An answer to Mr. Goldson; proving that vaccination is a permanent security against the small-pox / By John Ring.

  • Ring, John, 1752-1821.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An answer to Mr. Goldson; proving that vaccination is a permanent security against the small-pox / By John Ring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    When that Society' was first established, thousands of persons, vaccinated by its own members, had been put to the test of variolous inoculation, and exposed to the infec¬ tion of the small-pox in every form ; yet none of them had caught the disease. Thousands, nay tens of thousands, are at this time exposed to the infection of the small-pox, after vaccination, with impunity. A considerable number of them were vaccinated four or five years ago; and many have been subjected to re¬ peated inoculations with variolous matter, exclusive of fre¬ quent voluntary, as well as unavoidable exposure to the natural infection. It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude, that if the cow-pock were not a certain, permanent security against*the small-pox, they could not all escape. Mr. Goldson’s cases were read before the Medical Society #t Portsmouth; and Mr. Goldson seems to think they de¬ rive additional importance from this circumstance. We should all have thought the same, had he not told us, that the medical practitioners in that neighbourhood are charged with being a century behind the rest of the world in im¬ provement. He says, it has been asserted, that many persons, either from prejudice or obstinacy, have wilfully shut their eyes against conviction. He maintains that this was not the case at Portsmouth. It has, however, been suspected to be the. case in some other great towns ; and, when we con¬ sider how difficult it is to discover, whether others are in¬ fluenced by a sense of duty and public spirit, or by pre¬ judice, obstinacy, and self-interest, perhaps it may be thought quite enough for every gentleman to answer for himself. The medical practitioners in the neighbourhood of Ports¬ mouth have been censured for not commencing the practice of vaccination at an earlier period. It may be questioned, however, whether they did not begin too soon; for they began it.before they had ever seen a single cow-pock* Mr. Goldson observes, that, prior to the nature of the dis¬ ease being sufficiently understood, to use an expression of Dr. Jenner himself, ee many persons took up the lancet, without ever having seen the true pustule; but,” as he very properly adds, (C he could not be answerable for all their blunders.” Mr.