From the Report it appeared that the opposition to Vaccination proceeded from the Inoculators; and the document may be described as a charge against the old practice as much as a positive defence of the new—
However beneficial the inoculation of the Smallpox may have been to individuals, it appears to have kept up a constant source of contagion, which has been the means of increasing the number of deaths by what is called the natural disease. It cannot be doubted that this mischief has been extended by the inconsiderate manner in which great numbers of persons, even since the introduction of Vaccination, are every year inoculated with Smallpox, and afterwards required to attend two or three times a-week at the place of inoculation, through every stage of their illness.
Some Inoculators asserted that Vaccination produced “new, unheard-of, and monstrous diseases,” and made use of pictures to excite terror and disgust—
Publications with such representations have been widely circulated, and though they originated either in gross ignorance, or wilful misrepresentation, yet have they lessened the confidence of many, particularly of the lower classes, in Vaccination.
Whatever the character of Vaccination—had the claim made in its favour been a true claim, still the chief resistance to its practice would have consisted in the common apathy—
The lower orders of society can hardly be induced to adopt precautions against evils which may be at a distance; nor can it be expected from them, if these precautions be attended with expense. Unless, therefore, from the immediate dread of epidemic Smallpox, neither Vaccination or Inoculation appears at any time to have been general, and when the cause of terror has passed by the public have relapsed into indifference. It is not easy to suggest a remedy for an evil so deeply implanted in human nature.
The suggestion was, however, made that Vaccination should be offered gratis, but at the same time it was the opinion of the College that until Variolous Inoculation was superseded or prohibited, “it would be impossible to prevent the constant recurrence of Natural Smallpox.”
The recommendation of Vaccination gratis provoked the wrath of Dr. Moseley—
Gratis! [he exclaimed]: Why, every person knows that for years past in almost every street of London, signs or boards on the sides of houses, or on Methodists’ shops, or in apothecaries’ windows, have invited the ignorant multitude to gratuitous Vaccination. I have seen as many gratis Cowpox hand-bills, gratis puffs, gratis pathetic sermons and addresses, and gratis station advertisements as would load an ox. What does the College think of the mountebank Jennerian placard, dispersed on walls and alleys, and among all the blackguard public houses in town and country, and hung up in the shop or parlour of every Cowpoxer in England with Their Majesties’ Names and those of Their August Family audaciously emblazoned upon it?[138]