Two letters relative to the Vaccine Institution, addressed to the members of the Hon. the General Assembly of Maryland / by James Smith, United States' agent of vaccination.

  • Smith, James, 1771-1841.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two letters relative to the Vaccine Institution, addressed to the members of the Hon. the General Assembly of Maryland / by James Smith, United States' agent of vaccination. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    15 t is not only possible, but it is extremely probable tbat ac- cidents of this kind will happen: and as far as the case can apply to individual families, in the state of Maryland and in other places, I know that they have occurred; and that many persons have suffered extremely in this way. The most lamentable accidents of this kind also, have fre- quently occurred in other countries, particularly in the west Indies, and in different parts of South America, from whence amplications have been made to this Institution for a supply of the vaccine matter, at times when the Small Pox > as actually destroying their people, and no remedy could be procured by them to prevent it. But wc«need not go abroad to search for distressing examples or to learn the effects which must result from this inexcusable careless- ness with respect to the use of the Kine Pock. For it is certain that many fatal accidents of this kind have lately been witnessed with terrour and dismay in various parts of the United States. And at no period of time since the first introduction of the Kine Pock, has the Small Pox produced a greater mortality* or more suffering in our coun- try, than has actually happened during the last year past. There was indeed a period of time, about the commence- ment of the year 1815, when the prevalence o£ Small Pox appears to have been confined to very narrow limits. It ■was known to exist in the United States only at the Mil- itary Hospital of Governor's Island, where it is stated, in a report now before me, of the medical faculty of New- York, to have been discovered in the month of February; but so little notice was taken of it, and so perfectly careless of the consequences were all those who ought to have felt some concern about it, that it was suffered to be propagated without any active opposition, until it became a terrible and destructive plague; not only in the city and state of New-York, but in every direction around them. It is a fact, that from this source, the Small Pox was after- wards spread abroad, until it has since pervaded nearly the whole of the United States; and it is now prevailing in ma- ny places from which I am daily receiving applications for the Vaccine remedy to arrest its progress, and to relieve our affrighted citizens. In the same way through our ex- treme negligence has this plague been carried abroad by our ships and introduced into foreign ports; by which means we have inflicted (in the most unjustifiable manner) the toiv