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              An Estimate of the True Value of Vaccination
                    as a Security Against Small Pox

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                                   AN
                               ESTIMATE,
                               _&c. &c._




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 Newcastle; Printed by T. & J. Hodgson,
            Union Street




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                                   AN

                                ESTIMATE

                          OF THE TRUE VALUE OF

                               VACCINATION

                                  AS A

                       SECURITY AGAINST SMALL POX.


                                   BY

                             T. M. GREENHOW,

           MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDON;
            SURGEON TO THE LYING-IN HOSPITAL, TO THE CHARITY
                     FOR POOR MARRIED WOMEN LYING IN
                     AT THEIR OWN HOUSES, AND TO THE
                        INFIRMARY FOR DISEASES OF
                           THE EYE, NEWCASTLE.


 “And in order to stimulate the wise and good to aim strenuously at this
 consummation (the total extirpation of Small Pox), let it be constantly
 borne in mind, that the adversary they are contending with is the
 greatest scourge that has ever afflicted humanity. That it is so, all
 history, civil and medical, proclaims; for though the term Plague
 carries a sound of greater horror and dismay, we should probably be
 within the truth, if we were to assert, that Small Pox has destroyed a
 hundred for every one that has perished by the Plague.”

                                                    _Sir Gilbert Blane._


                                 LONDON:

               PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY; AND
                      EMERSON CHARNLEY, NEWCASTLE.

                                  1825.

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                                Preface.


 My design, in entering upon the following little work, has been to
 collect, and to compress within as narrow a compass as possible, the
 principal facts and evidences upon which the claims of Vaccination are
 founded; that the public may be furnished, in a concise but
 comprehensive form, with the information which is essential to their
 forming a correct judgment on this momentous question.

 That much misapprehension and some prejudice prevail on this subject,
 my recent observation and experience have convinced me; and when I
 reflect on the pernicious effects, which, in Newcastle and its
 neighbourhood, are at this time taking place in consequence of them,
 and which they must continue to produce while they are permitted to
 exist, I feel that a collective detail of the evidence calculated to
 remove them is much needed, and that, being sensible of this, it
 becomes a duty incumbent upon myself to endeavour to supply so
 important a desideratum.

 In making this attempt, I have been desirous of avoiding any
 unnecessary delay, and have therefore, perhaps, been obliged to collect
 facts, and to deduce arguments from them, with a degree of haste,
 which, while it must have occasioned many imperfections in the
 execution of my design, will, I trust, be admitted as some apology for
 such defects: I am willing, however, to hope that they will not be
 found of sufficient magnitude materially to interfere with the useful
 tendency of the estimate.

 The works of those writers whom I have consulted, and whose authority I
 have quoted in support of the efficacy of Vaccination, are familiar to
 the Medical Profession, and, with scarcely an exception I believe, its
 members have drawn the same satisfactory conclusion from the facts
 which are detailed in them. But as these works, are, for the most part,
 strictly professional, they have not come before the public in general,
 who have not, in consequence, had equal opportunities of convincing
 themselves of the true value of Vaccination. It is, however, manifestly
 more important, in proportion as their relative number is greater, that
 the latter should be convinced of this, than the former only. The
 present estimate, therefore, is more particularly intended to satisfy
 the doubts, and to remove the apprehensions of the community at large;
 though I trust, should I in any degree have succeeded in the attempt,
 it may also be read by my professional brethren not without some
 portion of satisfaction and of approbation.

 But, after all, should my object in endeavouring to convince the more
 enlightened parts of the community, (from whom alone I can hope for a
 proper consideration of the evidence I have adduced,) be attained, much
 will yet remain to be done: and I have endeavoured to point out the
 necessity of a general co-operation, in order to give the fullest
 effect to the paramount capabilities of Vaccination.—Amongst the
 poorest and least informed classes of society, a written evidence of
 this description, can scarcely be expected either to gain access or to
 meet with the requisite consideration; and the ignorance, the
 prejudices, and the _apathy_, which have been found to exist in some of
 them, must therefore be overcome by other means. It is my wish to
 direct attention more especially to the _latter_ difficulty, having
 myself witnessed some instances, and having been informed of many
 others, wherein the parents have regarded the health and lives of their
 children so little, as not only to despise the security afforded by
 Vaccination, but to omit the most ordinary precautions against Small
 Pox infection, and to reject the gratuitous medical assistance which
 was within their reach.[1]

-----

Footnote 1:

   Mr. Wilkie (the respectable resident apothecary at the Dispensary in
   this town) lately informed me that a woman, who resides in Sandgate,
   after losing _three children_ from Small Pox, during the present
   prevalence of that disease, would yet neither use precautions nor
   remedial measures for the preservation of the remainder; although she
   daily witnessed the efficacy of Vaccination among her neighbours,
   even when performed during the existence of Small Pox itself in other
   members of the same families.

-----

 But there are links by which all the various classes of society, from
 the highest to the lowest, are connected; and it is through the medium
 of these that we must hope for the removal of the difficulties referred
 to. There are few of the rich, who have not the power of influencing
 some of the poor, nor do I believe there are any of the latter who may
 not be influenced by some one or other of the former. Whether this
 influence may be exerted through interest, through persuasion, or
 through the conviction of reason, is a matter of less moment than the
 attainment of the end in view—namely, _to induce all, without
 exception, to have their children vaccinated during infancy_—and were
 it employed in its fullest extent, this end might certainly be
 accomplished.

 It hence becomes of the utmost importance, that those should themselves
 be convinced of the true value of Vaccination, who may possess the
 power, by whatever means (never omitting, however, when possible, to do
 it through the medium of _reason_) of extending the operative influence
 of their conviction to others. From the wealthy, the intelligent, and
 the educated parts of society then, I venture to hope that the
 following Estimate will meet with some serious consideration, and that,
 in whatever degree it may directly contribute to remove doubt, it may,
 at least, excite such a spirit of candid and deliberate enquiry into
 the subject of Vaccination, as may ultimately render its great value
 universally acknowledged, and its practice in every instance adopted.

 _Westgate Street, Newcastle,
   November 20th, 1824._

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                                   AN

                                ESTIMATE,

                                _&c. &c._




                             INTRODUCTION.


 What reliance may safely be placed on Vaccination as a means of
 exemption from Small Pox?

 It may be affirmed, without hazard of contradiction, that no question
 connected with the physical well being of mankind involves
 considerations of more serious interest, or consequences of more vital
 moment, than that which has just been proposed. During the last quarter
 of a century, it has engaged a degree of attention, both from medical
 practitioners and from society in general, proportionate to the great
 importance of the subject; and though among the former, with very few
 exceptions, one pretty uniform opinion may prevail respecting the true
 value of the Jennerian discovery, I have reason to know, that many
 doubts and apprehensions still linger in the minds of not a few of the
 latter. These have been cherished or revived by circumstances, of a
 nature, it must be admitted, well calculated to shake their confidence
 in Vaccination as an absolute preventive of Small Pox; which,
 unfortunately for the cause, on its first introduction into practice,
 it