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
Ring was implacable, the more so, perhaps, as Walker and his
friends were apparently indifferent to his abuse. He burst forth
afresh in the _London Medical Repository_ for 1821, where among
much else we find the following--
HANOVER STREET, _11th October, 1821_.
The mock Royal Jennerian Society is extending its impositions and
depredations. The emissaries of this bastard institution, as well
as the principals, should suffer transportation if there be any
public spirit among us.
I beg leave to add that the present Society is disclaimed by Dr.
Jenner, who cautioned the Emperor of Russia against it when his
Majesty was in London in 1814.
In my _Caution against Vaccine Swindlers and Imposters_,
published in 1816, I related several instances of the ill effects
of Dr. Walker’s practice, and some in which it had proved
fatal. It was partly for his mal-practice, and partly for his
mis-conduct, that he was about to be expelled from the Royal
Jennerian Society; and, after his artful and wicked stratagems,
was permitted to resign; yet now he has the arrogance to call
himself Director of that Society, and to issue his venal diplomas
in its name. If Dr. Walker must imitate the universities of St.
Andrews and Aberdeen, let him at least have like them _some_
certificate of qualification. If he is determined _to grow rich
by degrees_, let him also endeavour to grow wise and honest.
The diplomas which thus moved Ring’s wrath were imposing documents,
certifying that the holder was authorised to vaccinate, intended to
be framed and exhibited in the shop or parlour. There was a picture
of something like an arch of Waterloo Bridge with London in the
background and the Royal Arms overhead; Jenner standing on a pier
with a dead serpent hanging in limp folds over his arm, with the
inscription, _Per omnia littora vincitur variola_; a woman milking
a cow with a group of children around her, drinking milk out of
porringers, as if milk were cowpox; whilst the bed of the Thames
was blocked with the names of the great and good who had testified
in favour of vaccination--an allegorical style of representation
then much in vogue and considered impressive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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