From whatever cause there was an abatement of smallpox, but it was a continuous abatement which had set in before Jenner was heard of; and at the same time we must repeat that at this day (when all swear by the unity of Nature and the correlation and convertibility of her forces) it is grossly unscientific to pick out smallpox from the zymotic diseases and deal with it as an independent entity. It is a fever among fevers, bred and propagated in the same conditions, and can never be studied apart from its associates without serious misunderstanding.
These Bills of Mortality, as compared with the more accurate statistics of our own time, are of little value; but, such as they are, they are constantly referred to, and their items used, as by Baron, as pretexts for most unwarrantable assertions. Any influence of Vaccination on the smallpox mortality of 1801-10 was practically nothing. Vaccination was limited to a few thousands, and those chiefly of the classes least subject to the disease. The great seething mass of metropolitan squalor, in which smallpox and typhus were endemic, was untouched by the vaccine lancet. If the new practice did good, it was in discrediting and discouraging the culture of smallpox in variolous inoculation.
To return to the Royal Jennerian Society. Its halcyon-days were of brief duration. Enthusiasm abated, subscriptions fell off, cases of smallpox after vaccination came to be heard of, and serious illness and death consequent upon “the benign and harmless operation.” Opponents waxed bold and could not be silenced. Then jealousies and dissensions began to operate within the Society. The financial secretary strove with the medical secretary. Dr. Walker’s habits and eccentricities, viewed at first with amusement, excited irritation and disgust, whilst Jenner’s easy-going mode of life and impecuniosity were a source of scandal and distrust. The climax was reached in 1806 when Jenner and Walker were set openly at loggerheads, and a fight to the death ensued.
Walker, it is to be said, never treated Jenner with respect. Like Pearson he took stock of his merits, and did not rate them highly, and would not listen to his dictation. “Vaccination,” he used to observe, “is extremely simple as to facts, while, as to causes, it is entirely out of the reach of medical men with all their theories.” Jenner, as president of the Medical Council, thought he had a right to be obeyed, but Walker was the last man in the world to yield obedience when he had formed an opposite conviction—
Jenner [writes Baron] considered it his duty to admonish him, and repeatedly represented to him, in the most friendly manner, the mischievous tendency of his innovations. These remonstrances were unavailing, and he ceased to have any communication with Dr. Walker after the summer of 1805; submitting rather to lament in silence the fate of the Society than come before it as a public accuser.
Of course such forbearance could not last long, and instructions issued by Walker to the Nottingham Vaccine Institution in March, 1806, were made the occasion of an open rupture. Jenner brought Walker’s conduct under the consideration of the Medical Council, and secured his condemnation. The question was then referred to the General Court of the Society on the 25th of July, when a motion that Walker he dismissed from his office was negatived by a majority of three, Walker being supported by Sir Joseph Banks and Jenner by Dr. Sims. But the victory was not satisfactory to Walker, and on the 8th of August he put an end to the strife by sending in his resignation.
Baron’s solemn account of the contest must appal every ingenuous reader. Jenner, it is written, regarded Walker’s proceedings as of “the most dangerous character,” as “placing in peril the safety of the practice,” and “as likely to wreck the Society”; so that had he not retired Jenner would have been compelled to withdraw his countenance from Salisbury Square. As we read we exclaim, Whatever did the dreadful Doctor do? Here is Baron’s answer—
It is unnecessary to mention the specific instances of misconduct which were established. They regarded even the very name of the affection; the method of managing the pustules; the characters of correct vaccination; the precautions to be observed in conducting the practice, etc., etc.
Moore states the offence plainly—
Walker’s method of taking lymph was to cut open the vesicles, and to wipe out the contents with lint, in order to procure the fresh secretion. This harsh treatment of infants was the reverse of that which he was directed to employ; and as he was unalterable in his resolution, it was at length deemed necessary to remove him.[132]