Having thus, under stress of necessity, reduced vaccination to the level of variolation, and tried to shelter the failures of the one practice under those of the other, the spirit of the old quack surviving, he went on to prophesy in the familiar strain—
It is a curious and most delightful fact that Smallpox is flying before Vaccination in all directions. In a wide district around me, embracing the most populous part of the county of Gloucester, the Smallpox is scarcely heard of; and if it does happen to appear from infection brought by the wandering pauper, it either finds itself insulated, or is rendered incapable of spreading by giving immediately the vaccine security to those within its atmosphere who may happen to remain unprotected.
With Jenner’s turn for romance, there is no need for dealing with a statement like the foregoing seriously, else we might ask what was the prevalence of smallpox in Gloucestershire before vaccination? and to what extent had it been cultivated by inoculators? Throughout England there was a remarkable subsidence of smallpox precedent to the introduction of vaccination (for which vaccination obtained the credit), which subsidence was no doubt accelerated by the cessation of variolation. Jenner resumes—
Wherever Vaccination has been universally practised, there the Smallpox ceases to exist. It matters not how wide the district, or how populous the city, the result is, and, from the nature of things, must be the same. There is scarcely a part of the civilised world that cannot bear testimony to the truth of this position. For extent of territory, we may turn our eyes to our possessions in the East, and to various parts of South America; and to towns and cities, many of the most conspicuous in Europe.
In the island of Ceylon, the ravages of Smallpox were dreadful, although many efforts had been made to lessen its fatality by Variolous Inoculation. This, wherever it was practised, produced a spreading of the disease, and made a bad matter worse; so that the people would have nothing to do with it. But after a little time they took to Vaccine Inoculation very readily, and Smallpox became totally extinct.
From Sweden, too, we have a report that proves the extinction of Smallpox throughout the kingdom. Now as the good sense of the Swedes brought about this happy event, why should not Britain avail herself of the great gift, and employ it to the same effect? Here the Boon is distributed with a partial and a sparing hand, and consequently Smallpox still exists in several parts of our island.
There was no checking Jenner when he rose into rhodomontade about the myriads of Asia and the vastness of America, but descending to the definite in Ceylon and Sweden we can test him with precision, and as to both we shall find his statements at wide variance with facts. For the present, however, let us keep to our own country, and note especially what he had to assert of London in 1818—
Nevertheless I have the happiness to say, that since the first promulgation of my discovery in 1798, the deaths of Smallpox in the British Realms, according to the best estimates I can form, are reduced from more than 40,000 to less than 6,000 annually. The metropolis for the last ten or twelve years exhibited a reduction of about one half only; but during the last two years, Vaccination has been more extensively practised than ever, both from the benevolence of private individuals and the faculty, and by public institutions; and this year, 1818, promises a far greater reduction in the number of deaths than any that has preceded it.
In London in 1818 the deaths from smallpox were low (421); but a single year is of little account, and must be viewed in relation to preceding years. Here we have a statement for the decade, 1811-20, taken from the metropolitan Bills of Mortality.