An account of the varioloid epidemic, which has lately prevailed in Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland : with observations on the identity of chicken-pox with modified small-pox : in a letter to Sir James M'Grigor / by John Thomson.

  • Thomson, John, 1765-1846.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the varioloid epidemic, which has lately prevailed in Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland : with observations on the identity of chicken-pox with modified small-pox : in a letter to Sir James M'Grigor / by John Thomson. 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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    seventy-two cases of the present epidemic, to which my attention had heen particularly directed, to- gether with some queries which 1 conceived to be of importanr e in the investigation of varioloid dis- eases. Precise and accurate answers to these que- ries could not fail, I imagined, to remove much of that disagreeable uncertainty in which the subject appeared to be involved ; an uncertainty which must be painful to every benevolent mind, and in many respects injurious to the character of the medical profession. I had every reason to hope that prac- titioners would be generally disposed to assist me in an investigation requiring the co-operation of so many observers; and I have pleasure in informing you, that several very agreeable proofs of this dis- position are already in ray possession. I was in hopes also, by this method, of reaping some benefit to myself from the opportunity which it would give, not only of drawing out other people's sentiments, but, if any just cause should be offered, of changing even my own; while I still kept it in my power either to drop my hypothesis altogether, or to re- form it in such a manner as any new light or better information might happen to direct me* In adopting and in publishing the conclusions which had forced themselves upon my conviction, I was aware that a view of varioloid diseases, so different from that which had been long entertain* ' Middleton.