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
There is a disease to which the Horse, from his state of
domestication, is frequently subject. The Farriers have termed it
_the Grease_. It is an inflammation and swelling in the heel, from
which issues matter possessing properties of a very peculiar kind,
which seems capable of generating a disease in the Human Body (after
it has undergone the modification which I shall presently speak of),
which bears so strong a resemblance to the Small Pox, that I think it
highly probable it may be the source of that disease.
In this Dairy Country a great number of Cows are kept, and the office
of milking is performed indiscriminately by Men and Maid Servants.
One of the former having been appointed to apply dressings to the
heels of a Horse affected with _the Grease_, and not paying due
attention to cleanliness, incautiously bears his part in milking the
Cows, with some particles of the infectious matter adhering to his
fingers. When this is the case, it commonly happens that a disease is
communicated to the Cows, and from the Cows to the Dairy-maids, which
spreads through the farm until most of the cattle and domestics feel
its unpleasant consequences. This disease has obtained the name of
the Cow Pox. It appears on the nipples of the Cows in the form of
irregular pustules. At their first appearance they are commonly of a
palish blue, or rather of a colour somewhat approaching to livid, and
are surrounded by an erysipelatous inflammation. These pustules,
unless a timely remedy be applied, frequently degenerate into
phagedenic ulcers, which prove extremely troublesome[2]. The animals
become indisposed, and the secretion of milk is much lessened.
Inflamed spots now begin to appear on different parts of the hands of
the domestics employed in milking, and sometimes on the wrists, which
quickly run on to suppuration, first assuming the appearance of the
small vesications produced by a burn. Most commonly they appear about
the joints of the fingers, and at their extremities; but whatever
parts are affected, if the situation will admit, these superficial
suppurations put on a circular form, with their edges more elevated
than their centre, and of a colour distantly approaching to blue.
Absorption takes place, and tumours appear in each axilla. The system
becomes affected--the pulse is quickened; and shiverings succeeded by
heat, with general lassitude and pains about the loins and limbs,
with vomiting, come on. The head is painful, and the patient is now
and then even affected with delirium. These symptoms, varying in
their degrees of violence, generally continue from one day to three
or four, leaving ulcerated sores about the hands, which, from the
sensibility of the parts, are very troublesome, and commonly heal
slowly, frequently becoming phagedenic, like those from whence they
sprung. The lips, nostrils, eyelids, and other parts of the body, are
sometimes affected with sores; but these evidently arise from their
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