SPECIAL attention is invited to the Annual Meeting of the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination to be held in Neumayer Hall on Wednesday, 18th May, at 7.30 o'clock, Mr. P. A. Taylor, M.P., President of the Society, in the chair. Professor F.W. Newman, Mr. Alex. Wheeler, and other friends of the movement are expected to be present. Neumayer Hall is a pleasant and commodious assembly-room, recently erected in Hart Street, Bloomsbury, close to Oxford Street and the British Museum. Tickets for reserved seats may be had of Mr. William Young, Secretary, Gray's Inn Chambers, 20 High Holborn, W.C.

SIR WILFRID LAWSON speaking at Carlisle said, My friend, Mr. Ferguson, has told you that he is a man free from crotchets. I am a man who abounds in crotchets. I don't know how it came about that two members who generally agree so well on political subjects should be so different in their temperaments; perhaps it arose from the fact that I was not properly vaccinated. (Great laughter.) The operation did not take; it did not succeed in eliminating from my system those crotchets which it has cleared out of Mr. Ferguson. (Renewed laughter.)

PROFESSOR MAYOR writes, "The history of medicine seems to me, in a great degree, the history of human folly. Now, above all, when all feeling of pity is destroyed (by vivisection, boiling and baking dogs, etc.) in those who are to go forth on an errand of mercy, it is time for the laity to arm themselves with a knowledge of the laws of health. Surely the clergy of all denominations might be taught, as a part of their professional training, how to avoid disease. Then, in a generation or two, surgeons and officers of health would remain, but drug doctors would have died away for want of

custom.

LEEDS LAW AND PRACTICE.-Mr. Holmes, vaccination officer, being asked at the Board of Guardians why he had summoned Mr. Appleyard for the third time for neglecting to have his children vaccinated, thus explained his practice. He had a rule to this effect-if a man was summoned once and fined, he let him alone until another child was born, as in the case of Appleyard. Then, if he neglected to have the second child vaccinated, he was summoned and fined in respect of that, and so on with the third and any children born subsequently. He considered that a fair and just rule, and not an arbitrary one. Mr. Exley asked what Mr. Holmes would do in the event of a second child not being born if the parent neglected to have his child vaccinated after having been fined.-Mr. Holmes : I should let the case rest, as I think it is not wise to prosecute too much. There is nothing in the Act of Parliament requiring me to summon a person more than once in respect of one child. I could do so, but I am not compelled by law. Mr. Exley said it seemed to him unfair that a man who was fortunate or unfortunate enough to have a large family should be summoned in respect of each child, while a man who had one child should only be summoned once. A discussion followed, but apparently Mr. Holmes's practice and interpretation of the law were left unaffected.

THE STORY OF A GREAT DELUSION. CHAPTER XXVI.

JENNER AND WALKER IN LONDON. IT may be asked, Why if Vaccination was proved useless and injurious was it not entirely discontinued? but the question implies a logical consistency which is rarely exemplified in human experience. Vaccination was discontinued, but it was not entirely discontinued: it was chiefly continued among the upper and middle classes where fees were to be had for its performance. It was admitted that the rite might not prevent small-pox, but it would make it milder. The last thing a medicine man admits is, that he is helpless and can do nothing. Even in presence of that for which there is no remedy, it tends to his importance, and the satisfaction of the patient, and those around the patient, to make believe to do something. Now for small-pox, there was no preventive. Its causes were unknown. It broke out, and it disappeared, none knew how. Jenner's household was devastated with fever, but he never asked, why he accepted the dispensation like so much bad weather. Whether fevers were avoidable, or whether they were consequences of ill living, were questions as yet outside cognizance. The predominant thought about small-pox was, that it might be dodged, be it from God or devil. Inoculation with small-pox was a dodge with disagreeable accompaniments: inoculation with cow-pox was a dodge on easier terms: by a trick, that left every evil circumstance unaffected, small-pox was to be got rid of. In the nature of things, the dodge was ineffective mercifully ineffective; for who that is wise would care to have the consequences of evil abated save by the putting away of evil? The dodge proved illusory in the presence of those who recommended it, but whilst a manifest failure as to the main intention, they had the craft to shift its efficacy to rendering the disease milder-a claim as to which no test was immediately available. Moreover, vaccination had the merit of action, which the quack, whether lay or professional, insists on at all hazards. To confess ignorance and inability is self-denial for which the quack temperament is unequal, as whoever is ailing and has friends may perceive. All come bearing advice and prescriptions for the control of nature, when, with simple quiescence and a right disposition of circumstances, nature is instant to effect recovery.

The failures of vaccination to prevent smallpox were chiefly visible among the poor, smallpox being predominantly an affliction of poverty; but in 1811 a case occurred in aristocratic life which produced more talk and dismay than scores of similar cases among trades-folk and artizans. Robert Grosvenor, son of Earl Grosvenor, vaccinated by Jenner in 1801 when a puny babe of a month old, fell ill on 26th May, 1811; in a few days small-pox developed, became confluent, and the lad narrowly escaped

with life. There was no mistake about the vaccination; the mark on the boy's arm indicated "the perfect disease"; he was attended

by Sir Henry Halford and Sir Walter Farquhar, and was visited by Jenner, who happened to be in town; and, in short, the evidence of the impotence of vaccination to avert small-pox was complete and indisputable. The commotion was intense, and in a letter from Jenner to Baron we see how it affected his mind. He wrote

"COCKSPUR STREET, CHARING CROSS,
11th June, 1811.

"MY DEAR FRIEND,-It will probably be my lot to be detained in this horrible place some days longer. It has unfortunately happened, that a failure in vaccination has appeared in the family of a nobleman here; and, more unfortunately still, in a child vaccinated by me. The noise and confusion this case has created are not to be described. The vaccine lancet is sheathed; and the long concealed variolous blade ordered to come forth. Charming! This will soon cure the mania. The Town is a fool -an idiot; and will continue in this red-hothissing-hot state about this affair, till something else starts up to draw aside its attention. I am determined to lock up my brains, and think no more pro bono publico; and I advise you, my friend, to do the same; for we are sure to get nothing but abuse for it. It is my intention to collect all the cases I can of small-pox after supposed security from that disease. In this undertaking I hope to derive much assistance from you. The best plan will be to push out some of them as soon as possible. This would not be necessary on account of the present case, but it will prove the best shield to protect us from the past, and from those which are to come. -Ever yours, EDWARD JENNER."*

The defence, therefore, was, that as an attack of small-pox did not always avert a second attack, it was not reasonable to expect that vaccination should be more effective; and to make good this position, a diligent search was instituted for cases of repeated small-pox. Many were found, though they were generally regarded as rarities, whilst their reality was frequently disputed; but whatever their number or genuineness, they were insignificant in comparison with the instances of small-pox subsequent to vaccination. Moreover, the Jennerites were taunted with their late discovery of smallpox after small-pox. Why had they not stated from the outset that small-pox might follow vaccination as small-pox followed small-pox? Why, on the contrary, had they asserted vaccination to be an absolute and life-long defence against small-pox? Why had they abused as fools or denounced as liars all the early reporters of small-pox after vaccination? And why did it require evidence, that could not possibly be wriggled out of, to bring them to an acknowledgement of the truth?

But even in presence of such evidence, Jenner persisted in his asseverations as if he had lost the very sense of truth. Writing to Miss Calcraft on 19th June, 1811, he actually claimed that he had foreseen and predicted such disasters as had occurred in the Grosvenor family! Here are his words

"Take a comprehensive view of vaccination, and then ask yourself what is this case? You will find

* Baron's Life of Jenner, Vol. ii. p. 161.

it a speck, a mere microscopic speck on the page which contains the history of the vaccine discovery. In the very first thing I wrote upon the subject, and many times since, I have said the occurrence of such an event should excite no surprise; because the cow-pox must possess preternatural powers if it would give uniform security to the constitution, when it is well known that small-pox cannot; for we have more than one thousand cases to prove the contrary, and fortunately seventeen of them in the families of the nobility.'

Obviously had such been his uniform testimony, the Grosvenor incident would have excited neither surprise nor alarm; and mark this additional hardihood

"Indeed, I have often said it was wonderful that I should have gone on for such a series of years vaccinating so many thousands, many under very unfavourable circumstances, without meeting with any interruption to my success before. And now this single solitary instance has occurred, all my past labours are forgotten, and I am held up by many, perhaps the majority of the higher classes, as an object of derision and contempt. What if ten, fifty, or a hundred such events should occur? they will be balanced a hundred times over by those of a similar kind after small-pox."

Whilst thus he maintained that it was no more extraordinary that young Grosvenor had small-pox after vaccination than that others should have small-pox after small-pox, he went on to assert that vaccination had saved the lad's life!

"The child would have died (that is universally allowed) but for the previous vaccination. There was but little secondary fever; the pustules were sooner in going off than in ordinary cases; and, indeed, the whole progress of the disease was different. It was modified and mitigated, and the boy was saved."*

Such was the mot d' ordre. If Grosvenor

had not been vaccinated, he would have perished! The National Vaccine Board reported on the case to the same effect, and the faithful suffered themselves to be re-assured.

In connection with 1811 and London smallpox, there is a letter to Dr. Lettsom which throws still farther light on Jenner's temper and philosophy. He wrote

"CHELTENHAM, 22nd November, 1811. "I have considered London as the centre of opposition to the vaccine practice; but even there, in spite of the base and murderous designs of a few bad minded individuals, the small-pox has wonderfully decreased; and in the provinces its mortality has lessened in a still greater proportion. For the great and grand effects of Vaccination the eye must quit this little spot, and survey it among other European countries, and still more particularly among the vast empires of Asia and America. In Mexico and Peru the disease is nearly extinct. The documents which pour in upon me from these distant regions fill me with inexpressible delight. You shall have copies when I can get them transcribed.

"The chief impediments to the general adoption of Vaccination in England are, I am confident, our newspapers and some of our magazines. Whenever a case of what is called failure starts up, in it Baron's Life of Jenner, Vol. ii. p. 158.

goes to a newspaper, with all the exaggeration with which envy and malice can garnish it." *

Was there ever a more delicious bit of self-revelation! The wicked newspapers! The base, murderous and bad minded enemies of vaccination! The small-pox of London reduced by vicarious vaccination in spite of its ingratitude! The consolation derived from the survey of the countries of Europe and the vast empires of Asia and America with inexpressible delight from Mexico and Peru! Not Mrs. Jellyby herself lost in an atmosphere of Borrioboola-Gah is more piquant.

Jenner's reference to the good effects of vaccination in London was curiously inconsistent. That vaccination in which he professed to rejoice was chiefly the work of Dr. John Walker, whose practice he had denounced as so widely at variance with what he considered correct, that even the wreck of the Royal Jennerian Society was not thought too heavy a price to pay for deliverance from complicity with him. The London Vaccine Institution, established in 1806 by Walker and his friends, was responsible for the large majority of vaccinations effected in the metropolis. Walker was a pure enthusiast, of boundless energy, with a craze for vaccinating. Adverse results had no effect upon him: he did not deny, but simply did not recognise them, and held on prophesying and practising with mechanical persistency. Nevertheless, he ran aground. The income of the Institution had dwindled to less than £100 a year when Andrew Johnstone, a Cumberland man, a school-fellow of Walker, came to his assistance. With a commercial eye he surveyed the situation. He perceived that though vaccination had fallen into disrepute, there remained many believers who only required stirring up and solicitation to provide funds to keep Walker going and to yield the collector a satisfactory commission. As the Royal Jennerian Society had ceased to exist for any active purpose in 1810, nothing remaining "but a Patronage, a Presidency, and an unorganised body of Subscribers and Governors," it occurred to him that it would be good policy to annex these to the revived enterprise, and in due course a union was effected, and the LONDON VACCINE INSTITUTION AND ROYAL JENNERIAN SOCIETY became the title to conjure with. An attempt was made to secure Jenner for President, but that was too bold a stroke. He thus answered the application—

"CHELTENHAM, 3rd September, 1813. "Although it must be evident that every institution, which has for its object the extension of Vaccine Inoculation, must have my best wishes for its success, yet, for reasons which on reflection must be obvious, you must see the impossibility of my accepting the offered appointment.'

Highly impressive were the Reports of the reconstituted Institution under the patronage of the Corporation of the City of London with the City Arms on the covers. Among the presidents were the Archbishop of Canterbury, four or five Dukes (one of them Wellington), half a dozen Marquises and as many Bishops, about a score of Earls, with M.P.'s and pious and philanthropic

* Pettigrew's Memoirs of J. C. Lettsom, M.D. London: Vol. iii. p. 405.

1817.

The income of the Institution in 1826 was £620 15s. and the expenditure £715 12s., leaving a deficit of £94 17s.

The figures are interesting, for they afford some idea of the extent of London vaccination during a quarter of a century. The operations of the Vaccine Institution lay chiefly among the poor-the vast majority in London as in every city; and if we allow that in the course of fiveand-twenty years, 350,000, in a population of upwards of 1,000,000 in the flux of life and death, favour of vaccination. That even so many could were operated on, we give a liberal estimate in have much effect on the prevalence of small-pox (except for aggravation) is incredible, unless the vicarious action of vaccination be seriously asserted. Turning over Walker's reports it is amusing to observe how any abatement in London small-pox was attributed to vaccination, and any increase to its neglect-an ingenuous exemplification of the fable of the Fly and the Wheel.

66

The appointed inoculators of the Institution were a numerous body-250 names and addresses are given in one of the Reports. They were chiefly London tradesmen with a taste for doing what they thought "good." As vaccination came to be regarded as professional work, these unqualified practitioners" gave cause for offence, but Walker held stoutly to his opinion, which he shared with Jenner, that vaccination might be performed by any man or woman. Walker's words, "It is easier to perform the whole business of vaccination than it is to thread a needle-yea, it is easier."

In

The annexation of the remains of the Royal Jennerian Society by Walker was much disliked by Jenner and his associates; and when the revived enterprise showed signs of prosperity, their dislike developed to open enmity, and John Ring's services as bravo and satirist were called into requisition. He first tried his hand, anonymously, in a volume of doggerel, published in 1815, entitled The Vaccine Scourge,* in which Walker is represented as singing

The verses, extending over a hundred pages, are wretched stuff, vulgar and malevolent, and a few extracts from the Preface will indicate the animus of the entire performance. Ring's assumption was, first, that Walker was a rogue from whom the public required to be protected; second, that his Institution was superfluous; and third, that if greater facilities for vaccination were wanted in London, it should be left to Government to provide them—

"These hints may serve to warn the public. Dr. Walker is an artful, avaricious, and ambitious man; but let him be cautious how he acts when he tries to

exercise his art, to glut his avarice, and to gratify

his ambition.

Let him recollect what was inscribed on the tombstone of an infamous scoundrel

'Lie still if you're wise;

You'll be damned if you rise.' We recommend him and his accomplices not to try to obtain money by false pretences. A Vaccine Institution has long been established by the Legislature, where, as well as at other Institutions, matter may be procured free of expense; and no one who has much zeal in the cause of Vaccination will find much difficulty in procuring it. If farther aid is necessary, let it be granted by Parliament, and not to a set of swindlers. It is not meet to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

Many of the agents of the London Vaccine Institution were chemists and apothecaries, and these, according to Ring, had an interest in the propagation of small-pox

"To exterminate small-pox by means of chemists and apothecaries, the greatest friends of small-pox, is to cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. You might as well expect a fox-hunter to destroy the breed of foxes, or a rat-catcher to exterminate the race of rats."

The Vaccine Scourge producing little effect, Ring returned to the charge in the following year, 1816, with A Caution against Vaccine Swindlers and Imposters.* The Caution is a series of libels, the puerility and extravagance of which were their own nullification. A motto was taken from the New Monthly Magazine for the title page, as follows

"The Jennerian discovery has shed a brilliant lustre on our era; but unfortunately, the discovery has been in a great degree rendered abortive by bastard institutions, created for the purpose of filling the pockets of a set of adventurers, without education, and destitute of principle. We could name several wretches who have fattened, and are still fattening, on such jobs."

Ring delivered his mind unequivocally. Walker was an imposter, and the London Vaccine Institution prospered by his frauds

"There is a Society in this Metropolis," he wrote, "falsely calling itself the Royal Jennerian Society, which has been collecting subscriptions to a considerable amount under that assumed name; and thus collecting money under false pretences.

"An eminent physician speaking of this Society and its successful state, called it a successful villany; and villany is not the less villany because it is successful.

A Caution against Vaccine Swindlers and Imposters. By John Ring. London: 1816. Pp. 140.

"It has also been organising a complete system of quackery, by granting diplomas to persons totally ignorant of the first principles of the medical profession, which will add to the present host of empirics.

being annoyed with the inscription, VACCINATION "No one can now pass along the streets without GRATIS UNDER

THE SANCTION OF THE LONDON VACCINE INSTITUTION in one pane of glass, MACASSAR OIL in a second, and PATENT BLACKING in a third. In short Vaccination is now quite a drug."

These are words of envy and malice, and came with odious inconsistency from the spokesman of Jenner, who had instructed and encouraged his acquaintances, male and female, to practice vaccination. We may, however, take Ring's evidence as to Walker's activity in London

"Dr. Walker glories in his chemical, galenical, pharmaceutical, and dentrifical inoculators; and boasts that they exceed in number those of any other vaccine institution; but he glories in his shame. Non numerentur, sed ponderentur. They are springing up under every pestle and mortar, and barber's pole, like mushrooms in a hot-bed, from Hyde-Park Corner to Whitechapel, and from Whitechapel to Blackwall. It is the duty of every regular practitioner to expose such imposters, and rescuing of life from fraudulent and rapacious hands. to encourage such exposure. It is, in fact, the

"One of his inoculators is Mr. Campbell, who cures all sorts of incurable diseases with Elephants' Milk. He says he recently sent 20,000 bottles to Russia at 11s. each. He also sells the Milk in pills at 2s. 9d. a box. The poor have the Milk at halfprice; and strict secresy is preserved.

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"In Walker's Plan for 1814, it appears that he grants his diplomas to those who are not, as well as to those who are, of the medical profession, and that Inoculators in the country are requested and authorised to put up a board with the following inscription, PROTECTION FROM SMALL-POX Under THE SANCTION OF THE LONDON VACCINE INSTITUThen is to follow the name of the farrier, cobbler, barber, barber-surgeon, apothecary, manmidwife, tooth-drawer, druggist, chemist, oil-man, cheesemonger, drysalter, or grocer, who dispenses the blessing of Vaccination gratuitously.

TION.

"The motley crew thus appointed are directed to make an Annual Return of the numbers inoculated by them in order to swell Dr. Walker's list; and such inoculators are not in general very nice in their calculations. Many of them will, in all probability, like other quacks, pretend to a hundred times more than they really perform."

Those who continued to believe that Vaccination was an easy and harmless operation, could see nothing but good management in the multiplication of Walker's agencies, nor anything but meanness in Ring's sneers at tradesmen. His assertion that the use of the title of the

Royal Jennerian Society was fraudulent had no justification, yet it was his persistent reproach

"Honesty is the best policy. I therefore, sincerely advise Dr. Walker and his Board, to assume no more the title of the Royal Jennerian Society, to which they must know they have not the least claim, lest they should be brought before the Lord Mayor as swindlers, and be prosecuted for obtaining money under false pretences. I am informed that they have already been compelled to refund a legacy of £100; and it is to be hoped they will be

compelled to refund the rest of their ill-gotten store."

Lastly, he appealed to the members of the Jennerian Society demanding

"How long will they suffer their names to be prostituted, and the public to be deluded by a set of swindlers and imposters; by men who are neither dignified by their rank, nor distinguished by their talents; by a set of daring adventurers and despicable upstarts. It is a gross insult and indignity, to which no man of the least sense of honour, or of shame, would submit."

But they did submit, and why not? Enthusiasm for vaccination had passed away. It had been found out; it was everywhere distrusted; and those who held by it had to see it pushed on the same terms as any other quack prescription. What then was there to object to in Walker's procedure? The reason for Ring's libels lay in Jenner's jealousy. Walker was Jenner's abhorrence. He had joined in the conspiracy to oust Walker from the Jennerian Society in 1806, but the operation proved fatal to the Society whilst Walker conveyed the confidence and subscriptions of the faithful to his new Institution. What wonder then that Jenner disliked the eccentric Quaker! Even worse; Walker accurately appraised Jenner's share in "the vaccine discovery," which came, he said, from Jenner as a hint, and was developed by Pearson and Woodville in practice-a fact that was as gall and wormwood to Jenner. Moreover Walker had written a Jenneric Opera in which Jenner was represented as a country apothecary riding up to London on a cow and going round a-begging among the nobility and gentry. Wherefore says Ring—

"As to the calumny and detraction which Dr. Jenner and his friends have received at the hands of that desperate adventurer in his Jenneric Opera and elsewhere, they are content to bear it, provided he will not again use the language of flattery toward them; nor lavish his encomiums on them in that polluted channel, the Medical Journal. His resentment can do very little harm, which is more than can be said of his adulation.

'It is the slaver kills, and not the bite.""* Ring was an awkward champion. He sneered at Walker's diplomas certifying fitness to act as vaccinator

"They will have the same authority," he said, "and the same virtue as a diploma from the University of St. Andrews; and in all probability will in a short time be sold at the same price ❞— Forgetful that it was from St. Andrews that Jenner purchased his M.D.!

With equal recklessness, he denounced Walker as a vaccinator, saying

"He tells the public in his Address that 'Vaccination will shed consolation into the bosom of every family;' but alas! I have known many a family that has had reason to rue the day in which they believed him, when he told them this flattering

* I have been unable to find Walker's Jenneric Opera in the British Museum Library, Ring mentions it as having appeared in Dr. Reece's Medical Observer. It is not likely to be of much account, but I should be obliged to any reader who would kindly assist me to see a copy.

tale. It is very necessary that his followers pray that the Lord have mercy on them, if they have no other director than Dr. Walker."

Concerning the consequences of Walker's operations, Ring, no doubt, testified truly. Many continue to rue the day when they listen to the flattering tale of the vaccinator. But the testimony came strangely from a Jennerite, who was ready to swear that any abatement of small-pox in London was due to the vaccinations effected in great part by "that desperate adventurer," Walker!

In order to create prejudice, Ring had much to say of Walker's religious and political principles. He was a Quaker of the Thomas Paine pattern, and like Paine had associated with the French revolutionists; but whilst dressing as a Friend, and associating with Friends, he was too unconformable a personality for their Society, and was never received into membership. Ring's imputations of rapacity and avarice were grossly absurd as applied to Walker. He cared for nothing beyond support in his work as vaccinator. He would take a £5 note, fold it, stick a pin through it, write an address on the back, and post it. He would rarely vaccinate the well-todo. If they came to his office, he would ask, "Who is thy medical attendant?" and wrapping up some fresh matter on glasses would say, cal attendant, and he will do what is requisite "Take this with my compliments to thy mediquite as well as myself." When he did call at a house to vaccinate, he never asked for a fee, and his biographer, Dr. Epps, observes that he was only known on one occasion to express a wish for remuneration. Meeting a merchant in St. Paul's Churchyard, whose household he had vaccinated at some inconvenience, he observed, "Friend, if thou has sent by thy servant a draft for my services to thy family, he has either robbed me or deceived thee." When money was brought to him, he usually called his wife to receive it, she having the undivided care of all that pertained to him apart from vaccination. Of this good woman, Annie, he was in the habit of speaking with an admiration and unreserve that constituted one of his numerous oddities. For example, when Dr. Moore in his History of Vaccination observed somewhat maliciously

*

"John Walker, it is said, procured a medical diploma from the indulgent University of Leyden; and more excellent work than Walker's has rarely been performed by a humbler instrument "—

Walker good-humouredly replied, that Moore as a Glasgow man naturally preferred his own University to that of Leyden, but he too had cause to love Glasgow

"Glasgow is a bonnie town, and there are bonnie

lasses in it.'

There is not any other spot on the surface of the globe where I have experienced a happiness so complete as I obtained in it in 1799. Let any bachelor who cannot divine what this assertion may mean, be

*The Life of John Walker, M.D., Graduate of the University of Leyden; Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London; and late Director of the Royal Jennerian and London Vaccine Institutions. By John Epps, MD London: 1831. Pp. 342.