That is to say, for a time--until the influence of the vaccine fever had worn off. Some fancied that smallpox when inoculated with cowpox generated a hybrid pox that was more efficacious than either. There was occasionally some interaction of the diseases, as of a subdued activity in each, but generally they proceeded together unaffected, the cowpox maintaining its characteristics in the midst of a crop of smallpox. One point of great significance in Woodville’s experience was overlooked. He inoculated with cowpox in the Smallpox Hospital, and some of his patients there contracted smallpox, who certainly were not inoculated with smallpox, either accidentally or by design. The lesson of this experience was unperceived, and though it has been repeated again and again, is rarely acknowledged. Vaccination in presence of smallpox, or in an epidemic of smallpox, is often a means of inducing the disease it is intended to prevent. It lights the fire; and when the fire is lighted, it is said, “Ah! it must have been a-light before.” When we have a mind for an excuse, our sophistry is usually equal to the requisition. The New Inoculation, as it was called, grew in favour daily. Woodville and Pearson did the real work of publicity and promotion--Pearson especially. Within seven months, January to August, 1799, they performed 2000 inoculations. In the _Philosophical Journal_, August, 1799, Pearson observed-- In Scotland the New Inoculation has not been less successful. Dr. Anderson, of Leith, informs me that he has inoculated above 80 persons; that Dr. Duncan has begun the practice in Edinburgh and that it has been introduced in Dundee, Paisley, and Dalkeith. Nor did Pearson limit his efforts to his native land. He wrote-- In the course of the same year, 1799, I extended the dissemination of the vaccine matter to Germany, for the Princess Louisa at Berlin, to Hanover, Vienna, Geneva, Lisbon, Paris, and Boston, and into the British Army through Mr. Keats. Jenner regarded much of this activity with a jealous eye: it did not sufficiently make for his glory. He was anxious, fretful, helpless. “It is impossible for me, single-handed, to combat all my adversaries,” was his whine. “I am beset on all sides with snarling fellows, and so ignorant withal that they know no more of the disease they write about than the animals which generate it.” In order to keep his name to the fore, he published a second pamphlet in the spring of 1799, in which are several details of biographical interest. FOOTNOTES: [106] _Reports of a Series of Inoculations for the Variolæ Vaccinæ or Cowpox._ London, 1799. [107] J. C. Wachsel in _London Medical Repository_, 1819, p. 257. [108] _Examination of Report of Committee of House of Commons_, 1802. [109] _Further Observations on the Variolæ Vaccinæ_, 1799. [110] _On Vaccine Inoculation._ By Robert Willan, M.D. London, 1806. CHAPTER VI. JENNER’S _FURTHER OBSERVATIONS_.[111]