Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/291

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JENNER. 269 even of the inoculated one in fifty fell a victim. Condorcet, in recommending the adoption of vac- cination in France, exclaimed, " La petite verole nous decime." In the Russian empire it is said to have swept av/ay two millions in a single year.* At Constantinople it proved fatal in many epidemics to one half of those infected. But, after that the dis- ease had been undergone, traces often remained in the habit only inferior in severity to the evil itself; it appears from the records of the London Asylum for the Indigent Blind, that three-fourths of the objects there relieved had lost their sight through the small-pox. These inflictions might fill many pages of detail ; they ought to be steadily borne in mind even at present. The late professor Gregory had the merit of introducing vaccination into Scotland, in which he was aided by Sir Matthew Tierney. Dr. Waterhouse succeeded, about the year 1800, in estabhshing the practice in America. Dr. De Carro, at that period settled in Vienna, deserves particular mention for his successful exertions in communicating this antidote to Asia. We cannot afford space to enumerate the active promoters of the measure on the continent of Europe, but Dr. Sacco of Milan distinguished himself both by active co-operation, and by personal inquiries into the origin of cow-pox. Most of the governments of Europe have since enjoined the practice by various enactments, which more or less amount to compulsion, and the results have been more favourable under such circumstances than in our

  • WoodviUe on Small-Pox, p. 292.