Recommended Dr. Jenner to the munificence of Parliament for a discovery in practice which was never to prove fatal; which was to excite no new humours or disorders in the constitution; which was to be, not only a perfect security against Smallpox, but would, if universally adopted, prevent its recurrence for ever. The harmlessness of the practice was soon belied-- It gave rise [wrote Birch] to new and painful disorders. It was sometimes followed by itchy eruptions; sometimes by singular ulcerations; and sometimes by glandular swellings of a nature wholly distinct from scrofula, or any other known glandular disease. Eruptions of the skin are most frequent, and may be heard of in every parish of London; and whether Vaccination shall be called the Cow Evil, or the Jennerian Evil, posterity will have to determine. The non-fatality of the practice was also speedily confuted. The disorders it excited caused numerous deaths--from erysipelas especially. It was then said, as it continues to be said to this day, “Yes, but it was not vaccination, but erysipelas the patient died of”--a form of words that seems to satisfy many minds accounted rational. Birch mentioned three or four cases of death resulting from vaccination, and adds-- These cases were as favourably palliated and ingeniously excused as they could be; but it is admitted _that each patient was punctured by a lancet infected with what is called Cowpox; each arm so punctured became inflamed and ulcerated, and each patient died_. The Variolous Test, used so unscrupulously to win converts to vaccination, was proved by the Inoculators to be untrustworthy. They had no difficulty in variolating the vaccinated. When it was discovered that vaccination was no guard against smallpox, many of the vaccinated resorted to inoculation with smallpox, and they “took” as readily as did their unvaccinated acquaintance. Five in one family, the Hignells of Cheltenham, vaccinated by Jenner were variolated by Mr. Freeman, and smallpox resulted in the ordinary course. Nothing indeed became plainer than that the vaunted Variolous Test was a mere conjuring trick, and the more judicious vaccinators ceased to refer to it.