The natural history of cow-pox and vaccinal syphilis / by Charles Creighton.

  • Creighton, Charles, 1847-1927.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of cow-pox and vaccinal syphilis / by Charles Creighton. 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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    through a whole cow-house; but suchaccidents were separated by intervals of years, and would occur now at one farm, now at another. The true cow-pox of Ceely's description is, indeed, the spontaneous cow-pox whose existence, at least, was recognised not only by the dairy folks, but also by medical writers, including Jenner himself. Jenner's hy- pothesis of the horse-grease origin of cow-pox led him to place the spontaneous cow-pox among the spurious forms of that disease ; but he understands by spontaneous cow-pox the same malady which Ceely has fully described under that name. The following is Jenner's reference to it: But first it is necessary to observe that pustulous sores frequently appear spontaneously on the nipples of the cows, and instances have occurred, though very rarely, of the hands of the servants employed in milking being affected with sores in consequence, and even of their feeling an indisposition from absorption. These pustules are of a much milder nature than those which arise from that contagion [i.e. horse-grease], which constitutes the true cow-pox. They are always free from the bluish or livid tint so conspicuous in the pustules of that disease. No erysipelas attends them, nor do they show any phage- d'nic disposition as in the other case, but quickly terminate in a scab, without creating any apparent disorder in the cow. This com- plaint appears at various seasons of the year, but most commonly in the spring, when the cows are first taken from their winter food and fed with grass. It is very apt to appear also when they are suckling their young. Jenner's other reference to spontaneous cow-pox is in Further Observations (ed. cit., p. 77) : That which appeared to me as one cause of spurious eruptions, I have already remarked in the former treatise, namely, the transition that the cow makes in the spring from a poor to a nutritious diet, and from the udder's becoming at this time more vascular than usual for