Among Dimsdale’s published works relating to small-pox and inoculation the following deserve to receive special mention: “The Present Method of Inoculating for the Small-Pox”, London, 1766, 1767 and 1772; “Thoughts on General and Partial Inoculation,” London, 1776; and “Account of a Voyage to Russia and Report of the Procedure Carried out in the Cases of Catherine and Paul.”
Baron Dimsdale, it seems scarcely necessary to add, was not the inventor of the practice of inoculation but simply the individual who revived and made popular, first in England and afterward on the continent of Europe (more particularly in Russia), a practice which long before had been employed in China.
Medal commemorating the discovery of vaccination. From Eugen Hollaender’s “Medizin und Plastik,” by permission.
Théodore Tronchin, the second inoculator mentioned above, was a native of Geneva, Switzerland,[[15]] and was highly esteemed in France as a practitioner of medicine during the period that is now under consideration (1750–1785). Furthermore, it was widely known that he was the family physician of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, as well as the medical adviser and intimate friend of Voltaire, both of which facts undoubtedly aided him in gaining popularity among the members of the fashionable set of Paris. It is therefore easy to understand why, when he espoused the cause of inoculation, he should have so rapidly attained celebrity as a successful inoculator, not only in Paris but also throughout Europe. On the other hand, it is not at all clear why the inoculation method should have been looked upon with any favor by the educated classes, for it soon became increasingly evident that the operation was attended with considerable risk through the danger of introducing other infective agents into the system; and, in addition, no satisfactory evidence was forthcoming that these inoculations possessed the slightest degree of genuine protective power. To-day we are unable to discover in this procedure any other advantages than the following:—The patient is thereby enabled to select the time when, and the surroundings in which, he or she will submit to an attack of small-pox; for, it must be remembered, no well-grounded hope was held out by the inoculators of the eighteenth century that the artificially produced disease would prove less fatal than that which is acquired accidentally. And yet some such hope was apparently cherished by the people of that period, for Benjamin Franklin, writing in 1788, makes the following remark in relation to this very question:—
In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret, that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they never should forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
These bitter regrets expressed by Franklin show plainly that he, like others of his time, had strong confidence in the efficiency of inoculation.
II. Vaccination
Edward Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination as an effective means of protection against small-pox, was born at Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England, on May 17, 1749. After the death of his parents while he was still a mere child, Edward passed under the guardianship of his eldest brother, the Rev. Stephen Jenner, and was brought up by him with affectionate care and judicious guidance. At a very early age he showed a decided taste for natural history; and after leaving school he began to receive instruction in the elements of surgery and pharmacy from a Mr. Ludlow, an eminent surgeon of Sodbury, near Bristol. As the next step in his education he spent two years under the direction of the celebrated experimental pathologist, John Hunter, of London, in whose family he resided for two years. He was about twenty-one years of age when he went to London.
Already at this early period he showed unmistakable evidences of being a close observer, scrupulous and accurate in his examination of the objects of his studies. He was also gifted with much enterprise and perseverance, characteristics which greatly aided him in mastering difficulties that would have seriously obstructed the progress of an individual possessing an inferior mind. Mr. Hunter, who was at this time in the prime of life, completely won the affection and respect of his pupil, who particularly admired the boldness and independence of his teacher’s character. Jenner was peculiarly alive to virtues of this kind. After completing his professional studies in London he retired from Hunter’s house, but the intimate relations which had been established between these two men persisted up to the time of the latter’s death in October, 1793.