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
In the summer of the year 1796 the Cow Pox appeared at the Farm of
Mr. Andrews, a considerable dairy adjoining to the town of Berkeley.
It was communicated, as in the preceding instance, by an infected cow
purchased at a fair in the neighbourhood. The family consisted of the
Farmer, his wife, two sons, a man and a maid servant; all of whom,
except the Farmer (who was fearful of the consequences), bore a part
in milking the cows. The whole of them, exclusive of the man servant,
had regularly gone through the Small Pox; but in this case no one who
milked the cows escaped the contagion. All of them had sores upon
their hands, and some degree of general indisposition, preceded by
pains and tumours in the axillae: but there was no comparison in the
severity of the disease as it was felt by the servant man, who had
escaped the Small Pox, and by those of the family who had not, for,
while he was confined to his bed, they were able, without much
inconvenience, to follow their ordinary business.
February the 13th, 1797, I availed myself of an opportunity of
inoculating William Rodway, the servant man above alluded to.
Variolous matter was inserted into both his arms; in the right by
means of superficial incisions, and into the left by slight punctures
into the cutis. Both were perceptibly inflamed on the third day.
After this the inflammation about the punctures soon died away, but a
small appearance of erysipelas was manifest about the edges of the
incisions till the eighth day, when a little uneasiness was felt for
the space of half an hour in the right axilla. The inflammation then
hastily disappeared without producing the most distant mark of
affection of the system.
_CASE VIII._
ELIZABETH WYNNE, aged fifty-seven, lived as a servant with a
neighbouring Farmer thirty-eight years ago. She was then a dairymaid,
and the Cow Pox broke out among the cows. She caught the disease with
the rest of the family, but, compared with them, had it in a very
slight degree, one very small sore only breaking out on the little
finger of her left hand, and scarcely any perceptible indisposition
following it.
As the malady had shewn itself in so slight a manner, and as it had
taken place at so distant a period of her life, I was happy with the
opportunity of trying the effects of variolous matter upon her
constitution, and on the 28th of March, 1797, I inoculated her by
making two superficial incisions on the left arm, on which the matter
was cautiously rubbed. A little efflorescence soon appeared, and a
tingling sensation was felt about the parts where the matter was
inserted until the third day, when both began to subside, and so
early as the fifth day it was evident that no indisposition would
follow.
_CASE IX._
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