Report of the National Vaccine Establishment, in London, for the year 1812 : dated 22 April, 1813. To the Right Honourable Viscount Sidmouth, Principal Secretary of State, Home Department.

Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the National Vaccine Establishment, in London, for the year 1812 : dated 22 April, 1813. To the Right Honourable Viscount Sidmouth, Principal Secretary of State, Home Department. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    % f»- trr REPORT OF TIIE NATIONAL VACCINE ESTABLISHMENT: Dated 22 April, 1813. TO TIIE RIGHT HONOURABLE VISCOUNT SID MOUTH, PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE, HOME DEPARTMENT; & c.—&c.—&c. Til E Board of the National Vaccine Establishment have the honour of ii> forming your Lordship, that during the year 1S12 the Surgeons appointed by their authority to the nine Stations in London, have vaccinated 4,521 persons, and have distributed 23,219 charges of Vaccine Lymph to the Public. The number vaccinated this year exceeds that of 1811 by 1,373, and the demand for Lymph has been often so great that it could not without difficulty be supplied. The Board had last year reason to think that nearly two-thirds of the children born in the Metropolis, were vaccinated by charitable Institutions, or private Practitioners. There is now reason to believe that three-fourths of those born are submitted to that salutary operation. But though the prejudices against the Cow Pock, which have been art- lully encouraged by ignorant and interested men, appear generally to decline in the Metropolis, as well as in other parts of these Dominions, yet it is with concern that the Board have noticed the increase of mortality from Small Pox in this City last year, to the number of 1,287. Previous to the discovery of Vaccination the average number of deaths from Small Pox, within the Bills of Mortality, was 2,000 ; and though in the last ten years 133,139 persons were added to the population of this great City, yet in 1811, by the benefit of Vaccination, the mortality was reduced to 751. The increase in the last year we have reason to ascribe to the rash and inconsiderate manner in which great numbers are still inoculated for the Small Pox, and afterwards required to attend two or three times a week, at the place of Inoculation, in every stage of their ill- ness. This practice of Inoculation, and of promiscuous intercourse of the Patients at tiie same time with Society, is the great means by which this Disease is kept in existence, and its infection propagated to persons and places where it would not otherw ise be seen. This is not only the opinion of this Board, founded on observa- tion. but it is a fact confirmed by communications to them from the best authorities, and by tiie most unprejudiced characters. The respectable College of Surgeons of Dublin allege that the practice of Inoculation not only supplies a constant source of infection, but prevents the extinc- tion of the disease, for even a short interval. The populous City of Norwich was never free from it till the discovery of Vacci- nation, hut since that period it has experienced occasional remissions from its ravages. In 1807, after its disappearance for some time, the disorder was brought into that City by a Vagrant from London, who, before tiie Magistrates were apprized of it, 199. A or MY LOTvD, National Vaccine Establishment, Leicester-square, April 22d, 1813.