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.

  • John Thomson
Date:
1824
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 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.)

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    individuals either from whom it bad been received, or to whom it had been casually communicated. In the progress of the occurrence of such cases, I had many opportunities of perceiving the uncer- tainty of the grounds upon which, in particular in- stances, a case was declared to be chicken-pox or small-pox. It appeared to me, that practitioners Avere in general very unwilling to suffer themselves to he shackled by an adherence to any definitions of nosologists, and that, in deciding on doubtful cases, a reference was usually made to some ideal standard, not only indefinite in its nature, but va- rying from time to time, and seeming to be influenc- ed by moral as well as by medical considerations. 1 had felt much difficulty, also, in admitting the distinction recently introduced in varioloid diseases between natural small-pox and small-pox modified by vaccination ; and in several cases, pointed out to me as modified small pox by my friend Mr. Tur- ner and others, I satisfied myself, by examination, that they bore an undistinguishable resemblance, to those eruptions which 1 had been accustomed both before and after the introduction of vaccina- tion, to regard as examples of chicken-pox. The first cases in which I was made sensible, by observation, of the reality of the distinction be- tween natural and modified small pox, occurred in a family at Brougiiton, and have since been de- scribed by ])r. Alison, in the 55th Number of Dr. Duncan's Journal. From that time my attention