No. CXXXVIII.

Extract from an Account of Vaccine Inocula→ tion in the neighbourhood of Buckingham, By the Rev. J. T. A. Reed.

IN March 1800, having previously informed myself of the safety and efficacy of the cowpock, I began to inoculate my two parishes, Leckhamstead and Akeley, near Buckingham. I was induced to do this at that particular time, because the Grand Junction Canal was in its progress to my immediate neighbourhood; which, like every other great work employing vast bodies of men from distant quarters, would probably introduce the smallpox. It was my wish, that the labourers of these parishes should have the benefit of the high wages given on such occasions, without being exposed to the danger of that dreadful pestilence.

Having been in the habit of administering

medicines to the poor, my offer to inoculate them was very generally accepted; and especially, as most of these people are employed in milking. The common answer of such persons to my proposals was, "we all "know that nobody ever died of the Cowpock, and we all know that nobody ever "had the Small-pox after it; but what an "odd thing it is, that any body should think of inoculating with it."

I had no intention of proceeding in this practice beyond my own parishes; but I was soon applied to by a Clergyman, to whom I have been more than twenty years, Curate, to inoculate at Green's Norton, near Towcester, the Small-pox having broke out in two families. I readily consented, on condition that he would prepare the minds of the people, to whom I was but little known. In this he met with opposition; and in the result, about 500 persons were inoculated with the Small-pox, and 28 by me, with the Cow-pock.

No. CXXXVIII.

Extract from an Account of Vaccine Inocula→ tion in the neighbourhood of Buckingham, By the Rev. J. T. A. Reed.

IN March 1800, having previously informed myself of the safety and efficacy of the cowpock, I began to inoculate my two parishes, Leckhamstead and Akeley, near Buckingham. I was induced to do this at that particular time, because the Grand Junction Canal was in its progress to my immediate neighbourhood; which, like every other great work employing vast bodies of men from distant quarters, would probably introduce the smallpox. It was my wish, that the labourers of these parishes should have the benefit of the high wages given on such occasions, without being exposed to the danger of that dreadful pestilence.

Having been in the habit of administering

medicines to the poor, my offer to inoculate them was very generally accepted; and especially, as most of these people are employed in milking. The common answer of such persons to my proposals was, "we all know that nobody ever died of the Cow

"

pock, and we all know that nobody ever "had the Small-pox after it; but what an "odd thing it is, that any body should think "of inoculating with it."

I had no intention of proceeding in this practice beyond my own parishes; but I was soon applied to by a Clergyman, to whom I have been more than twenty years, Curate, to inoculate at Green's Norton, near Towcester, the Small-pox having broke out in two families. I readily consented, on condition that he would prepare the minds of the people, to whom I was but little known. In this he met with opposition; and in the result, about 500 persons were inoculated with the Small-pox, and 28 by me, with the Cow-pock.

No. CXXXVIII.

Extract from an Account of Vaccine Inocula→ tion in the neighbourhood of Buckingham, By the Rev. J. T. A. REED.

In March 1800, having previously informed myself of the safety and efficacy of the cowpock, I began to inoculate my two parishes, Leckhamstead and Akeley, near Buckingham. I was induced to do this at that particular time, because the Grand Junction Canal was in its progress to my immediate neighbourhood; which, like every other great work employing vast bodies of men from distant quarters, would probably introduce the smallpox. It was my wish, that the labourers of these parishes should have the benefit of the high wages given on such occasions, without being exposed to the danger of that dreadful pestilence.

Having been in the habit of administering