An Estimate of the True Value of Vaccination
as a Security Against Small Pox
“And in order to stimulate the wise and good to aim strenuouslyat this consummation (the total extirpation of SmallPox), let it be constantly borne in mind, that the adversarythey are contending with is the greatest scourge that has everafflicted humanity. That it is so, all history, civil and medical,proclaims; for though the term Plague carries a soundof greater horror and dismay, we should probably be withinthe truth, if we were to assert, that Small Pox has destroyeda hundred for every one that has perished by the Plague.”
Preface.
My design, in entering upon the followinglittle work, has been to collect, and to compresswithin as narrow a compass as possible,the principal facts and evidences uponwhich the claims of Vaccination are founded;that the public may be furnished, in aconcise but comprehensive form, with theinformation which is essential to their forminga correct judgment on this momentousquestion.
That much misapprehension and someprejudice prevail on this subject, my recentobservation and experience have convincedme; and when I reflect on the perniciouseffects, which, in Newcastle and its neighbourhood,are at this time taking place inconsequence of them, and which they mustcontinue to produce while they are permittedto exist, I feel that a collective detailof the evidence calculated to remove themis much needed, and that, being sensible ofthis, it becomes a duty incumbent uponmyself to endeavour to supply so importanta desideratum.
In making this attempt, I have beendesirous of avoiding any unnecessary delay,and have therefore, perhaps, been obligedto collect facts, and to deduce argumentsfrom them, with a degree of haste, which,while it must have occasioned many imperfectionsin the execution of my design, will,I trust, be admitted as some apology forsuch defects: I am willing, however, toh