(II)
Why Vaccination was foisted on the People.
Well, having told you briefly the history of the matter, you may ask, "However was it that this thing was foisted on the people? How came the medical men of the country to accept it?" In the first place science was then at a very low ebb. It was about that time Joanna Stephens lived. She had a wonderful remedy for stone, which gained great notoriety. There was great anxiety to obtain it, and at last a subscription list was opened. It was headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and all the leading doctors subscribed. Joanna wanted £5,000 for her recipe. The money was obtained and the recipe came to light. It ran as follows: "My medicines are a powder, a decoction and a pill. The powder consists of egg-shells and snails, both calcined. The decoction is made by boiling some herbs (together with a ball, which consists of soap, swine's cresses burnt to a blackness, and honey) in water. The pills consist of snails calcined, wild carrot seeds, burdock seeds, ashen keys, hips and haws, all burnt to a blackness, soap and honey." She got her £5,000 and the doctors got their recipe; they say that fools and their money are soon parted. (Laughter.) I don't begrudge either Joanna Stephens the money or the doctors her recipe, but I don't think any more of the doctors in consequence, and we can't be surprised at their accepting with so little opposition the wonderful recipe of Jenner for small-pox.
There was another reason why they accepted it, and that was this, the majority of the doctors of that time had never heard of or seen cow-pox. Dr. Denham, writing at that time, said the majority had never heard of it. However, when Jenner came forward with the letters F.R.S., M.D., after his name, with all the impudence of a charlatan, saying, "Such is the singular character of my discovery that a person who is once inoculated with cow-pox is for ever afterwards secure against small-pox," the whole of the profession was arrested by the deliberate statement made, and they all bowed down before the golden calf which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. (Laughter and cheers.)
THE STORY OF INOCULATION.
Another reason was that inoculation had turned out a failure. What was inoculation? It consisted in this: It was supposed at that time that small-pox was a permanent evil influence amongst us, and that everybody was obliged to have it some time or other before they died. Consequently it was thought if they could only have the small- pox in a mild form and at a convenient season it would be nice to have it over, just as mothers now think that their little ones must have measles, scarlatina, whooping cough, chicken-pox, etc., and are glad to get it over. It was consequently said, what is more simple? Let us give the people a mild case of small-pox when they are well and able to resist it. This idea, which became very popular, first of all originated in India. They had there a small-pox goddess whose name was Matah, and the Hindoos used to inoculate themselves with small- pox in order to appease the goddess, fancying that if they did so and if small-pox came along they would then have it in a very mild form, or, perhaps, that her Majesty would look kindly upon them and they
