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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 40

Dr. Wyld's Second Speech

Dr. Wyld's Second Speech.

Dr. Wyld—Before my last speech I told you I felt very comfortable. I now add that I feel very happy. I put the pith of my speech into three questions, and these three questions Mr. Wheeler has declined to answer.

Mr. Wheeler—Want of time.

Dr. Wyld—Mr. Wheeler says that inoculation is contrary to law; but I told you I should have no objection to inoculate as a test of successful vaccination.

Mr. Wheeler—I wish you would let me know when doing it.

Dr. Wyld—The law is against inoculation as a substitute for vaccination; it is not against the operation as a scientific proof that subsequently to vaccination successful inoculation is impossible.

page 23

Mr. Wheeler—It is prohibited.

Dr. Wyld—Then Mr. Wheeler says that my statement about the 45,000 who died every year previous to Jenner is mere conjecture. Well, I stated that it was a Parliamentary return, and I say Mr. Wheeler's denial is conjecture. I substantiate my 45,000 by another statistic. In the days of Jenner, one in 14 of the deaths was said to result from small-pox. If we make the calculation on this data we arrive at about 50,000 instead of 45,000; therefore, this is a corroboration of the Parliamentary return, and Mr. Wheeler's denial is simply denial because it answers his purpose. I will say more. Not only have we this Parliamentary report, but if you had not this enormous mortality, how would you explain the horror of small-pox that existed in those days? There is no such horror now, because we know that we are protected by vaccination. (Laughter and interruption.) There was horror before Jenner; there is not now. If the same small-pox mortality subsisted now as before Jenner, instead of a mortality of 150,000 during the last thirty years, we should have had 2,700,000 deaths from small-pox. Then Mr. Wheeler, who, of course, knows a great deal better than I do, says that the Jennerian cow-pox has not declined in power in the human subject.

Mr. Wheeler—No; Jenner says so.

Dr. Wyld—You profess to believe Jenner in that statement, but disbelieve him in other statements. Jenner spoke after fifteen or twenty years' experience; I speak after we have had eighty years' experience, and I maintain that it has declined, and I can prove it thus. In the days of Jenner the after-scab of vaccination lasted a certain number of days; now it lasts a fewer number of days, thus demonstrating that it has not laid that firm hold of the constitution that it did in its primitive condition. But cow-pox is foreign to the human subject, and it is therefore natural that it should dwindle and decay in a foreign soil, which I assert it does. Mr. Wheeler tells you that Jenner did not publish all the medical replies to his circular; but he has not reminded you that throughout Jenner's life there was an enormous amount of jealousy of Jenner on the part of the doctors, and many of them did all they could to malign him in a shameful manner; and if they wrote letters at all they might have been mainly abusive—just such letters as are now common in anti-vaccination literature. Not only did the doctors abuse Jenner, but in many parts of the country he could not get doctors to vaccinate patients. There page 24 was such ignorance and intolerance that they would not substitute cow-pox for inoculation. What happened? Vaccination fell to a considerable extent into the hands of clergymen and ladies. This may account for the small notice taken of these medical replies. The doctors were jealous not only of Jenner's reputation, but of the £30,000 he got from Government; and that small and contemptible jealousy has descended to the anti-vaccinators of the present day.