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Thomas Michael Nowell and His 'Matiere De Boulogne': a Neglected Figure in the History of Smallpox Vaccination

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Thomas Michael Nowell and His 'Matiere De Boulogne': a Neglected Figure in the History of Smallpox Vaccination 232 Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Volume 80 April 1987 Thomas Michael Nowell and his 'matiere de Boulogne': a neglected figure in the history of smallpox vaccination Elinor Meynell MD DipBact Boulogne-sur-mer, France Keywords: smallpox vaccination, history ofmedicine, Nowell TM The vaccinations undertaken by Nowell in 1800 took approached at the end of February 1800, and several place in Boulogne-sur-mer and not in England, which months' argument procured the Comite suitable may explain why he is briefly mentioned by de Beer', premises15. Repeated assurances finally overcame where his name first came to my attention, but not the objections of the Ministre to the procuring of in any standard history of smallpox vaccination children from the Paris hospices as experimental such as Crookshank2 or the Reports of the Royal subjects'6, but when the Comite obtained a supply Commission3. Yet contemporary accounts4'5 reflect- of vaccine from Dr George Pearson in London, on ing the enthusiasm of the French for the idea of 27 May 1800'4'l, conveyed through diplomatic vaccination - so much in tune with the mood of self channels'8, and tested it on 2 June4, the occasional assurance accompanying the new government of lesions it produced were not characteristic of Napoleon - and the disappointment of the Paris vaccination'4. Whether its inactivity was due solely physicians at their repeated failure to obtain a to delay on the journey - viewed as a possibility on supply ofactive vaccine, point to Dr Thomas Michael account of the Channel crossing'9 - associated Nowell as the single person most responsible for the with the excessively hot weather in Paris that successful introduction of vaccination in France. I summer 420, or was contributed to by the steam have therefore pieced together from contemporary, treatment recommended by Pearson for reconstitut- and chiefly manuscript, sources a history of Dr ing the dried exudate' 7, is a matter for speculation. In Nowell and of the vicissitudes and course of events the event, Aubert's failures at the Salpetriere had surrounding his success, and accompanied it with determined him to learn the techniques of vaccin- records of two of his French patients which have ation directly from Woodville at the Smallpox and recently come to light. Inoculation Hospital, where he was most warmly received, and from whence he and Woodville after- The Paris Commissioners and Comite Central de wards returned to France with yet another supply of Vaccine 1799-1800 vaccine21. It is at this point that Dr Thomas Michael England and France had been at war since February Nowell makes his appearance as one of the 10 other 1793, but Jenner's Inquiry6, unobtainable in the passengers on the ship that conveyed them from original, became known in France through trans- Altona to Boulogne. lations published in Geneva7 and in Lyon8. The Institut Nationale and the Ecole de Medecine Boulogne-sur-mer, summer 1800 nominated Commissioners to initiate vaccination in In 1800, because of the war, it was not possible to Paris. Unable to find any cases of cowpox in France travel directly from England to France, and journeys (naturally occurring bovine cowpox is relatively were generally made through the, then Danish, rare9), Dr Antoine Aubert obtained a sample of linen neutral port of Altona. An order of the Directoire impregnated with pus from one of the cases inocu- executif of 23 November 1796 had established com- lated by Dr William Woodville at the Smallpox and missioners and interpreters in French ports to super- Inoculation Hospital in London'0, conveyed through vise the entry and exit of neutral ships, with full the intermediary of Dr J-P Colladon of Geneva" powers to examine the ships' papers22; in addition, together with a copy of Woodeville's book'2, which only the ports of Calais or Dieppe were permitted for Aubert translated into French and published with a embarkation or disembarkation of passengers from historical preface'0. The vaccine failed to take in the England, exceptions to be made solely in cases ofbad children in whom he tested it at the Hospice de weather23. Woodville, Aubert and Nowell, with his la Salpetriere in collaboration with Dr Philippe wife Anne and their young son Alexander, arrived at Pinel'3"4 Boulogne at about eight o'clock on the evening of 18 Parallel efforts on a more imposing scale were July 180024 on a Danish ship, Borsumborg, which had begun in ventose an 814 (February-March 1800) with set out from Altona seven days before. Her unexpec- the establishment ofthe Comite Central de Vaccine by ted arrival, one of only five ships to enter the port of the philanthropist, Larochefoucauld-Liancourt, to Boulogne during the whole of that year22, was com- administer funds raised by public subscription to municated with some excitement to the Minitre de la examine Jenner's discovery. The experiments were to Police Gnefrale by the Sous-Prefet de l'Arrondisse- 0141-0768/87/ de 040232-07/$02.00/0 be supervised by a smaller Comite Medical of 12 ment de Boulogne-sur-mer25 and the Commissaire i) 1987 eminent physicians, headed by Thouret, Directeur Police a Boulogne-sur-mer24, who had met her inde- The Royal de l'Ecole de Medecine, and including such widely pendently, suspicion being immediately attached to Society of known names as Guillotin and Cabannez. The the discrepancy between the sailors' statements that Medicine Ministre de l'Interieur, Lucien Bonaparte, was the ship had been prevented from going to Calais by Journal ofthe Royal Society ofMedicine Volume 80 April 1987 233 contrary winds24 and the official entry in the ship's Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital21. The surviving papers which gave her projected destination as records ofthe hospital40 do not, unfortunately, cover Boulogne26. The Ministre was further disturbed by this period of its history. Neither Lloyd's Lists nor the presence on board of Dr Nowell, who had lived relevant shipping documents in the Staatsarchiv and practised medicine in Boulogne some years Senat der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg (kindly previously: examined by the Archivist, Herr Kolss) contain records of the ship Borsumborg, or any which might '... quant au M. Nowell, se disant ... in&decin anglais domicilie a Boulogne ... vous deviez le retenir en etat de identify the ship, or ships, which brought the three detention. ..'23 doctors from England to Altona. If, on the contrary, Nowell had simply met That evening the passengers were placed in a hotel Woodville and Aubert casually on the journey, and under the guard of two retired policemen24. After then seen possibilities for himself as a vaccinator to their official interrogation27 which took place the secure his position as a doctor in Boulogne, could next day (19 July),. Aubert, having a valid passport, it have been he who was responsible for directing was released at once. Woodville, who had expected to Borsumborg to Boulogne instead of to Calais - not find a passport waiting for him at Calais28 and thus only legally dictated but also where Woodville found himself without papers, was certified to have expected to find his passport - by persuading come at the invitation of the Comite Central de Woodville that he could procure subjects in Vaccine d Paris by the Sous-Prefet, who also pointed Boulogne, where he had past medical connections? to the reassuring fact ofhis being a Quaker: Again, in Thouret's14 view: .l..[le] motifqui amene Dr. Woodville en Franceparait tout- 'le cit. Nowellprofitoitpour ... repandre[la vaccine]du credit ti-fait philanthropique et dissint6ress8 ... Les citoyens qu'il avoit obtenu plus facilement dans cette ville habitde par Thouret et Liancourt vous offriront leur garantie personelle des families angloises' ... en faveur de cet gtranger, sa profession de foi politique, bien philosophique et fortement antiministerielle, vous en According to a French passport issued on 10 offrirait une autre'29 September 1800k', Thomas Michael Nowell, whose place of origin was London, was then 40 years old, 1.6 He was allowed to leave Boulogne accompanied by a metres tall, with auburn hair and eyebrows, grey gendarme on or about 21 July with his vaccine from eyes, and a high complexion. The information he gave England30 and arrived in Paris on 26 or 27 July 1'14, at his interrogation27 on 19 July was essentially all by which time (perhaps attributable once again to the he ever told the French authorities about himself: hot weather'4) the vaccine produced no effect'4 and was declared inactive31. '... etant venu s'etablir en France a Boulogne-sur-mer en Nevertheless, this was not simply to prove another l'annee 1785, oft il a exerce la profesion de medecin jusqu'en failure, for on the day after Borsumborg arrived, 1795 ... [quandl il a quitte cette ville avec un passeport pour Hambourg, ... s'est rendu en Angleterre, pour y regler les maybe Nowell32'33, maybe Woodville'4'21, but prob- affaires de la succession de sa me're et au moment deson depart ably both in collaboration34 (especially if Boilly's ... avoitpaye d'avance trois annees de loyerde sa maison qu 'il painting entitled 'La Vaccine', which shows not one occupa en cette ville, son intention e'tant d'y conserver son but two doctors35, was painted from life), had success- domicile et d'y retourner aussit6t qu'il auroit termine son fully inoculated three little girls who afterwards affaire'. in Nowell's care. Two ofthese children may remained in that 1785 and be identified36 as Marie Spitalier, born 12 December Sources Boulogne tell us between 1799, daughter ofa lawyer, and Sophie Hedouin, born 1793 he lived in the small town of Marquise before moving to Boulogne42 and went several times back 19 February 1796, daughter ofa Controleurde Postes; he married Anne West the third, whose surname was Beugny, lived in the and forward to England; that of London, born in 1754 41'3, according to the rite of rue des Pipots where Nowell himself had previously came to in a source offresh the Anglican church43; and that they live lived37.
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