Perhaps the most able attack on the practice of vaccination was delivered by Thomas Brown, surgeon, Musselburgh; and it is much to be regretted that his book, published in Edinburgh in 1809,[166] is so little known at this day. Brown had accepted vaccination, carried away, he admitted, by the common enthusiasm, and the unqualified audacity with which its claims were asserted-- The practice was introduced and recommended to the public by its Author as a perfect antidote and security against Smallpox without any exception or reserve, and capable of banishing Variola from the catalogue of human misery. I have no hesitation in confessing that I became an early convert and advocate of the new practice; and it is now eight years and a-half since I have uniformly advised and practised Vaccination, in which period I may safely say, I have vaccinated upwards of twelve hundred patients, and have only inoculated three at the positive request of parents. This course I persevered in until the present time, notwithstanding I met with several instances where it appeared to fail in giving security; some about three years after the introduction of the practice; a few more about two years ago; and those which make part of the present volume within the last six months. An epidemic, in which his own perfectly vaccinated patients fell victims to smallpox, at last opened his eyes to the delusion in which he was walking, and to the perversity with which he and others had resisted the light of truth-- I am convinced from what has passed under my own observation for the last three or four years, that we have been _all_ guilty of rejecting evidence that deserved more attention, in consequence of the strong prepossessions which existed, from the very persuasive proof of Vaccination resisting inoculation and exposure to infection, and from our judgments being goaded and overpowered with the _positive_ and _arbitrary_ opinions of its abettors. I am now perfectly satisfied, from my mind being under the influence of prejudice and blind to the impression of the fairest evidence, that the last time Smallpox was prevalent, I rejected and explained away many cases which were entitled to the most serious attention, and showed myself as _violent_ and _unreasonable_ a partisan as any of my brethren in propagating a practice, which I have now little doubt we must ere long surrender at discretion.