An account of the varioloid epidemic, which has lately prevailed in Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland ; with observations on the identity of chicken-pox with modified small-pox : in a letter to Sir James M'Grigor ... / by John Thomson.

  • Thomson, John, 1765-1846.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the varioloid epidemic, which has lately prevailed in Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland ; with observations on the identity of chicken-pox with modified small-pox : in a letter to Sir James M'Grigor ... / by John Thomson. 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.

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    lias been, in some degree, shaken by the late very general prevalence of small-pox; and medical practitioners still continue to differ widely in their opinions with regard to the nature and causes of those varioloid diseases, which^ in so many different places^ have occurred in persons who had undergone the process of vaccination. You are aware, that when I first began to ob- serve the phenomena of the present epidemic, my mind was strongly impressed with the belief, that it originated in the contagion of chicken- pox. Many circumstances contributed at that time to confirm me in this belief. 1 had long adopted the opinion of Dr. Heberden with re- gard to the separate and independent nature of chicken-pox; and 1 had also, by personal inter- course with the late Dr. Willan, as well as by the diligent study of his writings, learned to place a confidence, almost unlimited, in the views which he had taken of the distinctive characters of erup- tive diseases. Besides the varioloid epidemic, which I had occasion to observe at Colinton, Slateford, and Currie, in 1809, I had had fre- quent opportunities, both before and after that tune, of seeing cases which were supposed to be examples of the occurrence of small-pox after vaccination. In several of these, it was impose sible.to deny, that the eruption, in its appear- ance and progress, bore a striking resemblance to small-pox; yet, notwithstanding this, I had sa- tisfied myself, by a reference to the writings of