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gorous perseverance in vaccination for six years , the small-pox had disappeared in that city and the whole surrounding district , and that when casually introduced by strangers it did
not spread , the inhabitants not being susceptible . The Central Committee in Paris testify , in their report of 1809 , Chat the small-pox had been extinguished at Lyons and other districts of France .
" These" ( Sir Gilbert remarks ) " are selected as some of the earliest proofs of the extirpating power . And in order to stimulate the good and the wise to aim strenuously at this consummation , let it be constantly borne in mind , that the adversary they are
contending with is the greatest scourge that has ever afflicted humanity . That it is so , all history , civil and medical , proclaims : for , though the term ' plague' carries a sound of greater horror and dismay , we should probably be within the truth , if we were to
assert , that small-pox has destroyed a hundred for every one that has perished by the plague . " It is true , that in its last visitation of this metropolis , 154 years ago , it
carried off 70 , 000 victims in a few months ; but since that time , the deaths from small-pox , recorded in the bills of mortality , have amounted to more than 300 , 000 y and a like number of the survivors have been
afflicted with blindness , * deformity , scrofula , or broken constitutions , which is not the case with the plague . " The description of those cases of small-pox , " ( if , Sir Gilbert says , they can be called so , ) " which occur in
vaccinated subjects , 13 shortly as follows : The invasion and eruption in every respect resembles that of the genuine small-pox . I have seen it attended with high fever and a thick crowded crop of papulce , such as precedes the most severe and dangerous cases of the confluent kind . This runs
on till the 5 th day from the eruption , both days included , at which time some of the papulte begin to be converted into small-sized pustules . The disorder then abruptly stops short . On
* It appears , by a report of the hospital for the indigent blind , that twothirds of those who apply for relief have lo&t their sight by the small-pox .
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the following day the fever is found to have subsided , with a shrivelling and desiccation of the eruption , and recovery proceeds without the least danger or inconvenience . The face is marked
for some time after , with brawn spots but without pits . It should never be forgotten , that all morbid phenoinena are full of varieties and exceptions . Accordingly , though the fifth day is the most common limit of this
disorder , it sometimes stops short on the third ; sometimes not till the sixth or seventh ; and in a very few cases it has been known to run the common course of small-pox . What forms the strong line of distinction from proper
smallpox is , that , with a few exceptions , it does not proceed to maturation and secondary fever , which is the only period of danger . I am not prepared to deny that death may have occurred in a few instances , nay , there seems sufficient evidence that it
actually has ; but these adverse cases are so rare , as not to form the shadow of an objection to the expediency of the general practice . A few weeks ago , at a meeting of this society , ( the Medico-Chirurgical , ) at which forty members and visitors were present , I put
the question , whether any of these eminent and extensive practitioners had met with any fatal cases of this kind . Two gentlemen had each seen a single case , and two other gentlemen took occasion to say that they had each seen a case of second small-pox , both of which proved fatal . It is
evident , therefore , that according to that maxim which guides mankind in the conduct of life , namely , that of acting on a general rule and average , and not on exceptions , these adverse instances ought not to have the least influence on practice , even though they were much more numerous .
" As it is of the utmost consequence to establish the strong and imp ortant distinction between small-pox , properly so called , and that which takes place after vaccination , which may be called the mitigated , or five-day smallpox , a few of the most i mpressive
testimonies respecting the safe na *| l re of the latter may be here recited . Mr . Brown , of Mussel burgh , gives the detail of forty-eight cases , in none oi which did the secondary fever nor death occur . Here was a saving oi ai least eight lives , at the lowest compute
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286 Sir Gilbert Blane on Vaccination .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 286, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/30/
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