AN _INQUIRY_ INTO THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE VARIOLAE VACCINAE.

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AN _INQUIRY_ INTO THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE VARIOLAE VACCINAE, A DISEASE DISCOVERED IN SOME OF THE WESTERN COUNTIES OF ENGLAND, PARTICULARLY _GLOUCESTERSHIRE_, AND KNOWN BY THE NAME OF THE COW POX.

BY EDWARD JENNER, M.D. F.R.S. &c.

----QUID NOBIS CERTIUS IPSIS SENSIBUS ESSE POTEST, QUO VERA AC FALSA NOTEMUS.

LUCRETIUS.

London: PRINTED, FOR THE AUTHOR, BY SAMPSON LOW, No. 7, BERWICK STREET, SOHO: AND SOLD BY LAW, AVE-MARIA LANE; AND MURRAY AND HIGHLEY, FLEET STREET.

1798.

TO _C. H. PARRY, M.D._ AT BATH.

_My dear friend_,

In the present age of scientific investigation, it is remarkable that a disease of so peculiar a nature as the Cow Pox, which has appeared in this and some of the neighbouring counties for such a series of years, should so long have escaped particular attention. Finding the prevailing notions on the subject, both among men of our profession and others, extremely vague and indeterminate, and conceiving that facts might appear at once both curious and useful, I have instituted as strict an inquiry into the causes and effects of this singular malady as local circumstances would admit.

The following pages are the result, which, from motives of the most affectionate regard, are dedicated to you, by

Your sincere Friend, EDWARD JENNER.

Berkeley, Gloucestershire, June 21st, 1798.

AN INQUIRY, _&c. &c._

The deviation of Man from the state in which he was originally placed by Nature seems to have proved to him a prolific source of Diseases. From the love of splendour, from the indulgences of luxury, and from his fondness for amusement, he has familiarised himself with a great number of animals, which may not originally have been intended for his associates.

The Wolf, disarmed of ferocity, is now pillowed in the lady's lap[1]. The Cat, the little Tyger of our island, whose natural home is the forest, is equally domesticated and caressed. The Cow, the Hog, the Sheep, and the Horse, are all, for a variety of purposes, brought under his care and dominion.

There is a disease to which the Horse, from his state of domestication, is frequently subject. The Farriers have termed it _the Grease_. It is an inflammation and swelling in the heel, from which issues matter possessing properties of a very peculiar kind, which seems capable of generating a disease in the Human Body (after it has undergone the modification which I shall presently speak of), which bears so strong a resemblance to the Small Pox, that I think it highly probable it may be the source of that disease.

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Vari
• 2: Frequently becoming phagedenic
• 3: Such as the solutions of the Vitriolum Zinci
• 4: Variolous matter was inserted into both her arms
• 5: Had gone through the Small Pox
• 6: Variolous matter was inserted into both his arms
• 7: WILLIAM STINCHCOMB was a fellow servant with Nichols at Mr
• 8: And some years after was inoculated with variolous matter
• 9: He was again inoculated with variolous matter
• 10: Wherret never had had the Small pox
• 11: Those appearing from the insertion of variolous matter
• 12: An appearance so often seen in inoculated Small pox
• 13: It is singular to observe that the Cow pox virus
• 14: Was inoculated with variolous matter
• 15: With inefficaceous variolous matter
• 16: When his patients became indisposed
• 17: That notwithstanding the happy effects of Inoculation
• 18: Elizabeth Sarsenet lived as a dairy maid at Newpark farm
• 19: Employed there as a milker at a dairy