The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc.
History
The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc.
Literature and medicine; Physicians; Physicians in literature
In 1803, the Royal Jennerian Institution was founded under royal
patronage, and with Jenner as president, to promote vaccination in London
and elsewhere; and its operations were continued for a few years with much
success, ceasing, however, on the establishment of the National Vaccine
Institution in 1808. Two years prior to this event, Lord Henry Petty, who
then held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, carried a motion in
the House of Commons, that the Royal College of Physicians should be
requested to inquire and report on the progress of vaccination. The
report, which appeared in the following year, set forth that, within eight
years from the discovery of vaccination, some hundreds of thousands of
persons had been vaccinated in the British Islands, and upwards of eight
hundred thousand in our East Indian possessions, and that the practice
had been generally adopted on the continent of Europe. Considering that
small-pox destroyed one-sixth of those whom it attacked, and that nearly
one-tenth, and in some years more than that proportion, of the entire
mortality in London was caused by it, and also the number, respectability,
and extensive experience of the advocates of vaccination, compared with
the feeble and imperfect testimonies of its few opponents, the value of
the practice seemed firmly established.
This report did much to advance vaccination in public opinion. At the next
quarter sessions held at Stafford, it was taken into consideration by the
county magistrates, who, from its statements and the reports and
testimonials sent to Jenner, considered themselves justified in placing it
on record--"That vaccine inoculation, properly conducted, appeared never
to have failed as a certain preservative against small-pox; that it was
unattended by fever, and perfectly free from danger; that it required
neither confinement, loss of time, nor previous preparation; that it was
not infectious, nor productive of other diseases; that it might be
performed with safety on persons of every age and sex, and at all times
and seasons of the year." It was not, however, until 1840 that the results
of the labours of Jenner, the report of the Royal College of Physicians,
and the opinions of nearly the entire medical profession received
legislative endorsement by the passing of the Vaccination Act, since which
small-pox has become a thing of the past, except in cases where it has
been conserved by prejudice and ignorance.
Burkers and Body-Snatchers.
BY THOMAS FROST.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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