Why the arms of those inoculated with the vaccine matter in the
country should be more disposed to inflame than those inoculated
in London it may be difficult to determine. From comparing my own
cases with some transmitted to me by Dr. Pearson and Dr.
Woodville, this appears to be the fact; and what strikes me as
still more extraordinary with respect to those inoculated in
London is the appearance of maturating eruptions, In the two
instances only which I have mentioned (the one from the
inoculated, the other from the casual, cow-pox) a few red spots
appeared, which quickly went off without maturating. The case of
the Rev. Mr. Moore's servant may, indeed, seem like a deviation
from the common appearances in the country, but the nature of
these eruptions was not ascertained beyond their not possessing
the property of communicating the disease by their effluvia.
Perhaps the difference we perceive may be owing to some variety
in the mode of action of the virus upon the skin of those who
breathe the air of London and those who live in the country. That
the erysipelas assumes a different form in London from what we
see it put on in this country is a fact very generally
acknowledged. In calling the inflammation that is excited by the
cow-pox virus erysipelatous, perhaps I may not be critically
exact, but it certainly approaches near to it. Now, as the
diseased action going forward in the part infected with the virus
may undergo different modifications according to the
peculiarities of the constitution on which it is to produce its
effect, may it not account for the variation which has been
observed?
To this it may probably be objected that some of the patients
inoculated, and who had pustules in consequence, were newly come
from the country; but I conceive that the changes wrought in the
human body through the medium of the lungs may be extremely
rapid. Yet, after all, further experiments made in London with
vaccine virus generated in the country must finally throw a light
on what now certainly appears obscure and mysterious.
The principal variation perceptible to me in the action of the
vaccine virus generated in London from that produced in the
country was its proving more certainly infectious and giving a
less disposition in the arm to inflame. There appears also a
greater elevation of the pustule above the surrounding skin. In
my former cases the pustule produced by the insertion of the
virus was more like one of those which are so thickly spread over
the body in a bad kind of confluent smallpox. This was more like
a pustule of the distinct smallpox, except that I saw no instance
of pus being formed in it, the matter remaining limpid till the
period of scabbing.
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