A plain statement of facts, in favour of the cow-pox, intended for circulation through the middle and lower classes of society / by John Thomson.

  • Thomson, John, 1765-1846.
Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A plain statement of facts, in favour of the cow-pox, intended for circulation through the middle and lower classes of society / by John Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    ]4 cliiidren about the age of inoculatlon, are subject to man}' cruptive complaints from tecthing, worms, 1 oul bowels, &.c. which would happen whether they were inoculated or not. Because they may Jollow the ■ ow-pox, they are not produced by the Cow-pox. Winter follows autumn, but the frost snow and cold of Januaiy arc noi produced by the sunshine ofAugust. In the last and commenceinent of this year, says an eminent praciitioncr, I have inoculated two hundred froin the age of three weeks and upwards, and not one unpleasant symptom has occurred. Dunng thc heat of last summer, the Small-pax was vcry rife, aud cxtrcmely fatal. When but one of a family was attackcd with the disease, I frequently got beforehand with it, by immediately inoculating th^ rest with the Cow pox, v.'l)ich went tliiough its usual inild courye wilk- cut eruptions.^o^g) I can assert, says the celebrated Mr. J. Pearson, with great satisiaction, that in my private and public practice not a single accident has occurred to me, either of sore arms, general disease, or any othcr attendant, or subsequent unpleasant symptom.(3g*) It wouid apppar very improbable that any such raon?trous efFects should taku piace when we re- flect ihat dairy-maids, who receive the natural Cow-pox in all its force, are proverbiaily wholesome and robust, or tull of vhat is called rude healih. After C ow-pox, says Dr. Adams, (and his opportunities of obscrvation have becn great,) I can truly say, that I have met with no such coraplainis, not even a sore arm.(4o) l o the same effect is the testiniony ot Mr. Trye, Surgeon to ihe Gloucestcr Infirmary, ihe county where Cow- pox has been known time out of mind, the birth-place and cradle of Dr. Jenner's discovery. He says that a more heahhy set of human beings docs not exist, nor one more free froni all impuritiesof the skin, than those who from emplqynient in the dairies are the most exposed to Cow-pox ; that many hundrcds have had the Cow-pox there, but that in f^fty years not a single patient has applied to the Infirmary for relief of any disease imputed to the Cow-pox.f^i) 1 shall only add ihe testimony of Dr. Willan, ^vho sees more diseases of the skin than all the practitioners of London. He says, atter the most carctul examination, n^? Jiew dtsorders\yA\<t appearcd siucc the Cow-pox; that hc has examined many cases attributed to ihe Cow-pox, but found discases well known and described a thousand years ago, the common diseases ot the skin which exist before and dtter Cow-pox, and which have nothing at jrll to do wiih it. He says that the number of diseases of the .skin has not increased but decreased, since tlie introduction of Cow-pox, and he brings faUs io prove iki.s.. And lie says further.