The Enquirer

FROM AN ENGLISH PUBLICATION.

History of Vaccination, in Turkey, Greece, and the East-Indies.

By J. De CARRO, M. D.

M. DE CARRO, having set the example of vaccination in his own children, an example very worthily imitated by a great number of persons of distinction, widely spread this beneficent practice, by sending to his correspondents in every quarter, thread, cups and lancets of silver and ivory, impregnated with the vaccine matter, with proper instructions for using them. He had the satisfaction to succeed beyond his hopes. Thro' his zeal, great part of Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Russia, was made acquainted with this inestimable discovery; and to him Asia owes this great blessing. In the year 1800, he sent the materials to Constantinople for the use of my Lord Elgin; and, by the assiduity of Doctors White, Scott, Hass, Pezzoni, Auban, &c. vaccination has at length gained a footing in the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Notwithstanding the prejudices of the Turks, ever the enemies of innovation, vaccination is introduced even into the Seraglio, where Doctor Romi, physician to the Grand Signior, vaccinated a child of one of the domestics with the approbation of his highness, to whom he had presented an extract from the work of Dr. De Carro.

By the indefatigable industry of this Physician, vaccination has penetrated from thence into Greece; Dr. Gagliotti, at Athens, and Dr. La Font, at Salonica, practising it with great success. But from thence to the Indies, the distance is so great, that, although the fame of this discovery had made a great sensation there, it had not been introduced to that unhappy country, where the small pox makes such ravages, that one-third of the whole number that take it naturally die of the disorder, and one in forty or fifty of those who are inoculated. The English had, in vain, often sent thread and cups into that country, impregnated with the vaccine matter. These had always failed; whether the length of the voyage had destroyed the activity of the vaccine matter, or it was owing to any other cause. At length Mr. Hartford, the British Resident at the Court of the Bashaw of Bagdad, sent to request matter from Dr. De Carro, through Mr. Paget, Envoy Extraordinary from the King of England to Vienna.

The Doctor sent the matter with particular care: beside lancets of pure silver, of silver gilt and ivory, he sent to Bagdad, cups, impregnated with the vaccine liquid, according to the method invented by Dr. Jenner, and improved by the Hanoverian vaccinators, Drs. Ballhorn and Stromeyer. He afterwards dipped several times into melted wax these closed cups, which he enclosed in a box. It was thus that the vaccine matter arrived still liquid, on the borders of the Tigris; where it succeeded at the first trial. It had been taken from an infant vaccinated with cups, that Dr. Louis Sacco had sent to Vienna, which had been very successful. The original matter had been taken from one of the cows of Lombardy, and this was the sole source of all the vaccinations made in Asia. Thus Great Britain transmitted the blessing to the West, & the Italian Republic to the East.

From Bagdad, where Dr. Short soon spread the practice, the vaccine inoculation penetrated swiftly to Basora, and thence to Bombay, by the care of Mr. Milne, a very able surgeon. It was in the month of June, 1802, that Ann Duthils, of three years of age, daughter of a domestic of Capt. Hardy, was vaccinated at Bombay; and, in the month of October, there were more than a thousand persons in that country who were successively vaccinated, who all had the disorder in the mildest and most regular manner, precisely the same as in Europe. The vaccination was already spread through Hyderabad, Mysore, Madras, and all the provinces of Canara and Malabar:--Thanks to the zeal of his Excellency the Governor-General of India, to distribute this great blessing. In the month of March following, there were more than 10,000 vaccinated in the Island of Ceylon, whose Governor, Mr. North, entirely suppressed the Small-pox Hospital there, resolved to propagate the art of vaccination.

At length it spread with such rapidity, that in a work of Dr. George Keir, appointed by the Governor of Bombay to superintend vaccination, a work which appeared in the month of May last, it is stated, that in a multitude of large cities, such as Calcutta, Masulipatam, Trincomalee, Calicut, Pondicherry, Malabar, &c. vaccination was generally adopted. After a great many trials with the variolic virus, not one individual took the small-pox.

The eagerness of the inhabitants of India to be vaccinated, they and their children, notwithstanding their aversion from all innovation, and excessive indolence, greatly surpasses that of Europeans; which is to be attributed--1st. To the religious veneration which the Indians have for the cow; which, as is well known, plays a great part in their sacred history.--2d. To the happy thought of Dr. James Anderson, first Physician at Madras, to give to vaccination a name taken from the Sanscrit language, which means immortality, as preserving from the death which the small-pox occasions. The name is amrutam. I am convinced, says the Doctor, that this word will make its way more easily in the kingdom of Candy, in the peninsula of India, and in Hindostan, than the word Cow-pox.--3d. To the zeal the Bramins have shown for this practice. Dr. Yates speaks of one who himself vaccinated a great number of children with complete success. And in the Island of Ceylon, it was not thought prudent to confide vaccination to the physicians of the country, but their zeal for this preservative rendered the precaution unnecessary.--4th. To the care with which the physicians of India preserve the source of the vaccine matter. "When it has succeeded in any quarter (they say) it is our care to guard with vigilance so precious a treasure; for if we once lose it, it will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to regain it. Here we cannot go to the original source, as in England; for, unhappily, Providence has not granted to the cows of our country, a gift so salutary to man. Thus, whether we consider the present value of the vaccine matter to the individual, or think of posterity, we must preserve it with anxious solicitude." In India, as well as in Europe, the difficulty of vaccinating with the dry matter has been felt, and it has been surmounted almost every where, by sending children already infected, from one place to another. Doctor Heir speaks of a Bramin sent with two children vaccinated, to Poonah, the capital of the empire of the Mahrattas, from a place six days distance.--5th. To the measures taken by the Government, to propagate the invaluable discovery of Dr. Jenner. One of the physicians of the establishment of Bengal is charged to provide the means of extending its influence, and to instruct the Indian physicians in its advantages, and the best rules for the operation. The Government has inserted in The Bombay Gazette, a detailed account of its success in India; and this Memoir, very ably drawn up by Doctors Moir and Scott, at the request of the Office of Health in that settlement, has greatly contributed to spread the knowledge and influence of this great blessing.