An answer to Mr. Goldson; proving that vaccination is a permanent security against the small-pox / By John Ring.

  • Ring, John, 1752-1821.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An answer to Mr. Goldson; proving that vaccination is a permanent security against the small-pox / By John Ring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the cuticle. These are neither larger, nor more prominent* than pustules excited in an artificial way, by puncture. The difference in colour, it is already shewn, does not de¬ pend on the virus. Mr. Goldson is at a loss to conceive, how any one who has had the cow-pock, which is neither eruptive nor con¬ tagious, should be secure from an attack of the small-pox, which is possessed of both those qualities. He must be equally at a loss to conceive, how any one who has had the small-pox, which is both eruptive and contagious, should be secure from a second attack of the same disease. This should teach him a little humility, and induce him to adopt the opinion of that great man, whom the learned world justly consider as an oracle on these occasions : “ We are not to determine beforehand by any fanciful hypothesis, but to ascertain by actual experiment, what nature will do, or suffer to be done.” Mr. Goldson observes, that there is no perfect analogy between the small-pox and the cow-pock; and affirms, that time only can decide whether the effect of the cow-pock is permanent. This has been the language of all the ene¬ mies of vaccination, for five years past. It was on this account, Dr. Moreau of Paris remarked long ago, (c that it is not necessary to prove the two diseases to be exactly similar, because different causes sometimes produce the same effect.” He maintains, 6C that the laws of the animal economy are only to be learned by experiment and obser¬ vation ; and that all the finespun theories which say to nature, Hitherto shalt thou go and no further, are to be considered as the phantoms of imagination, and the follies of a day.” He maintains, cc that the utility of vaccine inoculation is no longer problematical; that its advantages are fully ascertained : and that it is now making a rapid progress in all parts of Great Britain, where prejudice and self-interest attempt in vain to deprive the public of the benefits of the practice, and to check its career.” He observes, “ that the inoculation of the small-pox, as well as that of the cow-pock, was received with reluc¬ tance, by those whose duty it was to have cherished and promoted every improvement of the healing art; and that in France, the advantages of vaccine inoculation are daily rendered more and more evident, in spite of the opposition s e 2 and