profession or otherwise, who have most distinguished themselves for the zeal with which they promoted vaccination. One of these solemn festivities, so honourable to the author of the great discovery which it is intended to commemorate, lately took place in Paris, agreeably to custom; and it is now our pleasing duty to record the occurrence, at the same time that we shall endeavour to give our readers an account of its result.

On Saturday, the 5th of May, 1821, Baron CAPELLE, counsellor of state, charged with the administration of public hospitals and other medical charities, held, and presided at, a general meeting of the Central Vaccine Society, in the great library of the Faculty of Medicine. Several professors of that faculty, many physicians and surgeons, clergymen of the catholic and reformed religions, and a vast concourse of pupils and people, attended the meeting. Baron Capelle opened the business of the day, by calling the attention of the meeting to the increasing benefits accruing to society from the discovery of vaccination; a discovery, than which no other called more loudly for the gratitude of mankind. The Baron's description of the obligation we owe to JENNER is both neat and appropriate :

"De tous les bienfaits consacrés par la reconnaissance publique, il en est peu qui méritent autant cet hommage que celui dont vous êtes les savans propagateurs: en lui tout est vrai, tout est avantageux; la victoire n'est acheté par aucun sacrifice, la découverte par aucun erreur; rien n'y ressemble à ces conceptions hasardées dans lesquelles la sagesse de l'expérience est souvent sacrifiée à la vanité des innovations. La vaccine a déjà répondu par vingt-cinq ans de succès aux préjugés qui la combattaient; et l'espèce humaine, secourue par elle contre un des plus terribles fléaux qui la menacent, trouve dans sa propre conversation un témoignage qui rend désormais toutes les critiques impuissantes et tous les éloges superflus."

The Baron concluded by observing, that much yet remained to be done, and that it was important "de ne point s'arreter tant qu'il reste des progrés à obtenir."

Professor CHAUSSIER, president of the central committee of the Vaccine Society, whose efforts in encouraging vaccination have been as successful as they have been constant, next addressed the meeting; and observed, that, from the multiplied experiments and numerous observations made during more than twenty years, it had been ascertained, in the most positive manner, that vaccination was most effica cious in preventing the small-pox, and might possibly become the means of completely eradicating that disease; that, in France, no effort was wanting to promote so desirable an end; and that the central committee, with a view to that object, kept up a constant corre spondence in every, even the most remote, part of the kingdom, and distributed vaccine matter with a praise-worthy profusion. It was but lately that a large quantity of that matter was forwarded to China, as a present from the French king to the sovereign of that vast empire, in which the small-pox had, last year, committed great ravages. The government has determined that pecuniary rewards shall be annually distributed to the most zealous vaccinators; and, to second the

philanthropic views of the administration, the prefects of the depart ments have established special committees in every town, charged to propagate vaccination, through the assistance of expert physicians, surgeons, and pastors. Mr. Chaussier acknowledged at the same time, that, notwithstanding the example of sovereigns, who submitted their own infant children to the operation, and the expressed convic tion of men conspicuous for their talents and philanthropy, vaccination had not yet reached that degree of universality which the welfare of mankind still imperiously demands,

The Professor then went on to investigate the different causes which have retarded the progress of vaccination; and successfully combatted all the objections raised against it. In doing this, the Professor avails himself of every fact and argument urged by the National Vaccine Establishment, the College of Surgeons, and Sir Gilbert Blane, in England, for the same laudable purpose, in their respective docu. ments; copies of which had been transmitted to the Professor.

We are, however, of opinion, like many others, that coercive means, more or less severe, according to the spirit of the laws, ought to be employed by every government, in order to ensure the universal adop. tion of a measure, the prejudices against which it would be a waste of time to endeavour to combat by means of plain reasoning only and fair council.

"Le raisonnement (observes Professor Chaussier,) ne fait point d'impression sur ceux qui ne sont pas accoutemés à réfléchir, à obser ver, à en suivre les conséquences: les instructions, les moyens de persuasion, échouent contre l'entêtement et l'obstination."

This conviction has induced several of the prefects of the departments to issue orders that no child should be admitted to partake of the benefits of any of the public charities or establishments, that shall not appear to have been vaccinated. In imitation of this praiseworthy conduct on the part of the French magistrates, the founders of the Royal Metropolitan Infirmary for Children, in London, have re solved that the medical officers of that institution shall be empowered to withhold the benefits of that charity from those children whose mothers shall object to vaccination, without any very solid reason. Had some such resolution as this been adopted by the officers of every other medical or philanthropic institution in England, the prejudices of the major part of the lower classes of society against the salutary measure under our consideration, would, ere now, have been greatly diminished, if not wholly removed. The great legislator of the Jews, knowing how conducive to the health of his people it was to enforce cleanliness, among other measures of hygiene, made it a precept that every child should, at its birth, be subjected to a certain operation, the purport of which was of very trilling importance compared to that for which vaccination might be made obligatory on every parent by a law of the land.

Professor Chaussier having concluded his address, the report of the central committee of vaccination, on the number of children vaccinated during the years 1818 and 1819, was read by Mr. Husson, the perpetual secretary of the society. This document presents an ensemble

of the plans uniformly adopted in most parts of France for the propagation of vaccine, which deserves our best consideration. These plans appear so admirably calculated to attain the desired end, that we are surprised at their not having been more generally followed even in France. In those departments where the prefect has deemed it his duty to extend his authority to the practice of vaccination, the best effects have ensued, and the numerical results from the occurrence of natural small.pox, compared to those derived from the inoculation of cow-pox, are by far more favourable to the latter. Admonitory as well as compulsory instructions have been published; persons em. ployed in public capacities have been readily persuaded to have their offspring vaccinated; their servants, being soon convinced of the utility of that practice, hastened, with little hesitation, to imitate their masters; while the shopkeeper, the petty tradesman, the independent manufacturer, and the husbandman, tacitly availed themselves of a salutary measure, which they saw adopted, with so much apparent earnestness and benefit, by their superiors.

In every small town, borough, or village, vaccine matter has been deposited, from the best sources, in the hands of the clergyman, the medical practitioner, or, in the absence of them, the principal housekeeper. Ambulating vaccinators, on whose skill and integrity the prefect could rely, have been appointed to journey from one place to another, and either to vaccinate themselves, or teach the individuals above mentioned to practise with safety and dexterity that operation. Forms of registers have been drawn up, and copies of them furnished to all those who are to perform vaccination; and, lastly, sub-committees have been appointed by the prefect in the principal towns of his district, charged to collect all the information from minor places, with a view to draw up an annual report, which is forwarded to the central committee at Paris. To encourage the tardy, and to reward the zealous, premiums, some pecuniary, others honorary, have been established, and apparently with the best effect.

There is a class of persons in France, to whom the operation of vaccinating children can with propriety be confided,-namely, that of midwives; for in that country, where midwifery is held in proper consideration, and its importance fully felt, no woman is allowed to practise as a midwife who has not had a regular education at the great establishment of the Maternité, at Paris; where, amongst other useful qualifications, the female pupils are instructed in performing the opcration of vaccination. This latter circumstance affords the French a greater facility than we possess in this country for propagating the cow-pox, as the only means of extirpating the dreadful contagion against which it is known to act specifically. There is now scarcely a village of any consequence in France in which there is not a resident midwife, qualified in the manner we have just described, and who has, moreover, been brought up to love and cherish the salutary practice to which our efforts, in the present article, have been directed.

We have no room to enter further into the details of administration relative to the propagation of vaccination in France, contained in the first part of the Report; and proceed, therefore, to the second part,

or division, of this important document. This, properly speaking, is more interesting even than the former to medical men, as it professes to give an account of the principal medical facts connected with vac. cination, with which the central committee have become acquainted through their numerous correspondents.

The first of these facts relate to the irregularity observed in the progress of the pock after inoculation. Cases have been known to occur in which the pustule has furnished, after the fourth day, wellformed lymph, from which other children have been vaccinated, when the pustule was found to have lost that degree of precocity. Instances where the first appearance of the insertion having succeeded, manifested itself on the seventh, eighth, ninth, and as late as the thirteenth day, have occurred on various well-authenticated occasions.

It is now placed beyond doubt that the vaccine matter will occasi onally give rise to the spontaneous eruption of many more pustules in different parts of the body, the matter of which is perfectly good for inoculation. Of this fact we have ourselves been witnesses in more than one instance; and it goes far, in our opinion, to show that there is a general action produced by the vaccine virus on the constitution, besides the local effect which arises from it.

Thirteen medical men have scen examples of vaccination proving the means of curing other eruptive diseases, the crusta lactea in particular; and it stands recorded in the present Report, upon unimpeachable authority, that the inoculated cow-pox has effectually cured scrofulous swellings, ophthalmia, chincough; and has appeared to exert a, bene ficial influence in cases of epilepsia, hemiplegia, and sciatica.

The Report is full of the experiments that have been repeatedly made with a view to ascertain the efficacy of vaccination in subjects who were subsequently inoculated with the small-pox, or exposed to its contagion. The result has been uniformly favourable to the doctrine of the immortal Jenner. Four instances are detailed of mothers, attacked with the small-pox, safely suckling their infants that had been vaccinated.

All the above facts, many of which have been observed before, were confirmed during the prevalence of varioloid epidemics, which have of Jate years partially ravaged some of the provincial districts of France. Mr. LEJEUNE, for instance, relates that, in the village of Claye, (department of l'Aisne,) of thirteen children, one only, that had been vaccinated, resisted the small-pox by which the other twelve were at. tacked, and of which four of the twelve died.

The influence which the cow-pox seems to exert over the small-pox has been strongly illustrated in those individuals who, having been vaccinated after exposure to the variolous contagion, have experienced a disease extremely mild in all its characters.

The Report lays a great stress on the comparative rarity of the small-pox in places where vaccination has been much and generally practised.

It then goes on to notice the pretended cases of failure, and observes that "Lorsqu'on analyse tous ces faits, on arrive toujours à un des résultats suivans: ou la vaccination quoique pratiquée n'a été suivi

d'aucun développement, ou l'opération a produit une vaccine fausse et non préservative, ou, comme nous l'avons vu précèdemment, la variole a éclaté pendant le cours de la vaccine, ou enfin on a pris pour une petite vérole contagieuse, une éruption qui a avec elle quelques points de ressemblance, et que pour cette raison on peut appeler varioloide."

Some few of the cases themselves are next given, and carefully ana. lyzed; and we hesitate not in saying, that the conclusions of the reporter seem correct.

We cannot conclude our account of this very instructive pamphlet without quoting, in the original language, the parallel drawn up, with great care and truth, between the real small-pox and the chicken-pox; respecting whose identity or dissimilarity so much has been said and written in this country.

"Nous ne parlerons pas des symptômes par lesquels s'annoncent les deux maladies: ces symptômes, généralement communs aux maladies éruptives aiguës, ne différent que par leur plus ou moins d'intensité, et cette différence n'est pas encore assez constamment uniforme pour qu'elle puisse seule être caractéristique; mais nous nous arrètons à la fièvre qui se manifeste dans les deux affections, et nous ferons observer que, dans la petite vérolc vraie, elle dure trois ou quatre jours; que, si elle diminue ou cesse à l'apparition des boutons, c'est pour reparaître avec la suppuration, entre le neuvième et le trezième jour: lorsque, dans la petite vérole bâtarde ou volante, elle ne dure qu'un jour ou deux, et est quelquefois à peine sensible.

"Dans la vraie, l'éruption ne commence qu'après trois jours de fièvre, et se montre d'abord au visage, au cou, à la poitrine, et successivement aux autres parties du corps; les boutons augmentent insen→ siblement, et n'ont acquis leur grosseur qu'au bout de quatre ou cinq jours.

"Dans la fausse, l'éruption paraît tout-à-coup à la fin du premier jour, quelquefois du second, et rarement le troisième; elle se fait presque simultanément sur les différentes parties du corps, et sans cet ordre régulier que suivent, à leur sortie, les boutons de la petite vérole.

"Dans la vraie, les pustules, une fois formées, présentent un léger enfoncement au milieu de leur sommet; d'abord rouges, elles blanchissent ensuite, et sont environnées d'une aréole de couleur rosée., "Dans la fausse, elles sont sphériques à leur sommet.

"Dans la vraie, ces pustules sont remplies d'une sérosité qui se transforme en une matière purulente, exhalant une odeur nauséabonde particulière.

"Dans la fausse, elles ne contiennent, même au point de leur plus grande maturité, qu'une lymphe blanchâtre ct transparente.

"Dans la petite vérole, le desséchement ne commence que le onzième jour de la maladie.

"Dans la vérolette, les pustules laissent transsuder l'humeur qu'elles contiennent, quelquefois deux ou trois jours après leur sortio; elles se flétrissent, se dessèchent et tombent en écailles à la fin du sixième, huitième, ou dixième jour.

NO. 273.

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