Inquiry into the probable cause of the continued prevalence and fatality of small-pox / By James Stark.

  • Stark, James, 1814-1883.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inquiry into the probable cause of the continued prevalence and fatality of small-pox / By James Stark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tablisli that the existing prevalence and mortality of small-pox is not owing to any failure in the protective powers of the vaccine virus, nor to its wearing out of the system after a certain number of years, but to the neglect of vaccination altogether ; and that vac¬ cination affords a greater protection from a fatal termination, should the individual be subsequently attacked with small-pox, than if he had passed through the natural or inoculated small-pox themselves. It is highly desirable that attention should be paid to the facts above stated and to the conclusions drawn from them. From not being aware of these facts, many eminent physicians have by their writings, done much harm by inducing doubts as to the protective powers of the vaccine virus ; and as the public at large are very apt to discard altogether what they see learned men regard as only a temporary or doubtful preservative, perhaps no inconsiderable num¬ ber of the cases of neglect of vaccination may be attributed to their writings being propagated among the public at large. Indeed I firmly believe that all the crude theoretical speculations relative to the supposed inefficacy of vaccination, as a preservative against small¬ pox, or its supposed wearing out of the system after a certain num¬ ber of years, arise from ignorance of those very important statistical facts which I have collected together in this paper. 21 Heriot Row, Aih March 1845. EDINBURGH : PRINTED BY STARK AND COMPANY, OLD ASSEMBLY CLOSE,
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