From the similarity of symptoms, both constitutional and local,
between the cow-pox and the disease received from morbid matter
generated by a horse, the common people in this neighbourhood,
when infected with this disease, through a strange perversion of
terms, frequently call it the cow-pox. Let us suppose, then, such
a malady to appear among some of the servants at a farm, and at
the same time that the cow-pox were to break out among the
cattle; and let us suppose, too, that some of the servants were
infected in this way, and that others received the infection from
the cows. It would be recorded at the farm, and among the
servants themselves wherever they might afterwards be dispersed,
that they had all had the cow-pox. But it is clear that an
individual thus infected from the horse would neither be for a
certainty secure himself, nor would he impart security to others
were they inoculated by virus thus generated. He still would be
in danger of taking the smallpox. Yet were this to happen before
the nature of the cowpox be more maturely considered by the
public my evidence on the subject might be depreciated unjustly.
For an exemplification of what is here advanced relative to the
nature of the infection when received directly from the horse see
Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, pp.
27, 28, 29, 30, and p. 35; and by way of further example, I beg
leave to subjoin the following intelligence received from Mr.
Fewster, Surgeon, of Thornbury, in this county, a gentleman
perfectly well acquainted with the appearances of the cow-pox on
the human subject:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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