On the state of vaccination in 1810; in a letter to the Right Hon. Richard Rider, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department : with remarks on the Report of the National Vaccine Establishment. Printed by order of the House of Commons, on the 1st of June, 1810 : Forming a guide for parents in deciding for the safety of their children / by Charles Maclean.

Charles Maclean

Date:: 1810

Credit: On the state of vaccination in 1810; in a letter to the Right Hon. Richard Rider, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department : with remarks on the Report of the National Vaccine Establishment. Printed by order of the House of Commons, on the 1st of June, 1810 : Forming a guide for parents in deciding for the safety of their children / by Charles Maclean. 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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fact, that the practice of vaccination is extending through- out the kingdom ; and of reasoning with their usual ab- surdity from the fact so assumed. But we shall suppose it true, that they have actually received accounts of the increase of vaccination from all parts of the empire, and that they were not their own bulletins reflected back to them by some itinerant 'squires; what new lights could have been derived from them? The increase or diminution of the practice, cannot prove the value of it to the public, although it may considerably af- fect its value to the. Board. Their duty, properly under- stood, I conceive is not more to increase than to restrain the practice, until it shall have been ascertained (if proof be still wanting) what degree of security cow-pox aflords, and the number of diseases it produces, and consequently whether it be most advantageous to the community that it should be continued, or abandoned. Now it is very clear that it cannot be advantageous to the influence or the income of Sir Lucas Pepys, that it should be aban- doned during his Presidentship ; as that, however, is not likely to continue very long, he will perhaps give good advice, as it will cost him nothing, to his successor. Let me ask him, while he is yet in office, whether the charges of the vaccine fluid, sent, delivered, or demanded, are paid for to the Establishment*. * The Institutions, I am informed) were in the habit, and no doubt are so still, of selling charges of vaccine fluid at 10. Gd. When Friend Walker, their Secretary, quarrelled with the Jennerian Society, and set up an opposition shop for vaccination, in Salisbury Court, was it the mere honour of vaccinating the greatest number of children gratuitously, that produced those pugilistic contests, and other diver-

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