An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae: A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow PoxJenner, Edward
Science
An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae: A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox
Jenner, Edward
Smallpox -- Vaccination -- Early works to 1800; Vaccination -- Early works to 1800; Vaccinia -- Early works to 1800
SARAH NELMES, a dairymaid at a Farmer's near this place, was infected
with the Cow Pox from her master's cows in May, 1796. She received
the infection on a part of the hand which had been previously in a
slight degree injured by a scratch from a thorn. A large pustulous
sore and the usual symptoms accompanying the disease were produced in
consequence. The pustule was so expressive of the true character of
the Cow Pox, as it commonly appears upon the hand, that I have given
a representation of it in the annexed plate. The two small pustules
on the wrists arose also from the application of the virus to some
minute abrasions of the cuticle, but the livid tint, if they ever had
any, was not conspicuous at the time I saw the patient. The pustule
on the fore finger shews the disease in an earlier stage. It did not
actually appear on the hand of this young woman, but was taken from
that of another, and is annexed for the purpose of representing the
malady after it has newly appeared.
_CASE XVII._
The more accurately to observe the progress of the infection, I
selected a healthy boy, about eight years old, for the purpose of
inoculation for the Cow Pox. The matter was taken from a sore on the
hand of a dairymaid[1], who was infected by her master's cows, and it
was inserted, on the 14th of May, 1796, into the arm of the boy by
means of two superficial incisions, barely penetrating the cutis,
each about half an inch long.
[Illustration]
On the seventh day he complained of uneasiness in the axilla, and on
the ninth he became a little chilly, lost his appetite, and had a
slight head-ach. During the whole of this day he was perceptibly
indisposed, and spent the night with some degree of restlessness, but
on the day following he was perfectly well.
The appearance of the incisions in their progress to a state of
maturation were much the same as when produced in a similar manner by
variolous matter. The only difference which I perceived was, in the
state of the limpid fluid arising from the action of the virus, which
assumed rather a darker hue, and in that of the efflorescence
spreading round the incisions, which had more of an erysipelatous
look than we commonly perceive when variolous matter has been made
use of in the same manner; but the whole died away (leaving on the
inoculated parts scabs and subsequent eschars) without giving me or
my patient the least trouble.
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