An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae Part 4

Elizabeth Sa.r.s.enet lived as a dairy maid at Newpark farm, in this parish. All the cows and the servants employed in milking had the Cow-pox; but this woman, though she had several sores upon her fingers, felt no tumors in the axillae, nor any general indisposition.

On being afterwards casually exposed to variolous infection, she had the Small-pox in a mild way.--Hannah Pick, another of the dairy maids who was a fellow-servant with Elizabeth Sa.r.s.enet when the distemper broke out at the farm was, at the same time infected; but this young woman had not only sores upon her hands, but felt herself also much indisposed for a day or two. After this, I made several attempts to give her the Small-pox by inoculation, but they all proved fruitless.

From the former Case then we see that the animal economy is subject to the same laws in one disease as the other.

The following Case which has very lately occurred renders it highly probable that not only the heels of the horse, but other parts of the body of that animal, are capable of generating the virus which produces the Cow-pox.

An extensive inflammation of the erysipelatous kind, appeared without any apparent cause upon the upper part of the thigh of a sucking colt, the property of Mr. Millet, a farmer at Rockhampton, a village near Berkeley. The inflammation continued several weeks, and at length terminated in the formation of three or four small abscesses.

The inflamed parts were fomented, and dressings were applied by some of the same persons who were employed in milking the cows. The number of cows milked was twenty-four, and the whole of them had the Cow-pox. The milkers, consisting of the farmer's wife, a man and a maid servant, were infected by the cows. The man servant had previously gone through the Small-pox, and felt but little of the Cow-pox. The servant maid had some years before been infected with the Cow-pox, and she also felt it now in a slight degree: But the farmer's wife who never had gone through either of these diseases, felt its effects very severely.

That the disease produced upon the cows by the colt and from thence conveyed to those who milked them was the _true_ and not the _spurious_ Cow-pox[5], there can be scarcely any room for suspicion; yet it would have been more completely satisfactory, had the effects of variolous matter been ascertained on the farmer's wife, but there was a peculiarity in her situation which prevented my making the experiment.

Thus far have I proceeded in an inquiry, founded, as it must appear, on the basis of experiment; in which, however, conjecture has been occasionally admitted in order to present to persons well situated for such discussions, objects for a more minute investigation. In the mean time I shall myself continue to prosecute this inquiry, encouraged by the hope of its becoming essentially beneficial to mankind.

FINIS.

[Footnote 1: It is very easy to procure pus from old sores on the heels of horses. This I have often inserted into scratches made with a lancet, on the sound nipples of cows, and have seen no other effects from it than simple inflammation.]

[Footnote 2: See Case IX.]

[Footnote 3: My friend Dr. Hicks, of Bristol, who during the prevalence of this distemper was resident at Gloucester, and Physician to the Hospital there, (where it was seen soon after its first appearance in this country) had opportunities of making numerous observations upon it, which it is his intention to communicate to the Public.]

[Footnote 4: I have been informed from respectable authority that in Ireland, although dairies abound in many parts of the Island, the disease is entirely unknown. The reason seems obvious. The business of the dairy is conducted by women only. Were the meanest va.s.sal among the men, employed there as a milker at a dairy, he would feel his situation unpleasant beyond all endurance.]

[Footnote 5: See Note in Page 7.]

_ERRATA._

Page 5, Line 4, after the word _s.h.i.+verings_ insert _succeeded by heat_.

Line 16, for _needlessly_ read _heedlessly_.

---- 24, Last line but one, for _sore_ read _tumour_.

---- 40, Line 12, for _Macklove_ read _Marklove_.

---- 41, Note--for _scepticus_ read _septicus_.

---- 60, Last line, for _moderate_ read _modern_.