The history of inoculation and vaccination for the prevention and treatment of disease : lecture memoranda, Canadian Medical Association, London, Ontario, 1913 / [forward by] Henry S. Wellcome.

  • Burroughs Wellcome & Company
Date:
[1913?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: The history of inoculation and vaccination for the prevention and treatment of disease : lecture memoranda, Canadian Medical Association, London, Ontario, 1913 / [forward by] Henry S. Wellcome. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    19/348
    lllSrOKV OK iNOCLll.AriON AND VACCINATION i: I) R T H E I'Kr.VLNTlOiN AND TKtATMENT OF DISEASE C H A P T i; R I The Pkac;t:ce; of Inoculation in Antihnt Times Thk practice of inoculation for the prevention of disease is one of considerable antiquity. The period of its discovery can only be conjectured, but there is little doubt that e\ en in remote times it must have been rcccvnised bv man, that certain diseases • . ,■ The antiquity occm- once only durin.t; the lite oi an inoculation indi\idual. or that after recovery he is .i^enerallv immune against further attacks of the same disease. He also probably noticed that even a mild form of a complaint often conferred a certain protection a.ijainst a further attack. The earliest attempts to utilise this protective act of Nature probably consisted in exposing children to the infection of some disease such as measles, in a mild form, in order to protect them against severer ff)rms of the complaint in future. This custom was practised down to comparatively recent times. Thus it is probable that a vague appreciation of the Ijriiu-iples of immunity exi.sted at a very early period. I'l-om this knowledge it was but a short step to the artificial jirodiiction of certain diseases; especially when it was found, as in the case of ^^^^^ smallpox, that a mild form of the comiilaint could be induced by the inocukition of the contents of a pustule into a healthy subject, and that such an iiidciilation was to soint^ extent a safeguard against the ])ossil)ility of (•oiitractiiig a severe attack of the disease.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3