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157
Watson, Sir Charles Locock, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Mr. Acton,
Mr. Marson, Mr. Ceely and Sir William Jenner. Facts which were,
not long after the issue of Mr. Simon's report, brought before the
profession, and which were carefully investigated, made it certain
that the negative conclusion which had been arrived at was a
mistaken one, and from that time no doubt can have been
entertained by any that it is possible to convey syphilis in the act
of vaccination. In reference to the frequency of this, the report
just referred to is still, however, of high importance. It is
impossible to believe that an event concerning the possibility of
which almost the leaders of the profession were in 1856 incredulous
can be otherwise than extremely rare.
Before proceeding to speak of the facts, or supposed facts,
as to syphilis due to vaccination, which have been brought before
the Commission, it is necessary to advert to the difficulties of the
inquiry. The phenomena of syphilis may be closely approached
by those of other disorders, and even when the nature of the
malady is evident beyond doubt, there remain numerous sources
of fallacy which have to be cleared away before the conclusion
can be accepted that the disease has been caused by vaccination.
The very close resemblance in certain very rare cases of the
results of vaccination, whether with calf-lymph or humanized
lymph, to those attributed to syphilis (a resemblance so close
that it has caused in a few cases a difference of opinion whether
the disease was syphilis or vaccinia) has led to the expression by
Dr. Creighton of the opinion that there is some essential relationship
between the two diseases. This, however, is a point of
speculative, almost it might be said of transcendental pathology,
upon which for practical purposes it is useless to enter. It must
be sufficient to remark that, whatever may be the relationship
alluded to, it exists, if it exists at all, equally between Small-Pox
and syphilis as between vaccination and syphilis. For all practical
purposes variola and vaccinia are both wholly distinct from
syphilis, and their differences are, with the rarest exceptions,