Information respecting the origin, progress, and efficacy of the kine pock inoculation, in effectually and forever securing a person from the small-pox / extracted from a treatise entitled "A prospect of exterminating the small-pox." Written in the year 1802.

  • Benjamin Waterhouse
Date:
1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Information respecting the origin, progress, and efficacy of the kine pock inoculation, in effectually and forever securing a person from the small-pox / extracted from a treatise entitled "A prospect of exterminating the small-pox." Written in the year 1802. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    • I knew that the Board of Health of the last] year* was averse from the very idea of patronizing such a plan ; for Dr. James Jackson had addressed a letter to them, asking permis¬ sion to test with the small-pox some of his vaccine patients, When the board voted to reject his application in toto. I was therefore aware, that if my memorial did not carry with it ab¬ solute conviction, it would share the fate of the letter of my ingenious and esteemed pupil ; in which event I was prepar¬ ed to transfer my plan from the town to the Legislature of the Commonwealth. In either case, I thought it proper to take a broader ground than that of a private practitioner. I there¬ fore addressed the board of health as follows ; The Memorial of Benjamin Waterhouse, M. D. Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic in the University of Cambridge, TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH IN BOSTON. i Gentlemen, NO one can doubt the propriety of my addressing you on the subject of the new inoculation, who considers, that you are placed by law, as so many guardians of our lives, health, and safety. The authority, which has made it your duty to put in force the laws and rules, best calculated against the in¬ troduction of infection from abroad ; and to obviate the causes of contagion at home, has made it my duty to investigate and teach the principles, on which such laws are founded. Un¬ der this idea, it is probable, your board, or the individuals of if, applied for my opinion, and made use of it, when the quaran¬ tine law was before the Legislature. From recollection of that circumstance, I am induced, at this time, to address you, not as a private practitioner, but as the public teacher of the practice of physic in this Commonwealth ; and am willing to an¬ nex to the assertions in this memorial the implied responsi¬ bility of my official station ; for it has been, agreeably to an * They are chosen annually. . B