View report page

11
possible, was long known in the East, was practised upon
a son of Lady Mary Wortley Montague at Constantinople,
in 1717, was introduced into England in 1721, and was
carried on vigorously up to the end of the century. Persons
who submitted to the disease in this mild form, got
all the protection it could afford, against a future attack;
yet there were the obvious disadvantages, that the practice
kept the pestilence alive, and scattered the seeds of it
broadcast amongst the community at large.
At the end of the century, it was discovered by
Jenner, that a certain disease of the cow was a protection
against small-pox. What the original nature of this cowpox
may be, does not matter in practice; yet it deserves
notice that there is every reason for believing that it is
the small-pox itself, mitigated by having passed through
the body of the horse or of the cow, or both. Be this as
it may, from the day when vaccination was first performed,
on the 14th May, 1796, the almost unanimous consent of
civilized nations has testified to the fact that it protects
from small-pox, without the disadvantages of inoculation.
The latter operation was therefore gradually discontinued,
and at last in 1840 was declared illegal, by an Act passed
to promote the Extension of Vaccination. This Act was
followed in 1853 by an "Act further to extend and make
compulsory the Practice of Vaccination," according to the
provisions of which, every child is bound to be vaccinated
within four months after its birth, and provision is made
for the gratuitous vaccination of every child and other
person "not already successfully vaccinated."
But in spite of the law, some persons remain unvaccinated;
and in spite of vaccination, the small-pox
occasionally prevails epidemically, striking severely those
who are not vaccinated, and not altogether sparing