[1885] The Story of a Great Delusion by William White web: http://whale.to/a/white.html CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. 3 Prefatory 3 Variolation 3 The Precursor of Vaccination 4 Immediate Triumph of Vaccination 5 Jenner's Procedure 5 Horsegrease Cowpox 5 Rejection of Jenner's Prescription 6 Jenner's Transformation 6 Horsegrease Cowpox kept out of Sight 7 Spurious Cowpox, 7 Horse Virus Vindicated 7 Which shall it be ? 8 Smallpox Cowpox, 8 Condemnation of Smallpox Cowpox 9 Cowpox Revived 10 A Cowpox Charlatan 10 A Decorous Unanimity 10 Jenner's Successive Disclaimers 11 Smallpox made milder 12 Punctures, one or several 12 Mr. Rigby's Protest 12 Mr. (Marks) Marson 13 Mr. Alexander Wheeler's Researches 14 Mr. Enoch Robinson's Opinion 14 Cruelty of Marking 14 Revaccination Introduced 15 Vaccinisation 15 Absurdity of Revaccination 16 The Reduction of Smallpox 16 Has Vaccination saved Life 16 Who are the Unvaccinated 17 Unvaccinated Death-rates 17 Nurses exempt from Smallpox 18 Pock-marked Faces 18 Vaccinia a real Disease 19 Vaccinal Fatalities 20 Vaccinia Modified in its Recipients 20 Vaccinia plus other Disease 21 Statistical Evidence of extra Disease 21 Vaccinia aggravates Disease 22 Origin of Compulsory Vaccination 23 Resistance, Inflexible Resistance 23 Compulsory Education and Vaccination 24 Conditions of the Conflict 24 A Word for the Author 25 L'Envoi, 25 Dr. Garth Wilkinson's Catechism 26 I.—VARIOLATION. 27 1.—Cotton Mather and Zabdiel Boylston 27 2 —Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 31 3.—Maitland's Experiments 34 4.—The First Opponents of Inoculation 39 5.—Collapse of Inoculation 44 6.—Revival of Inoculation 48 7.—Triumph of Inoculation 53 8. —Inoculation Abroad 60 9.—Inoculation superseded and suppressed 65 10.—As to the Prevalence of Smallpox in the 18th Century 72 II.—VACCINATION 80 1.—Jenner's Earlier Years 80 2.— Jenner's Inquiry, 1798 87 3.—Jenner in 1798 101 4.—Pearson's Inquiry 106 5.—Woodville, Pearson, and Jenner 112 6.—Jenner's Further Observations 116 7.—Operations in London, 1800 120 8.—Triumph of the New Inoculation 128 9.—A Dishonourable Transformation 131 10.—Jenner before Parliament, 1802 135 11.—Pearson's Examination 142 12.—Observations on the Position in 1802 149 13.—The Royal Jennerian Society 154 14. —Application to Parliament for Jenner's Belief, 1806 162 15.—Report of the Royal College of Physicans 164 16. -Jenner Relieved, 1807 170 17.—Vaccination Established and Endowed 173 18.—Horsegrease as a source of Vaccine 178 19.—John Birch 187 20.—Goldson and Brown 192 21.—Moseley, Rowley and Squirrel 196 22.—William Cobbett 204 23.—The Grosvenor Case 212 24.—Dr. John Walker 215 25.—Jenner's Later Writings 221 26.—Baron's Life of Jenner 230 27— The Medical Position in 1823 239 28.—Introduction of Vaccination to the United States 243 29.—Introduction of Vaccination to India and the East 250 30.—Diffusion of Vaccination throughout Europe 258 31.—Sweden, Denmark and Iceland 265 32.—Newcastle Smallpox : a Common Story 276 33.—The Norwich Epidemic—1819 280 34.—Smallpox Displaced and Replaced: Dr. Watt's Discovery—Glasgow, 1813 285 35.—The National Vaccine Establishment—1808-40 293 36.—The National Vaccine Establishment—1841-50 303 37.—Vaccination Enforced—1853 307 38.—Universal Compulsion Demanded—1855 316 39.—John Gibbs's Letter—1855 321 40.—Simon's Defence and Hameruik's Judgment 327 41.—Compulsion Intensified—1861 and 1867 336 42.—The Gathering Movement, 1867-70 344 43.—House of Commons Committee, 1871 351 44.—The Struggle for Freedom 363 NOTES—Origin of the Term Vaccination 161 Vaccination a Statistical Question 376 Drawing of John Gibbs 326 INTRODUCTION. PREFATORY. THERE are few matters among educated people upon which opinion is so absolute and so ill-informed as vaccination. They will tell you it has stopped smallpox and does no harm, and if you venture to question either assertion you are set down as an abettor of " those ignorant and fanatical anti-vaccinators." If undeterred you inquire when smallpox was stopped, and which is the harmless variety of vaccination, you will probably be told that these are medical questions, whilst the facts are indisputable; the answer running in the line of Old Kaspar's to Little Peterkin, inquisitive as to the good of Blenheim— Why that I cannot tell, said he, But 'twas a famous victory. I am not complaining of this attitude of mind. We all accept more or less on bare authority. In the multiplicity and unsearchableness of knowledge, it is unavoidable. Some years ago a venerable friend urged me to write against vaccination, which, he said, was working endless mischief to the public health. He would have the book published, and provide whatever was requisite for my satisfaction. I pleaded prior engagements, and turned the conversation, thinking how sad it was that one so good, and, in other respects, so enlightened should be subject to so strange an illusion—I, then, taking vaccination on trust as one of the numerous blessings conferred upon mankind in the course of the present century. I am therefore disposed to make large allowance for the credulous attitude of the public toward vaccination whilst at the same time insisting on its correction : and for this reason especially, that vaccination is no longer a matter of private concern. We are free to entertain what notions we please, but if we proceed to enforce them on unbelievers, we cannot complain if we are required to answer for our aggression or encounter rough usage. Enforced by the law of England, vaccination is related to the life and intelligence of every citizen, and it is consequently vain to claim for it exemption from vulgar discussion. Apart from its compulsory infliction, vaccination might be and remain an esoteric rite, the very mystery of mysteries; but with compulsion the privilege of sanctity is impossible. VARIOLATION. It has been said that beliefs and observances in themselves most irrational wear a different aspect when viewed in the light of their origin and history. It is so with vaccination. Had it come upon the world as we know it, with failure and disaster, equivocation and apology, rejection would have been inevitable; but when we turn to the past we discover that our damnosa hoereditas has a tradition that goes far to account for, if not to excuse, the folly which remains. Vaccination was the successor of Inoculation (or, more precisely, Variolation), entering into a possession already acquired in the human mind. It had been observed from of old that some forms of disease rarely recur in the same person in a lifetime; and thus when scarlet fever, or measles, or smallpox broke out in a family, it was considered prudent to let the disease have its course, and thereby obtain immunity from fear of future infection. It was this confidence, that smallpox once undergone was finally disposed of, that was the justification of the practice of inoculating the disease when introduced from the East in the first quarter of last century. Inasmuch, it was argued, as none can have smallpox more than once, why not induce it artificially, and pass through the illness at a convenient season ? But Nature, though compliant, does not always accept the course we ingeniously prescribe for her. Smallpox as naturally developed (so to speak) is a crisis of impurity in the blood, and if the requisite conditions are absent, it cannot be adequately exited. Hence variolation was an uncertain and hazardous operation. It took with some and was indistinguishable from an attack of ordinary smallpox; it took partially, or not at all with others; and the operation was frequently followed by malaise, disorders of the skin, and grave constitutional derangements. Nor were the variolated secure from smallpox. They occasionally had smallpox with their neighbours, and then it was said, "There must have been some mistake about the "inoculation; for it is impossible that anyone can be successfully inoculated and have smallpox." Further, the variolated, while labouring under the induced malady, conveyed the disease to their attendants and visitors; and thus smallpox was propagated by the means intended to avert it. THE PRECURSOR OF VACCINATION. At the close of last century, variolation had become the custom of the upper and middle classes of England. The trouble and the peril were disliked, but were accepted in the name of duty. The variolation of their children was an anxiety that weighed like lead on the hearts of affectionate parents; and glad and grateful they were when the operation was accomplished without serious mishap. Patients designed for variolation were dieted, purged, and bled; and smallpox from sufferers of sound constitution was diligently inquired for. Mild smallpox was in great demand and was propagated from arm to arm. When Dr. Dimsdale operated on the Empress Catharine he did not venture to convey smallpox direct to the imperial person. He looked out a case of "benign smallpox " with which he inoculated a strong young man, and from the young man the Empress. Unless we realise the inconveniences, the uncertainties, the disasters and the horrors of the practice of variolation, albeit minimised, excused and denied by its professors, we can never understand the enthusiasm with which vaccination was received as its substitute. The promise conveyed in vaccination was a relief inexpressible, bearing with it a show of reason that was well nigh irresistible. The argument ran thus : No one can have smallpox twice, and the mildest attack is as protective from subsequent attack as the severest. Therefore it is that in inoculation with smallpox we find security. But inoculation with smallpox is an uncertain operation with dangerous issues.