VACCINATION ESTABLISHED AND ENDOWED.
Jenner provided for, his adherents had yet another end to achieve,
namely, their own release from the burden of the Royal Jennerian
Society, paralysed by the secession of Dr. Walker and the Friends
and the establishment of the London Vaccine Institution. At first
they had endeavoured to discredit the new Institution, even to
the extent of distributing hand-bills like the following in the
streets--
A CAUTION.
To persons desirous of obtaining INOCULATION for the Cowpox
Gratis under the sanction of
THE ROYAL JENNERIAN SOCIETY.
Whereas, Doctor JOHN WALKER has, under various pretences,
obstructed persons going to the Central House of this Society,
the Public are hereby warned to be upon their guard against any
insidious representations, the connection between Dr. WALKER and
the Society having ceased, and Dr. KNOWLES having been appointed
the Resident Inoculator at the Society’s House, No. 14 Salisbury
Square.
_By Order of the Directors and Medical Council, 9th October,
1806._
It was all in vain. Walker was preferred to Sheridan Knowles
backed by Jenner, whose friends had no liking for the support of
the Society out of their own pockets. It was therefore planned
to resort to Parliament for an annual subsidy so as dispense
with the necessity of subscriptions. The managers of the London
Vaccine Institution, learning what was on foot, naturally argued
that if Government was to be thus propitious, it was they who had
the better claim to assistance, and therefore prepared a petition
setting forth their exertions in spreading Vaccine Inoculation.
This interference with their scheme filled the Jennerians with
fury, and Mr. JOHN FULLER undertook to speak their mind in the
House of Commons. When, therefore, on 2nd June, 1808, Sir THOMAS
TURTON presented the petition, FULLER sprang to his feet and
denounced it, saying a grosser forgery had never been submitted to
the House.
The SPEAKER interposed. The petition had not been read. When it
was, the House would be enabled to judge of its contents. Mr.
FULLER resumed his seat amid general laughter. The petition having
been read--
Mr. FULLER apologised for his abruptness. The petition was a
gross cheat, a wicked trick to swindle the public; or, if it was
not absolute swindling, it went very near the wind. When they
came to solicit his subscription, he thought they represented
some respectable corporation, but what did they turn out to be?
A parcel of Quakers, or Presbyterians, or whatever else they
were called. They had got five guineas from him, but the moment
he detected them, he threatened them with a Bow Street officer
and a charge of swindling, which soon frightened them into a
re-delivery of his money. What a shame it was to see the cause
of such fellows espoused by any man in that House! He did not
suppose the Honourable Baronet shared in their gains, and he might
laugh as he pleased, and spout like a lawyer, but it was a poor
way to show himself off for the sake of a little notoriety among
such despicable sectaries. He hoped the House would not lend any
countenance to the imposture.
Sir THOMAS TURTON good humouredly replied, that the Jennerian
Society, in whose interest the preceding speaker exhibited so
much untempered zeal, was not instituted till 1803. The original
Vaccine Pock Institution was established by Dr. Pearson in 1799.
The Institution to which the petition referred was established
in 1806, chiefly by members of the Society of Friends, a sect to
whose virtuous principles and behaviour it was his privilege to
bear testimony. Since 1806 the Institution had communicated the
vaccine matter to 81,000 persons in every situation of life. The
petitioners only desired to have the facts they adduced inquired
into, and hoped for public aid only in the event of being entitled
to it on public grounds.
This application for assistance by Walker’s Institution rendered
its concession to the Jennerian Society impossible: it was not for
the Government to get into hot water by showing favour to either;
and as both could not be subsidised, it was determined to vary the
application, and to ask the House of Commons to provide means for
the maintenance of a new and independent institution from which
“the Genuine Vaccine Virus could be distributed without expense
throughout the British dominions.” Mr. GEORGE ROSE, Treasurer to
the Navy, took charge of the measure, which he introduced to the
House on 9th June, 1808. After dealing with a notorious failure of
Vaccination at Ringwood, he proceeded to observe, that whilst it
could no longer be said that Vaccination was a certain security
against Smallpox in all cases, yet the evidence showed that the
failures were not one in 300. He would therefore move that the
House having the testimony of the Colleges of Physicians and
Surgeons of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, that Vaccination was
salutary and generally effective, it is desirable that a Central
Institution be formed for the provision and distribution of Real
Vaccine Matter, and that its administration be committed to the
Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in London. The expense
would not be more than £2500 or £3000 per annum.
Mr. DAVIES GIDDY said he should not oppose the resolution, but it
would have been much better to have refrained from interference.
The people would neglect inoculation, and then smallpox would break
out with tenfold severity.
Mr. FULLER observed that Smallpox had been annihilated in Calcutta
by systematic and enforced Vaccination, and he believed the same
result was attainable in this country. He thought that even those
who hesitated to resort to general compulsion, would not object to
the Vaccination of all children in workhouses.
Sir T. TURTON would have preferred a committee of investigation.
There were already three Institutions in London for the express
purpose of propagating cowpox, and the object Mr. Rose had in view
was more likely to be attained by private subscriptions and by
assistance from Government than by a special Institution formed and
endowed by the State.
Lord HENRY PETTY contended that as the evidence was now confessedly
incomplete as to the infallible efficacy of Vaccination, it was
highly proper that investigation should be persevered in under the
eye of the public instead of by a number of small institutions
which were not perhaps altogether exempt from the imputation of
being guided by mercenary motives.
Sir FRANCIS BURDETT said Vaccination appeared before them with
a complexion widely differing from that originally assumed. A
short time ago they were assured it was an infallible preventive
of Smallpox, and that its practice was so simple that any old
woman was equal to it. Now they were told that it was a very nice
operation requiring great judgment and skill, the want of which
was held to account for the many failures which had occurred.
Thus there was neither that simplicity nor security which was
originally asserted. Considering these manifest discrepancies
between promise and practice, it was, he thought, most unwise for
the House to intervene in order to help what appeared to be a
failing experiment. They ought to be cautious--they ought not to
prop up what might prove to be pernicious error. Government in this
free country cannot compel people to submit to the prescriptions
of physicians, or the operations of surgeons, or anything except
the laws; and it was doubtful whether science itself would be
benefitted if placed under Government direction. They were referred
to the reports of the Medical Colleges, but as he read these
reports he detected much hesitation and evasion, and anything but
the assurance displayed on behalf of Vaccination by several members
of the House. Many instances of failure were admitted, and such
instances might safely be doubled. As for Spurious Cowpox he wished
to know what it was. It was used to account for all mishaps, and
it was, he suspected, a mere shift, shuffle, and get-off. [Sir
Francis need not have spoken thus dubiously, for the Report of the
Physicians admitted what he suspected.] He would much prefer a
committee of investigation, and hoped the resolution would not be
pressed.
Mr. WILBERFORCE brought up the foreign argument. There might be
failures at home, but these could be satisfactorily accounted
for. It was for them to consider the magnificent successes of
Vaccination in other lands [_Omne ignotum pro magnifico est_],
concerning which there was no room for doubt. He saw no surer
method of inspiring the public with confidence in Vaccination than
by the establishment of the proposed Institution.
Mr. ROSE explained that he merely wished to bring the House to a
resolution, leaving it to his Majesty [that was to say, himself for
the Government] to give it effect.
Mr. GEORGE CANNING, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
declared that though he considered the discovery of Vaccination
to be of the greatest importance, yet he could not imagine any
circumstances whatever that would induce him to follow up the most
favourable report of its infallibility with any measure for its
compulsory infliction.
This declaration of Canning is well worth attention and
commemoration. It serves to mark the reverence for personal
liberty, which was the fine distinction of the former order of
English statesmen, and separated, when little else did, the English
from the Continental Tory. The noble tradition of this liberty
meets with scant favour in these times, and Canning’s avowal in
the new House of Commons would be heard as an anachronism. Nearly
every adventurer who has a prescription for the moral and physical
welfare of his fellow creatures hopes to have it enforced by
legislation; and since, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, our
babes are cut and poisoned to save them from smallpox, there is no
infraction of personal liberty, however outrageous, that can now be
pronounced impossible.
When the House divided there were 60 for the motion and 5 against
it--again a small House for so critical a matter.
With the permission to spend £3000 a year, the National Vaccine
Establishment was constituted, Jenner being consulted in its
organisation. A Board was formed, consisting of the President and
four Censors of the Royal College of Physicians, and the Master
and two senior Wardens of the College of Surgeons. The Board met
on 8th December, 1808, and proceeded to business. Jenner, as was
his fatality on important occasions, was absent, being detained at
Berkeley by family affliction. He wrote to Moore--
I should be unworthy of the name of father were I to stir from
my children. Indeed, nothing would make me, not even a royal
mandate, unless accompanied by a troop of horse.
Jenner was elected Director, but not a member of the Board, and
immediately began to protest that he was disregarded and subjected
to indignity. “The Board,” he said, “appointed me Director, but
they soon contrived to let me feel that I was to be a Director
_directed_.” The arrangement he had made with Mr. Rose and Sir
Lucas Pepys, the President of the College of Physicians, was, he
held, altogether different--
It was stipulated between Mr. Rose, Sir Lucas, and myself, that
no person should take any part in the Vaccinating Department who
was not either nominated by me or submitted to my approbation.
On my reminding Sir Lucas of this, he replied, “You, Sir, are
to be whole and sole Director. We [meaning the Board] are to be
considered as nothing. What do _we_ know of Vaccination.”[139]
Sir Lucas of course was jeering, but Jenner’s head was so turned
with vanity and flattery that he could not distinguish mockery from
sincerity. He had constructed for himself a fool’s paradise, out
of which the Board pitched him unceremoniously. He recommended his
bludgeon bearer, John Ring, for Chief Vaccinator and Inspector of
Stations, but the Board declined to have anything to do with him,
and added insult to contempt; for in Jenner’s words, written in the
third person--
They appointed a gentleman in his place who was taken from an
Institution which had been personally hostile to Dr. Jenner on
all occasions.
Subsequently he sent in a list of seven names for Sub-Vaccinators,
of which the Board rejected five, which brought matters to a
crisis, and he resigned. In the memorandum, from which I have
quoted, he wrote--
By the whole of these circumstances, Dr. Jenner felt himself
under the necessity of withdrawing from the establishment.
He could take upon himself no responsibility where he had
no power, not even a vote. He did not wish to control the
establishment; nothing was further from his thoughts. But he
expected that the practical part of its concerns would have been
under his direction, as the title of his office implied; and
he expected that those gentlemen whom, from a consciousness of
their pre-eminent ability, he had so strongly recommended to
conduct this practical part, would have been appointed. But as
his recommendations have been disregarded--as arrangements and
appointments have been made which are contrary to his judgment,
and as he is informed by the Board that it was intended for them
to use their own discretion, and that they alone are responsible
for the conduct of the establishment, Dr. Jenner declined
accepting the station of Director, to which they had nominated
him, since he found that he was to have nothing to do in the
establishment, and that his office was only a name.[140]
To those who did not know Jenner, or who accepted him at his own
estimate, the treatment to which he was subjected might appear
reprehensible; but the Board understood their man, and only cared
to have the benefit of his name, for little else was worth having.
What could be made of a character indolent and untrustworthy; who
disliked London and was off to Gloucestershire on any pretext;
whose sickly family had from him the supreme consideration of an
affectionate mother! He wrote to Moore--
I agree with you that my not being a member of the British
Vaccine Establishment will astonish the world; and no one in it
can be more astonished than myself.
He was mistaken. The world, so far as it thought at all, considered
he was handsomely rewarded with his £30,000, and with so much
public money in his pocket might have looked for a better
disposition on his part. When his nominations were disregarded, he
declined even to come to London, and thus excused his sulking at
Berkeley--
I was quite in earnest at the time I informed you of my intention
to come to town, but while I was getting things in order there
came a piece of information from a Right Hon. Gentleman which
determined me to remain in my retirement. It was as follows--
_That the Institution was formed for the purpose of a full and
satisfactory investigation of the benefits or dangers of the
Vaccine Practice, and that this was the reason why Dr. Jenner
could not be admitted as one of the conductors of it, as the
public would not have the same confidence in their proceedings as
if the Board were left to their own judgment in doubtful cases._
This is the sum and substance of the communication--
What do we know of Vaccination?
We know nothing of Vaccination!
Alas! poor Vaccinia, how art thou degraded!
You intimated something of this sort to me some time since, and
now I get it from the fountain head. An institution founded on
the principle of inquiry seven or eight years ago, would have
been worthy of the British nation; but now, after the whole
world bears testimony to the safety and efficacy of the Vaccine
Practice, I do think it a most extraordinary proceeding. It
is one that must necessarily degrade me, and cannot exalt the
framers of it in the eyes of common-sense. I shall now stick
closely to _my own Institution_, which I have the pride and
vanity to think is paramount to all others, as its extent and
benefits are boundless. Of this I am the real and not the
nominal Director. I have conducted the whole concern for no
inconsiderable number of years, single-handed, and have spread
Vaccination round the globe. This convinces me that simplicity in
this, as in all effective machinery, is best.[141]
In the discussion in the House of Commons it was stated by
his friend, Lord Henry Petty, that one of the objects of the
Establishment would be investigation, and it was absurd for Jenner
to pretend that the fact came upon him as a revelation; and,
unless completely blinded by conceit, he must have recognised
that the general faith in Vaccination exhibited in 1801 had been
much shaken by the experience of the succeeding seven years. But
it is idle to argue the matter. When Jenner could say that he
single-handed had conducted the whole concern for years and spread
Vaccination round the globe, he could assert anything. The letter
is interesting chiefly as an exhibition of character.
We shall return to the National Vaccine Establishment and its
management--a curious story. Suffice it for the present to observe,
that its immediate effects were adverse to Vaccination. The annual
endowment was consumed in salaries, and many ceased to subscribe
to the Cowpox Societies since Vaccination was so well provided
for. The essential mischief consisted in the recognition of the
evil practice by the State, whereby it has been perpetuated to the
common injury to our own day.
THE ORIGINAL VACCINE POCK INSTITUTION.
The national endowment of Vaccination afforded a convenient pretext
for closing this Institution, founded by Dr. Pearson and his
friends in 1799; but some said the true reason was involved in the
following resolutions--
VACCINE POCK INSTITUTION,
Broad Street, Golden Square.
GENERAL QUARTERLY COURT, Nov. 5, 1805.
_Resolved_--That according to the experience of the medical
establishment of this Institution, it appears that the
Inoculation for the Cowpock affords security against the Smallpox
equally with Variolous Inoculation, and that the new practice
possesses all the advantages already stated to the public.
_Resolved_--That, in order to give a further proof to the public,
and to afford an inducement for information adverse to the new
practice, the following proposal be made public, viz.:--That,
in future, every patient who shall be vaccinated at this
Institution, on discharge, shall receive a Certificate, stating
that such patient has gone through the Cowpock, and engaging that
if hereafter the said patient shall take the Smallpox, he or she
shall be entitled to the sum of Five Guineas, to be paid from the
funds of this Institution at the first General Court, after the
proofs have been given, according to the rules of the medical
establishment.
WILLIAM SANCHO, _Secretary_.
The offer attested the sincerity of the conductors of the
Institution, but so many patients, it is said, laid claim to Five
Guineas that it was not without satisfaction that a reasonable
cause was afforded for shutting up.
Dr. Pearson held that it was impossible to be re-vaccinated. He
argued that since no one could have Smallpox twice, no one could
have the equivalent of Smallpox, namely Cowpox, twice. It was a
logical contention; but facts did not correspond to the logic.
Pearson also objected to the Variolous Test, or inoculation
with Smallpox after inoculation with Cowpox to prove that the
constitution was fortified against attack. He preferred Cowpox to
Smallpox for the purpose, as milder and less liable to dangerous
results. He found that after Cowpox it was impossible to have
Cowpox--at least immediately. Hence he was confirmed in his opinion
that Cowpox after Cowpox was impossible; just as others argued on
the same grounds that Smallpox after Cowpox was impossible. Yet at
this day none doubt that Pearson was in error; for all believe in
the possibility of re-Vaccination, or Cowpox after Cowpox; likewise
of Smallpox after Cowpox.
FOOTNOTES:
[139] Letter to JAMES MOORE, _16th January, 1809_.
[140] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. ii. p. 124.
[141] Letter to JAMES MOORE, _4th April, 1809_. Baron’s _Life of
Jenner_, vol. ii. p. 126.