Report of the National Vaccine Establishment, in London, for the year 1811 : dated 9th March 1812. To the Right Honourable Richard Ryder, Principal Secretary of State, Home Department.

Date:
1812
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the National Vaccine Establishment, in London, for the year 1811 : dated 9th March 1812. To the Right Honourable Richard Ryder, 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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    R . -4 { s ; -, - ■ ' :-v ; . E P 0 R T OF THE NATIONAL VACCINE ESTABLISHMENT: Dated gth March 1312. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be printed, 2d July 1812. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE RICHARD RYDER, PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE, HOME DEPARTMENT, &c.—Sec.—&c. National Vaccine Establishment, SIR, Leicester-square, March 9th 1812. TH E Board of the National Vaccine Establishment have the honour of reporting to you, that during the year 1811, the Surgeons appointed by their authority to the nine Stations in London, have vaccinated 3,148 persons, and h?ive/' distributed 23,794 charges of Vaccine Lymph to the Public. The number vacci- nated thU year rather exceeds that of the year i 81 o, and the demand for Lymph has been often so great that it could not be immediately supplied. They have great satisfaction in stating, that since the commencement of this Establishment, not a single instance of the accession of Small Pox, after Vaccination, has occurred to any of the vaccinating Surgeons of the nine stations. The Board report, that they have been lately furnished with many satisfactory official documents from the Naval and Military Departments of Government, respect- ing the progress of Vaccination, and have likewise obtained some other authentic papers on the subject, Containing much important information. They think it ex- pedient to lay before you a summary of their contents. It appears, that in consequence of an order from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, Vaccination has been practised in the Navy to a great extent; and although it has not been universally adopted, the mortality from the Small Pox„ among seamen, is already greatly diminished. In the Army, the practice of Vaccination has been long established, by an order from the Commander in Chief, and its effects have been decidedly beneficial; for almost the only persons among the troops who have lately been affected with Small Pox, have been either recruits, who had received the infection previous to their enlistment, or soldiers who had not been vaccinated, on the supposition of their having had the variolous disease. Thus, with a few exceptions, a disorder formerly so fatal to the troops, is now considered as nearly extinguished in the Army. By information transmitted to the Board from their numerous Correspondents in all parts of the country, it appears that Vaccination is almost every where gaining ground, throughout the British Dominions, though its progress is very different in different places; and it is found that the number of deaths from the Small Pox is uniformly decreasing, in proportion as Vaccination becomes more general, and the inoculation of the Small Pox declines. The disappearance of the Small Pox from the Island of Ceylon, was noticed in the Report of last year; and the Board has now the pleasure of stating, from 368. sources