Lectures on the eruptive fevers : as now in the course of delivery at St. Thomas's hospital, in London / by George Gregory.

  • Gregory, George, 1790-1853.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the eruptive fevers : as now in the course of delivery at St. Thomas's hospital, in London / by George Gregory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    hence concludes, that it should be procured fresh from the cow every five or six years. (rAbeille MH., Nov., 1844, p. 262.) M. Castel says (Report of Committee on Vaccination of French Academy for 1843), that vi'hatever may be the opinion of practitioners on this controverted question, it is an act of prudence to permit no opportunity to escape of renewing the vaccine virus. Mr. Steinbrenner says (Traits de la Vaccine, Paris, 1846) that vaccine virus does undergo a positive deterioration by transmission through suc- cessive individuals, and that it is therefore desirable to obtain fresh lymph from the cow frequently, which may be done by taking it annually. The Committee of the French Academy which reported in 1845, also recommended, as a prudential measure, the frequent renewal of vaccine lymph, and resorting to the cow for this purpose.] And now as touching re-vaccination. It is believed bj many that vaccine protection may be renewed, as we renew the lease of a house, every seven, fourteen, and twenty-one years. By the physicians of Germany, re-vaccination»has been held up as a measure scarcely less important in its effects, nor less widely applicable, than primary vaccination. Tn France, on the other hand, the repetition of the vaccine process has been disparaged. A commission, expressly nominated to investigate the matter, comprising some of the most talented men in Paris, reported against re-vaccination. The question is not easily decided for want of data, which, in the very nature of things, can never be sup- plied so as to insure a satisfactory resuh. Happily, there is no occasion to press the cause to judgment. The operation, except in a few rare instances, is pro- ductive only of slight and temporary inconvenience, and may safely be recommended. If the resulting vesicles prove good, and the course of the disorder normal, you have good grounds for congratulating the patient upon the success of your measure. In the larger number of instances, however, 19