A Statement of Facts Tending to Establish an Estimate of the True Value and Present State of VaccinationBlane, Gilbert, Sir
History
A Statement of Facts Tending to Establish an Estimate of the True Value and Present State of Vaccination
Blane, Gilbert, Sir
Smallpox; Vaccination
It is farther manifest, that extirpation being the ultimate aim of this
discovery, and there being the fullest historical and practical evidence
of its being capable of accomplishing this end, all other questions with
regard to its expediency must be futile and irrelevant. It is in the
nature of all morbid phenomena to be liable to exception. One of the
most essential and characteristic laws of Small Pox itself, namely, that
of its affecting the human subject but once in life, is found in rare
cases to be violated. It is, therefore, perfectly conformable to
analogy, and naturally to be expected, that it may not in all cases be a
complete security against Small Pox. But it is obvious, that, admitting
these exceptions to be very frequent, much more so than the recurrence
of Small Pox after Small Pox, this can constitute no objection to the
practice, as long as the extirpating power remains unimpaired and
unimpeached. Nay, it is obviously so far from an objection, that it
ought to operate as a powerful additional incentive on every benevolent
mind, to push Vaccination to the utmost, as rapidly as possible, in
order that those who are still susceptible, either from peculiar natural
constitution, or from the unskillful manner of conducting the operation,
or from defective matter, may not, by any possibility, catch it; for, in
the event of its extirpation, it could nowhere be met with. And in order
to stimulate the good and the wise to aim strenuously at this
consummation, let it be constantly borne in mind, that the adversary
they are contending with is the greatest scourge that has ever afflicted
humanity. That it is so, all history, civil and medical, proclaims: for,
though the term Plague carries a sound of greater horror and dismay, we
should probably be within the truth, if we were to assert, that Small
Pox has destroyed a hundred for every one that has perished by the
Plague.
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