The Story of a Great Delusion in a Series of Matter-of-Fact ChaptersWhite, William
History
The Story of a Great Delusion in a Series of Matter-of-Fact Chapters
White, William
Vaccination
But Jenner was not the unimpassioned man of science, who can leave
truth to take care of itself, and submit when truth contradicts his
prepossessions. Dr. Ingenhousz, an Anglicised Dutchman (born at
Breda, 1730), with reputation as electrician and chemist, read the
_Inquiry_ with considerable amazement. He was himself an inoculator
of mark, having been selected by the Empress Maria Teresa to
operate upon the imperial family of Austria; and by her had been
rewarded (after the pattern of Catharine of Russia and Dimsdale)
with a pension of £600 a year, and the titles of Aulic Councillor
and Imperial Physician. Naturally, therefore, Ingenhousz had a
lively interest in Jenner’s project, and being on a visit to the
Marquis of Lansdowne at his seat in Wiltshire, addressed him as
follows--
BOWOOD PARK, _12th October, 1798_.
As soon as I arrived at Bowood, I thought it my duty to inquire
concerning the extraordinary doctrines contained in your
publication, as I knew the cowpox was well known in this county.
The first gentleman to whom I addressed myself was Mr. Alsop,
an eminent practitioner at Calne, who made me acquainted with
Mr. Henry Stiles, a respectable farmer at Whitley, who, thirty
years ago, bought a cow at a fair, which he found to be infected
with what he called the cowpox. This cow soon infected the whole
dairy; and he himself, by milking the infected cow, caught the
disease which you describe, and that in a very severe way,
accompanied with pain, stiffness, and swelling of the axillary
glands. Having recovered from the disease, and all the sores
dried, he was inoculated with smallpox by Mr. Alsop. The disease
took place, a great many pox came out, and he communicated the
infection to his father who died of it.
This being an incontrovertible fact, cannot fail to make some
impression on your mind, and excite you to inquire further on
the subject before you venture finally to decide in favour of a
doctrine, which may do great mischief should it prove erroneous.
The impression made on Jenner’s mind was simply one of annoyance.
He fell back on the assertion that all was not cowpox that was
supposed to be cowpox, and that Farmer Stiles could not have had
the genuine distemper, or he would not have received smallpox by
inoculation. It did not even occur to him that it was necessary to
investigate and account for the evidence adduced by Ingenhousz,
which was every whit as valid as much of his own. He was content to
protest--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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