to Baron we see how it affected his mind. He wrote COCKSPUR STREET, CHARING CROSS, 11th June, 1811. MY DEAR FRIEND,-It will probably be my lot to be detained in this horrible place some days longer. It has unfortunately happened, that a failure in vaccination has appeared in the family of a nobleman here; and, more unfortunately still, in a child vaccinated by me. The noise and confusion this case has created are not to be described. The vaccine lancet is sheathed; and the long concealed variolous blade ordered to come forth. Charming! This will soon cure the mania. The Town is a fool-an idiot; and will continue in this red-hot-hissing-hot state about this affair, till something else starts up to draw aside its attention. I am determined to lock up my brains, and think no more pro bono publico; and I advise you, my friend, to do the same; for we are sure to get nothing but abuse for it. It is my intention to collect all the cases I can of Smallpox after supposed security from that disease. In this undertaking I hope to derive much assistance from you. The best plan will be to push out some of them as soon as possible. This would not be necessary on account of the present case, but it will prove the best shield to protect us from the past, and from those which are to come.-Ever yours, EDWARD JENNER.* The defence, therefore, was, that as an attack of smallpox did not always avert a second attack, it was not reasonable to expect that vaccination should be more effective; and to make good this position, a diligent search was instituted for cases of repeated smallpox. Many were found, though they were generally regarded as rarities, whilst their reality was frequently disputed; but whatever their number or genuineness, they were insig * Baron's Life of Jenner, vol. ii. p. 161. nificant in comparison with the instances of smallpox subsequent to vaccination. Moreover, the Jennerites were taunted with their late discovery of smallpox after smallpox. Why had they not stated from the outset that smallpox might follow vaccination as smallpox followed smallpox? Why, on the contrary, had they asserted vaccination to be an absolute and life-long defence against smallpox? Why had they abused as fools or denounced as liars all the early reporters of smallpox after vaccination? And why did it require evidence, that could not possibly be wriggled out of, to bring them to an acknowledgment of the truth? But even in presence of such evidence, Jenner persisted in his asseverations as if he had lost the very sense of truth. Writing to Miss Calcraft on 19th June, 1811, he actually claimed that he had foreseen and predicted such disasters as had occurred in the Grosvenor family! Here are his words— Take a comprehensive view of Vaccination, and then ask yourself what is this case? You will find it a speck, a mere microscopic speck on the page which contains the history of the vaccine discovery. In the very first thing I wrote upon the subject, and many times since, I have said the occurrence of such an event should excite no surprise; because the Cowpox must possess preternatural powers if it would give uniform security to the constitution, when it is well known that Smallpox cannot; for we have more than one thousand cases to prove the contrary, and fortunately seventeen of them in the families of the nobility. Obviously had such been his uniform testimony, the Grosvenor incident would have excited neither surprise nor alarm; and mark this additional hardihood Indeed, I have often said it was wonderful that I should have gone on for such a series of years vaccinating so many thousands, many under very unfavourable circumstances, without meeting with any interruption to my success before. And now this single solitary instance has occurred, all my past labours are forgotten, and I am held up by many, perhaps the majority of the higher classes, as an object of derision and contempt. . . . What if ten, fifty, or a hundred such events should occur? they will be balanced a hundred times over by those of a similar kind after Smallpox. Whilst thus he maintained that it was far more extra ordinary that young Grosvenor had smallpox after vaccination than that others should have smallpox after smallpox, he went on to assert that vaccination had saved the lad's life! The child would have died (that is universally allowed) but for the previous Vaccination. There was but little secondary fever; the pustules were sooner in going off than in ordinary cases; and, indeed, the whole progress of the disease was different. It was modified and mitigated, and the boy was saved.* If Grosvenor had not Such was the mot d'ordre. been vaccinated, he would have perished! The National Vaccine Board reported on the case to the same effect, and the faithful suffered themselves to be re-assured. In connection with 1811 and London smallpox, there is a letter to Dr. Lettsom which throws still farther light on Jenner's temper and philosophy. He wrote CHELTENHAM, 22nd November, 1811. I have considered London as the centre of opposition to the vaccine practice; but even there, in spite of the base and murderous designs of a few bad minded individuals, the Smallpox has wonderfully decreased; and in the provinces its mortality has lessened in a still greater proportion. For the great and grand effects of Vaccination the eye must quit this little spot, and survey it among other European countries, and still more particularly among the vast empires of Asia and America. In Mexico and Peru the disease is nearly extinct. The documents which pour in upon me from these distant regions fill me with inexpressible delight. You shall have copies when I can get them transcribed. The chief impediments to the general adoption of Vaccination in England are, I am confident, our newspapers and some of our magazines. Whenever a case of what is called failure starts up, in it goes to a newspaper, with all the exaggeration with which envy and malice can garnish it. † Was there ever a more delicious bit of self-revelation! The wicked newspapers! The base, murderous and bad minded enemies of vaccination! The smallpox of London reduced by vicarious vaccination in spite of its ingratitude! The consolation derived from the survey of the Baron's Life of Jenner, vol. ii. p. 158. + Pettigrew's Memoirs of J. C. Lettsom, M.D. London, 1817. Vol. iii. p. 405. countries of Europe and the vast empires of Asia and America with inexpressible delight from Mexico and Peru! Not Mrs. Jellyby herself lost in an atmosphere of Borrioboola-Gah is more piquant. CHARTER XXIV. DR. JOHN WALKER. JENNER'S references to the good effects of vaccination in London were curiously inconsistent. That vaccination in which he professed to rejoice was chiefly the work of Dr. John Walker, whose practice he had denounced as so widely at variance with what he considered correct, that even the wreck of the Royal Jennerian Society was not thought too heavy a price to pay for deliverance from complicity with him. The London Vaccine Institution, established in 1806 by Walker and his friends, was responsible for the large majority of vaccinations effected in the metropolis. Walker was a pure enthusiast, of boundless energy, with a craze for vaccinating. Adverse results had no effect upon him: he did not deny, but simply did not recognise them, and held on prophesying and practising with mechanical persistency. Nevertheless, he ran aground. The income of the Institution had dwindled to less than £100 a year when Andrew Johnstone, a Cumberland man, a school-fellow of Walker, came to his assistance. With a commercial eye he surveyed the situation. He perceived that though vaccination had fallen into disrepute, there remained many believers who only required stirring up and solicitation to provide funds to keep Walker going and to yield the collector a satisfactory commission. As the Royal Jennerian Society had ceased to exist for any active purpose in 1810, nothing remaining "but a Patronage, a Presidency, and an unorganised body of Subscribers and Governors," it occurred to him that it would be good policy to annex these to the revived enterprise, and in due course a union was effected, and the LONDON VACCINE INSTITUTION AND ROYAL JENNERIAN SOCIETY became the title to conjure with. An attempt was made to secure Jenner for President, but that was too bold a stroke. He thus answered the application CHELTENHAM, 3rd September, 1813. Although it must be evident that every institution which has for its object the extension of Vaccine Inoculation, must have my best wishes for its success, yet, for reasons which on reflection must be obvious, you must see the impossibility of my accepting the offered appointment. Highly impressive were the Reports of the reconstituted Institution under the patronage of the Corporation of the City of London with the City Arms on the covers. Subsequently the King, George IV., appeared as patron, and the City Arms gave place to the Royal Arms. Among the presidents were the Archbishop of Canterbury, four or five Dukes (one of them Wellington), half a dozen Marquises and as many Bishops, about a score of Earls, with M.P.'s and pious and philanthropic notables many. So much was due to the tact of Andrew Johnstone, who understood the use of names, who never dropped one of the least influence, and, spite of Jenner's ill-will, dealt with his honours and countenance as though they belonged to the Institution. Business is business, he would have said, and holds no reckoning with pique and dislike. Nevertheless the financial results did not correspond with the overpowering patronage. The income of the Institution never attained £1000 a year, whilst the bills for advertising and printing sometimes approached £500. In the Report for 1827 we find the operations thus summarised Vaccinated during 1826 by Dr. Walker, 4,217 65,750 By appointed Inoculators in London and en virons in 1826, 16,999 From the beginning, 237,119 By appointed Inoculators in the country in 1826, 21,261 From the beginning, 548,430 |