Moore was, therefore, promoted to Jenner’s place as Director of the National Vaccine Establishment, in subordination to the Board of Physicians and Surgeons. Seven stations, with seven superintendent surgeons, were opened in London for vaccinating all who should apply, and for collecting and distributing virus.
At first [writes Moore] the applicants for Vaccination at the various stations were not numerous, not amounting to 3,000 a year; but, by continued exertions, and the declension of prejudice, the numbers regularly increased, and 7,771 persons were vaccinated in London in the year 1816.[275]
These numbers are significant, as indicating the extent of the collapse of vaccination, and how little the continuous decline of smallpox in London was due to its extension.
Moore was a shrewd tactician. He had the sense to recognise that if there was anything in vaccination, it was folly to stand at variance with Jenner; and by persuading him that he exaggerated the offence implied in the policy of the Board, he gradually soothed his feelings and led him into a long and confidential correspondence. Jenner, on his side, finding that nothing resulted from his sulks, relaxed, and from time to time favoured the Board with the light of his countenance and counsels.
The national endowment of vaccination affected prejudicially all other enterprises in the same line. What remained of the Royal Jennerian Society withered up, and the conductors of the London Vaccine Institution found the collection of subscriptions almost impossible. It was naturally objected by those solicited, “Why should we be asked to subscribe for what Government has already provided?” But with Dr. John Walker, the director of the London Institution, vaccination was a fanaticism, and he was ready to live on bread and water rather than withdraw from the promotion of what he was persuaded was a work of salvation. He therefore struggled on, in spite of discouragement and petty means, and as the inability of the Government Establishment to meet demands became manifest, whether from excess of dignity or apathy, the Quaker Institution, as it was called, began to thrive, to acquire the confidence alike of the medical profession and the public, and to rival in business the Establishment itself.
As for the investigation promised in the House of Commons, it was never even attempted. Jenner’s anxiety was superfluous. When a case of smallpox, or injury, or death after vaccination was reported, it was the recognised formula to assert either some defect in the operation, or the virus, or some cause, or any cause ab extra rather than allow the Jennerian principle to suffer. As an illustration of the procedure of the Board in this respect, we have the instance of Mr. Thomas Brown, surgeon, Musselburgh, as served up in Moore’s insolence—
The Vaccine was in two years spread over Scotland. After a time, however, one croaking voice was raised to disturb the general concord. Mr. Brown, who was fretting in obscurity at Musselburgh, published a book in 1809 to maintain that the Vaccine only possessed the property of preventing Smallpox temporarily; that in three years its influence declined; and in five or six, hardly any security against Smallpox remained.
Brown submitted his cases to the Board, but they met with no attention.
In this extremity [continues Moore] he wrote a scurrilous accusation of the National Vaccine Establishment to the Secretary of State, which was referred to the Board. When they met, the Registrar read it, and then tied it up with red tape among that mass of papers which are consigned to rest.[276]
Could more be expressed in less? Thus was Brown, the representative of true science and enlightened and honest inquiry, set at naught and traduced by a Board endowed for investigation! Nor, in saying so, do I speak simply as an antagonist of vaccination. Brown was no anti-vaccinist. What he contended for is now everywhere admitted by vaccinists. They allow that the protection afforded by vaccination is temporary, and that it is necessary to renew its prophylaxy from time to time. The practice of revaccination is based on the verity of Brown’s contention, and yet, according to Moore, he was a vain-glorious and scurrilous fellow, and by Jenner was pronounced “an object of commiseration rather than resentment.”