A report on small-pox, as it appeared in Ceylon in 1833-34 : with an appendix / by J. Kinnis, M.D., superintendent of vaccination in the Colombo district.

Kinnis, John, 1794?-1853.

Date:: MDCCCXXXV [1835]

Credit: A report on small-pox, as it appeared in Ceylon in 1833-34 : with an appendix / by J. Kinnis, M.D., superintendent of vaccination in the Colombo district. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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$From these data we are justified in concluding that, if the whole- f(l) had been successfully vaccinated, the mortality would 1 have been as 1 to 55^\, or 8 oidv, (2) had borne either no murks, or unsatisfactory marksi 425 patients of vaccination, the mortality would have been as 1 tot 4^jj or 94 only. (3) had never submitted to vaccination, the mortality would . 59 I have been as I to 2][jp^ or so high as 164: In other words the lives of 55 persons (164—109=55) out of 164 or 1 to 3 were actually saved, and the lives of 101 persons more (109—8=101), making together 156 out of 164 or 1 5 . . to 1 might have been saved, by vaccination, during the last epi- demic. But to have ensured this favorable result two things would have been indispensable : 1st. That the 228 patients who had never undergone vaccination should have previously submitted to that ope- ration, and 2ndly. Tiiat not ouly they, but the 86 patients, who bore either no marks or unsatijfactory marks, as well as the 111 who bore satisfactory inarks, should have returned as often as might have been necessary to satisfy the vaccinator whether or not the opera- tion had been successful, and to enable him to repeat it in the event of its failure. * These observations on the influence of vac- cination on the cases of small-pox, that occurred during the late epidemic, may be concluded with the following extract from an ano- nymous writer, quoted in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal: We may affirm that though the cow-pox should be found not to prove a security for life in every instance ; and though it should be found, that in one case in a hundred, nay, one in ten, it should fail in destroying susceptibility, it vifould nevertheless be of inestimable value to mankind, for it would still prove an instrument for annihilat- ing, more or less gradually, the whole existing stock of variolous infection.t • U'itbin tlie last three months tlie child of an officer in tliis garrison, thonch enjoying excellent health, underwent vacciiirtlion week after week, wiiliout the slightest ai>i)earaiice of a vesicls bcinR produoeJ, until the eighth inserliun of the lymph, w hich was followed by perfect success. t Vol. VII. for 1811 |). 483. The following is another interesting extract from the same writer : Siiiall-pox inoculation having been proved, beyond all doubt, to render the disease less dannerous and severe than when comcnunirRted by crtsu^il infection, it was therefore gr.idually adopted, and became very general in the upper ranks of society. It never was so sjeneral, hovvever, in the sreat TDHSS of the population as to diminish the mortality. On the contrary, it has been clearly proved by Dr. Heber<leii, that alter the introduction of inoculaiiim, the total mortality increased ; for, bv an exauiinaiion of the bills of morialliy, It appi'ared, that before the year 1723 the nvera^e deaths from the sniall pnx Was 70 in 1000 ; whereas towards Itio <tijJ of the ccnlary it was 95 in 10JO.$