WN ttPSS lyirgiaiC m >$.'*""■» MftgSfMK M*^*' ifffififflVP* »#*';' 'KB '*V.V»v- v*'-i. '■•"t*}-^..', WfSrSj ku H&':* -,*S'£i' *#!* ''fa l.V^*i-' fVitfBJfl 3^H ifcBfr^iSjfc nH? eyuw MHH ESS IliipSi&g NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE Washington Founded 1836 U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Public Health Service .—-r™™»ir.mv>,«w«»!Tr..>.!niY!nn;i.:xcnai»wwiAfW»*? u / MALL POX DESTROYS, VACCINATION SAVES, THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS. ^M^Of^n THE following facts are chiefly extracted frorn^NiLt i a late work published in London in favour of Vaccina- tion ; they are submitted to the serious consideration of every person, who may think the preservation of human life an object worthy of attention. The Small Pox we are informed from the best au- thorities, destroys, annually, in Great Britain alone, be- tween forty and fifty thousand lives; or, throughout the habitable globe, twenty millions of people, exclusive of those who perish from the enfeebled state of the system, produced by this formidable disease. Some tolerable idea may be formed of the ravages committed by the Small Pox, by examining the bills of mortality: for in London, where the climate is temperate, the disease well known, and the treatment of the sick very ably conducted, two or three thousand persons, ac- cording to Baron Dimsdale, annually perish. So great was the epidemic rage of the Small Pox at Paris, in 1723, says Voltaire, that upwards of twenty thousand persons perished by it in that city alone. A 1423! 2 In 1768, the Abbe Chappe informs us, that this same scourge destroyed at Naples sixteen thousand persons in a few weeks. In Russia, the annual destruction of human beings thereby, is estimated by Baron Dimsdale at two millions. In China, says Dr. Clark, where the population is immense, the number who annually die of the Small Pox, the most loathsome of all diseases next to the leprosy, is incalculable. The fatality is still more remarkable amongst uncivil- ized people, who arc wholly ignorant of the means of prevention, and of the methods of cure. About fifty years after the discovery of Peru, the Small Pox was carried from Europe to America, by way of Carthagena, when it overran the continent of the New World, and destroyed upwards of one hundred thousand Indians, in the single province of Quito. This account was found by M. de la Condamine in an ancient manu- script preserved in the cathedral of that city. This author also observes that in the Portuguese settlements, bordering upon the river of the Amazons, the Small Pox proved fatal to nearly all the natives. Mackenzie in his travels over the continent of North America, gives an affecting account of the destruction occasioned amongst the Indians by the Small Pox. The fatal infection, says he, spread around with a baneful ra- pidity, which no flight could escape, and with a fatal effect that nothing could resist. It destroyed with its pestilen- tial breath whole families and tribes, and the horrid scene 3 presented to those who had the melancholy and afflicting opportunity of beholding it, a combination of the dead, the dying, and of such as to avoid the horrid fate of their friends around them prepared to disappoint the plague of its prey, by terminating their own existence. In 1767, as we are informed in Cook's V6yage, a soldier introduced the Small Pox for the first time into Kamtschatka, and twenty thousand persons perished by that disease, leaving whole villages nearly desolate. Crantz in his history of Greenland says, that the Small Pox was first introduced into that frozen region.in 1733, when the mortality of this disease was so great that it almost depopulated the whole country. Even so late as the year 1793, when the Small Pox was conveyed to the Isle of France in the East Indies, by a Dutch ship, five thousand four hundred persons perish- ed there with this distemper in six weeks. From the above statement, it is evident, that all the wars throughout the whole world, have never destroyed so many lives as have been cut off by this awful scourge. To lessen in some degree this destruction of the hu- man race, inoculation was introduced, by which the mor- tality of the disease was obviated, as far as it respected those who submitted to the operation. But as the benefit of inoculation cannot be extended to society, as is observed by a popular writer, by any other means than by making the practice general; while it is confined to a few it must prove hurtful to the whole. By m«r*3 4 means of it the contagion is spread and is communicated to many, who might otherwise have never had the disease. Accordingly it is found that more persons die of the Small Pox now than before inoculation was introduced ; and this important discovery, by which alone more lives might be saved than by all the other endeavours of the faculty, is in a great measure lost by its benefit not being extended to the whole community. Dr. Heberden in his observations on the increase and decrease of different diseases ob- serves, that he examined carefully the bills of mortality, and comparing the destruction occasioned by the Small Pox in Great Britain before and since inoculation, reluct- antly was brought to this melancholy conclusion, that at the present period, the proportional increase of deaths from this disease zvas as five to four. Hence it would appear that inoculation has done a great injury to society at large, and the difficulty of ex- tending it generally so as to convert it truly into a public benefit is attended with almost insuperable objections. For to make a law, that inoculation shall be general and peri- odical, appears both cruel and arbitrary, where security of life cannot be given to all j and is what no government, grounded on the basis of general liberty, would venture to adopt. But through the kindness of Divine Providence the means of obviating all these difficulties and dangers have at length been placed within our power by the invaluable discovery made public by Dr. Edward Jenner, that the Cow Pock, which has never been known to prove fatal, effectually secures the constitution from the attacks of ei- ther the natural or inoculated Small Pox. The following annual statement of deaths by the Small Pox within the London bills of mortality, in the present century, has lately been published by the Jenne- rian Society of that city, A. D. 1800.......%. . . 2409 deaths, 1801...........1461 1802...........1579 1803...........1173 1804 . . . '........ 622 As the society remarks, it is hoped the knowledge of these facts will be strongly promotive of the beneficial practice of Vaccine inoculation j it appearing that the fatal disease of Small Pox has progressively declined as the inestimable discovery of Dr. Jenner has been introduced. Vaccination was introduced into Vienna in 1801. Its effects in decreasing the deaths by Small Pox are evi- dent from comparing the deaths since that period with those of the preceding years. In 1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 835 died of Small Pox, 164 61 27 2 only. A Comparative Viezv of the Natural Small Pox, Inoculated Small Pox, and Vaccination in their Effects on Individuals and Society. NATURAL SMALL POX. For twelve centuries this disorder has been known to continue its ravages, destroying every year an immense proportion of the population of the world. It is in some few instances mild, but for the most part violent, painful, loathsome, dangerous to life, and always CONTAGIOUS. One case in three dangerous, one in six dies. At least half of mankind have it, consequently one in twelve of the human race perish by this disease. In Lon- don three thousand die annually, forty thousand in Great Britain and Ireland. The eruptions are numerous, painful, and disgusting. Confinement, loss of time and expense are certain, and more or less considerable. Precautions are for the most part unavailing. Medical treatment necessary, both during the disease, and afterwards. It occasions pitts, scars, seams, &c. disfiguring the skin, particularly the face. The subse- quent diseases are scrophula in its worst forms; diseases of the skin, glands, joints, &c. and loss of sense, sight or hearing frequently follow. It is attempting to cross a large and rapid stream by swimming, when one in six perish. INOCULATED SMALL POX. For the most part mild, but sometimes violent, painful, loathsome and dangerous to life; always Contagious, and therefore give> rise to the Natural Small Pox, and has actual- ly, by spreading the disease, increased the ge neral mortality seventeen in every thousand. One in forty has a dangerous disease, one in three hundred dies. And in London, one in an hundred. Eruptions are sometimes very consider able, confinement, loss of time, and expenst- certain, and more or less considerable; prepa ration by diet and medicine necessary, extremes of heat and cold dangerous : during ill health. teething and pregnancy to be avoided, medical treatment usually necessary. When the disease is severe deformity probable, and subsequent disorders as in the Natural Small Pox. It is passing the river in a boat subject to accidents, where one in three hundred perish, and one in forty suffer partially. VACCINATION. Is an infal ible pre- ventive of the Small-pox, always mild, free from pain or danger, never fatal, not contagious. No eruption but where Vaccinated. No confine- ment, loss of time, or expense necessary. No precaution, no medicine required, no consequent deformity. No subse- quent disease. It is passing over a safe bridge. 7 Parents and others are earnestly requested to attend seriously to the preceding comparison and to the follow- ing certificate and recommendation: Philadelphia, April 12, 1803. We the Subscribers, Physicians of Philadelphia, having carefully considered the nature and effects of the newly discovered means of preventing, by Vaccination, the fatal consequences of the Small Pox, think it a duty thus publicly to declare our opinion, that inoculation for the Kine or Cow Pock, is a certain preventive of the Small Pox; that it is attended with no danger, may be practised at all ages and seasons of the year, and we do therefore recommend it to general use. John Redman Jno. Porter, Wm. J. Jacobs, W. Shippen, Felix Pascalis, John C. Otto, A. Kuhn, James Stewart, Isaac Cathrall, SamuelDuffield, James Dunlap, J.Reynolds, Benj. Rush, James Proudfit, John Keemle, Thomas Parke, Thos. T. Hewson, J. Church, Benj. Say, James Gallaher, J. C. Rousseau, PhilipS. Physick, Charles Caldwell, Arthur Blayney, C. Wistar. jun. Thos. C. James, Rene La Roche, Saml. P. Griffitts, Wm. P. Dewees, Monges, John R. Coxe, Benj. S. Barton, Elijah Griffiths, Jas. Woodhouse, Isaac Sermon, William Budd, Saml. F. Conover, George Pfeiffer, Geo. F. Alberti, PI. F. Glentworth, Jos. P. Minnick, Joseph Pfeiffer, E. Perkins, Wm. Barnwell, Joseph Strong, Wm. Currie, Adam Seybert, Edward Cutbush. M. Leib, James Mease, Philadelphia, May 26, 1806. N. Chapman, Peter Miller, Isaac Cleaver, John S. Dorsey, Jos. Parrish, S. Bleight. Wm. Shaw, 8 PHILADELPHIA DISPENSARY. The attending and consulting Physicians having in- formed the Managers, " That they had, for these eighteen months past, inoculated for the Cow Pock, and found it mild, unattended with danger, and a full security against the Small Pox, and expressing their wishes that the su- perior advantages of the Cow Pock may be fully expe- rienced by the objects of this charity." Therefore, Resolved, That we do entirely accord with the sentiments of the Physicians ; and earnestly re- commend to the poor of the city, to embrace the meai. now offered of preserving themselves and families from a dangerous and loathsome disease by the newly discover- ed and happy mode of inoculation for the Cow Pock ; which will be daily performed by the Physicians at the Dispensary. Published by Order of the Board of Managers, WILLIAM WHITE, President. April25, 1803. After a mature consideration of the preceding state- ment of facts and recommendations, we would venture to ask every person of reflection, whether it is justi- fiable TO CONTINUE TO INOCULATE FOR THE SMALL Pox? > MedL, Hut, UiZ. Jl7fl 5>43S~ 5i.il> *>tU«Mi»'| aaaHfflSKHJifisnaffliati ■SJSJfl ■m •nr I *s,"V,,*.'J>.'. BS1 +&-SA&#. H H v& '*■<; Bfl «(*-. B i .'*■•*> ■ H i aw