rampant, for the poison of small-pox never slumbers nor sleeps, but
requires the utmost diligence to eradicate it. The great Dr Jenner,
the discoverer of cow-pox as a preventative of small-pox, strongly
advocated the absolute necessity of _every_ person being re-vaccinated
once every seven years, or even, oftener, if there was an epidemic of
small-pox in the neighbourhood.

48. _Are you not likely to catch not only the cow-pox, but any other
disease that the child has from whom the matter is taken_?

The same objection holds good in cutting for small pox
(inoculation)--only in a ten-fold degree--small-pox being such a
disgusting complaint. Inoculated small-pox frequently produced and
left behind inveterate "breakings-out," scars, cicatrices, and
indentations of the skin, sore eyes, blindness, loss of eyelashes,
scrofula, deafness--indeed, a long catalogue of loathsome diseases. A
medical man, of course, will be careful to take the cow-pox matter
from a healthy child.

49. _Would it not be well to take the matter direct from the cow_?

If a doctor be careful--which, of course, he will be--to take the
matter from a healthy child, and from a well-formed vesicle, I
consider it better than taking it _direct_ from the cow, for the
following reasons:--The cow-pox lymph, taken direct from the cow,
produces much more violent symptoms than after it has passed through
several persons; indeed, in some cases, it has produced effects as
severe as cutting for the small-pox, besides, it has caused, in many
cases, violent inflammation and even sloughing of the arm. There are
also several kinds of _spurious_ cow-pox to which the cow is subject,