A letter in reply to the report of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, Edinburgh : with an appendix, containing a variety of interesting letters on the subject of vaccination, and including a correspondence with Dr. Duncan, Dr. Lee, and Mr. Bryce : from which also the public will be able to appreciate the authority of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, and to form a correct opinion of the whole subject / by Thomas Brown.

Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter in reply to the report of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, Edinburgh : with an appendix, containing a variety of interesting letters on the subject of vaccination, and including a correspondence with Dr. Duncan, Dr. Lee, and Mr. Bryce : from which also the public will be able to appreciate the authority of the surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, and to form a correct opinion of the whole subject / by Thomas Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    recur, to the same severity and extent. The history and phenomena of scarlatina, cynanche maligna, pestes, dysenteria, yellow fever, and other diseases of climate] and, I believe, I may add every fever produced from contagion, clearly shew, that they by no means recur whenever the individual is again exposed to the same cause, but give, in all cases, a temporary security, and, m general, render a second attack comparatively mild! Indeed, there seems to be a general principle in the laws of the human ceconomy, that, after it has been in- fluenced by any power, it is, for some time, exempted not only from a repetition of its effects, but also from those of any other cause; and the distance seems, in general, to bear a proportion to the severity and extent of the power previously exerted. This, too, is farther confirmed by the well-known fact, that, in all the cases of a second attack of any of the exanthemata, they are uniformly the consequence of being exposed to a long continued application, and an increased severity in the powers of the epidemic. It is also worthy of particular observation^ that amongst all those instances I have met with, and I believe, also, nearly all the instances that have hi- therto been brought forward, very few cases have ' occurred, where small-pox succeeded to vaccination in the higher, and respectable classes of society. The explanation is obvious ; all the higher ranks of society uniformly availed themselves either of ino- culation or vaccination ; and as tliey all in general now attend schools, where the whole are on a footing in that respect, and even in their amusements are still amongst themselves, it is impossible that contagion should reach them so readily, either in public or pri- vate ; but wherever, from necessity, they were placed in different circumstances, then we find the same result uniformly followed. Indeed it is in these circles of so- ciety that the great danger of the practice seems te