A last word as to Horsepox. There seems to be little doubt that when inoculated on man it gives rise to vesicles indistinguishable from those raised by Cowpox. In 1863 Professor Bouley of Alfort produced pox on a cow by inoculating it with pox from a horse, and children were successfully vaccinated with the virus. In the Transactions of the Clinical Society, Vol. X., Mr. John Langton, describes the case of a groom who came to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, 20th March, 1877, with an eruption caught from a horse exactly like that induced by vaccination; and there could be no question, says Mr. Langton, that the disease was the same as that described by Jenner as grease. There is much virus in currency as vaccine that is equine, and many of us are equinated who suppose ourselves vaccinated; and it might be argued that we have been saved from Smallpox by reason of our equination. Why with all the notorious failures of vaccination, and of re-vaccination, some of the more audacious medical quacks do not recommend Horsepox as an infallible alternative, is not easy to understand. It would be a Napoleonic stroke; nor is it improbable that before vaccination is surrendered the attempt will be made. How easily it might be asserted that vaccination is a failure in so far as it has lost the original virtue of equination, that the remedy is to dismiss the cow and revert to the horse, from whose poxy heels, as the immortal Jenner observed, there issues “the true and genuine life-preserving fluid.” The oracle might be worked thus-- “Let us hear no more of pure lymph from the calf, too often, alas! an illusion. Sure and certain salvation from Smallpox can only be guaranteed to those inoculated with pure pox from the horse. Come then to the horse, the horse with pox! Come quickly! Come yourselves! Come with your wives! Come with your children! Come and be saved by Horsepox from the loathsome pestilence that decimates the human race and brings myriads to untimely graves!” FOOTNOTES: [142] As tradesman, however, Jenner was not honest. He took to market what was not his to sell. The introduction of Cowpox for inoculation (stigmatised in _The Inquiry_ as spurious, not being derived from Horsegrease) was effected by Pearson, and Jenner’s claim to it was an act of piracy. [143] _Study of Medicine_, vol. iii. p. 59. [144] _Life of Jenner_, vol. i. p. 248. [145] _Treatise on the Cowpox._ By John Ring. P. 336. [146] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. i. p. 428. [147] Copeland’s _Medical Dictionary_.--Art. Vaccination. [148] _Histoire de la Vaccination._ Par Jean de Carro. Vienne, 1804. [149] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. ii. p. 388. [150] _Ib._ p. 388. [151] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. ii. p. 390. [152] _Ib._ p. 226. [153] _Ib._ p. 226. [154] _Account of Varioloid Epidemic in Edinburgh._ By John Thomson. London, 1830. [155] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. ii. p. 227. [156] _Ib._, p. 399. [157] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. ii. p. 390.