Two letters relative to the Vaccine Institution, addressed to the members of the Hon. the General Assembly of Maryland / by James Smith, United States' agent of vaccination.

  • James Smith
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two letters relative to the Vaccine Institution, addressed to the members of the Hon. the General Assembly of Maryland / by James Smith, United States' agent of vaccination. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    35/46
    ping the last spring. The annexed letters, which were written at the moment, will afford a correct history of the chief circumstances of its introduction. I will only add that Dr. Handy succeeded in his recom- mendations, and prevailed on Mrs. Craggs to let her chil- dren be vaccinated; and that they all*took it and were saved from the Small Pox. Mrs. C. would not submit to vacci- Manv among the lower classes of people here are so deadly insensible to the advantages of vaccination; and it is too much neglected even in the most respectable families, that I have my fears lest this accident may yet oc- casion the loss of many valuable lives—first by the spreading of this conta- gious disease among us, and next by our extending it to other places with i we are connected by the busy intercourse of our flour isliing, com- merce and navigation. With much respect, your obedient servant, JAMES SMITH. Baltimore, Sunday Morning, V&th May, 1817; To the Ret. Mn. Gttsnr, Dear Sir -A circumstance fell under my notice yesterday, which has excited a very particular interest in behalf of a family, with whom your ad- monitions may, 1 pray, have more influence, than the unavailing advice which 1 have endeavoured to give them. There is now a dangerous case (This is the only case, I believe of Small Pox which exists at this time in this city.) of the natural Small Pox, at Lilly's tav- ern, corner of Pratt and Paca-strcets, in our western precincts, directly op- posite to which there lives a Mrs. Craggs, milliner, who has four children, none of whom have ever had this disease; and she is not certain that she has yet had it herself. As soon as I was made acquainted with this case of Small Pox, and of the situation of this family, I called on Mrs. C. to offer her my assistance and to endeavour to persuade her to let me secure the children from the danger to which I found them exposed; but she says, she has no confidence in vaccination, and cannot be prevailed on in any way, to permit this operation to be performed, either for herself, or her children. I need not picture to you the imminent danger in which they all are in at this time, nor yet the injury which the public may sustain by her adhering to her present resolution, to let them take the Small Pox in the natural way. She lives in a very populous neighbourhood, where there are yet many ethers liable to take it, and on a main street to which almost every stranger who enters or passes out of the city, travelling to or from the south and west, must be exposed. Mrs. C. has indeed listened respectfully and atten- tively, while I endeavoured to convince her that vaccination is a sacred duty which she in common with every other parent, owes to her young .children, who cannot be sensible of any danger of this kind. But as yet it has been to very little purpose, that I have given her my advice. I have not failed, however, tointreat her to think seriously of the present peril- ous situation of !u rself and family, nor to ask her how she could excuse herself before her Maker, if in a few weeks hence, from an obstinate ad herence to her own opinions, sin' should find her family visited by this pes- tilence, and see her children doomi d to suffer thereby or perish under the pains of a disease, which she had in her power to avert by the use of a sim pie remedy, which seems to have been given u% at for some special blessing]