Dr. Charles T. Pearce, M.D. quotes
Dr. Charles T. Pearce, M.D.   Smallpox quotes

"What, then, is the value of vaccination? We firmly believe that it has no value at all.   Its supposed value has been deduced from incorrect reasoning on the part of its advocates. Were small-pox as prevalent and as fatal now as in the eighteenth century, it might even be justifiable to have recourse to inoculation—either by variolous or vaccine matter. History, however, has demonstrated that towards the close of the last century, when Jenner introduced his system, small-pox had gradually died out, as we shall presently show. Even in Jenner's day small-pox had lost its virulence."---Dr. Charles T. Pearce, M.D.  [1868 Book: Essay on Vaccination]

"Supposing that the mortality from small-pox decreased from 502 in the decade 1771-80 to 204 in the decade 1801-10, because of the introduction of vaccination, how is it that nearly two centuries before its introduction, the death-rate of small-pox was only 189....... ? From 1796 to 1825 there was not any epidemic of small-pox in London."---Dr. Charles T. Pearce, M.D.  [1868 Book: Essay on Vaccination]

 

The Lancet (November 16th, 1861) contained an account of deaths caused by syphilitic inoculation with vaccine lymph. Thirty children were vaccinated from a little girl, six punctures being made on each arm, and the little girl had been operated on from another child, who had been vaccinated with lymph preserved between two plates of glass, which had been obtained from the medical authorities. All these children were inoculated with syphilis. This was in 1866. And in the Lancet of November 16th, 1861, there was an account of the inoculation of 46 children with the same disease, conveyed by means of vaccination. These cases were all well authenticated.

In the years 1838 to 1842, both inclusive, the average annual mortality from phthisis and bronchitis was, in round numbers, 61,000.  In the five years 1847-51, it amounted to 65,750.   In the five years 1852-56, to 69,250.   In the five years 1857-61, to 79,530. And in the five years 1861-65, to 86,336 (For the years 1843 to 1846 the classification of the causes of death published was incomplete).

"The widow of a tradesman presented herself to the author for examination in order that an assurance on her life might be effected.  Her family history was thus stated by her;—"I am 40 years of age. I have a brother living who is 44. My brother and I are the only survivors of a family of ten children. Five of the eight who are dead, died in childhood, two at puberty, and one, at eighteen years of age, of consumption. My brother and I had small-pox; we had neither of us been vaccinated, for it was not much in fashion in the country when we were children, but the eight younger ones born after me were all vaccinated, and my poor mother always attributed their deaths to vaccination; there had been no consumption in the family until then."---Dr. Charles T. Pearce, M.D.  [1868 Book: Essay on Vaccination]

 

“Protection," says Dr. Jenner, " by inoculation directly from the matter from the heel of the horse, cannot be relied on. The disease must be generated by the matter from the horse in the nipple of the cow, and passed through that medium to the human subject."

It is perfectly clear that Dr. Jenner's experiments were performed by the transfer of the purulent matter from a pustule found on farm servants. On the 14th of May, 1796, was the last of a few experiments until the spring of 1798. Dr. Jenner says, “Here my re­searches were interrupted till the spring of the year of 1798, when from the wetness of the early part of the season, many of the farmers' horses in this neighbour­hood were affected with sores on heels, in consequence of which the cow-pox broke out among several of our dairies, which afforded me an opportunity of making farther observations on this curious disease."

The true cow-pox—that which is alone protective, according to Dr. Jenner, is, and must be derived from the grease of the horse's heel. At page 46 of Dr. Jenner's work we find, "That the source of the infection is a peculiar morbid matter arising in the horse. I feel no room for hesitation, being well convinced that it never appears among the cows (except it can be traced to a cow introduced among the general herd which has been previously affected), unless they have been milked by some one who at the same time has the care of a horse affected with diseased heels."

This "accident" he attributed to the matter having suffered decomposition through being kept for several days (Yet the four quarters of the globe have been supplied with lymph from England, which must have been kept for months.)

 

When the practice of inoculation was first commenced in England, the proportion of fatal cases appears to have been one in fifty, and of those who contracted small-pox naturally, one in six died. Moore, in his "History of Small-Pox," published 1815, says, "last year near a thousand persons died of the small-pox in London—six hundred and thirty-eight in the City."

 

It is believed by some veterinary authorities that the disease in the horse's heel called "grease," corresponds to phthisis in the human subject.  If this be true, how serious is the thought of the bare possibility of inoculating children with phthisis; and how fully does this account for the great and alarming increase of phthisis in those countries wherein vaccination has been enforced!*

"It is a remarkable fact that Jenner's first child, his eldest son, on whom he experimented, died subsequently of consumption. Another of his subjects, the man Phipps, whom Jenner vaccinated, also died of consumption."---Dr. Charles T. Pearce, M.D.  [1868 Book: Essay on Vaccination]

 "In the five years 1838 to 1842, inclusive, the average annual mortality in England and Wales, from phthisis and bronchitis, was, in round numbers, 61,000. In the five years 1847 to 1851, it was 65,750. In the five years 1852-56, 69,250. In the five years 1857-61, 79,530. In the five years 1861-65, 86,336."---Dr. Charles T. Pearce, M.D.  [1868 Book: Essay on Vaccination]

of 1853 was passed. Its working is exemplified in the following extract from a letter dated "Barnsley, May 5, 1857," and signed "Aeneas Daly" :—
    "Mr. Joseph Frith had a child vaccinated in 1848, which died in fourteen days from the effects of vaccination. He was summoned by the registrar in January last. He told the magistrate that he had had one child killed by vaccination; and he feared that, if forced to have another vaccinated, it also would he killed. He was forced to comply; and in less than three weeks, the child, though previously perfectly healthy, died of fits, similar to attacks to which some of the family of the child from whom the vaccine matter was taken were subject."]

[*Dr. "West, physician to the Hospital for Sick Children, thus ex­presses his opinion regarding the relationship of measles and small-pox:
    "With reference to the alleged increased prevalence of measles, since the introduction of vaccination, it suffices to say that vaccination preserves only from small-pox, not from any other disease. Measles is, next to small-pox, the most contagious of all fevers. The child who sixty years ago would have died of small-pox, is now preserved from that, often only to catch, perhaps to die of measles. An increased number of deaths from the latter disease was the unavoidable consequence of the comparative extinction of the former. The fact is obvious, though for the moment lost sight of by some philanthropists."—(Parliamentary Blue Book, p. 146.)]We will now show that since vaccination has been made compulsory, the mortality from measles and scarlatina has greatly increased. The following figures are taken from the Registrar General's Report (Appendix), 1865. Scarlatina and diphtheria are classed together from 1850 to 1859 

"The ratio of vaccinated cases to the whole admissions of small-pox patients, as calculated from a series of sixteen years, ending with 1851, was 53 per cent, a proportion which has gone on progressively increasing. In the epidemic of 1851-2 it was 66 per cent; in that of 1854-5-6 it was 71 per cent; in 1859 and 60, 78 per cent.; and for the four years of the present epidemic it has been 81 per cent."(Report for 1866 Smallpox Hospital, page 7).

Dr. Greenhow, of North Shields, wrote as follows to the Medical Gazette (vol ii., p. 589), January 22nd, 1833:—"It is a well known fact that small-pox after vaccination has become of much more frequent occurrence within the last few years. Twelve or fifteen years ago, cases were occasionally met with, but comparatively rarely; but since that period it is everywhere becoming more frequent. It is no unusual circumstance to find five or six individuals of the same family successively attacked by that disease."

It appears to the author of this Essay, that one of Jenner's great mistakes consisted in his view that cow-pox and small-pox were governed by the same laws— moreover he said that the "grease" in the horse was identical with small-pox in the human subject.*

[* It has been noticed in the former part of this assay, page 15, that Jenner deemed it necessary that the virus from the diseased horse should pass through the cow to the human subject. In 1817, however, Jenner inoculated directly from the horse, without the intervention of the cow, and with this matter he supplied the National Vaccine Establishment, and it was extensively diffused in England and Scotland. See Baron's Life of Jenner, vol. ii, p.p. 225—6.]

"From December, 1849, to April, 1850, inclusive, 76 cases of small-pox were admitted into the General Hospital at Calcutta. Of these cases 29 died. Of the 76 admitted 66 had been vaccinated. Of the 66 vaccinated 41 had good cicatrices, 25 were not so well marked. Of the total 76 cases 30 were severe and confluent, 46 mild or modified. Of the 10 unprotected cases 5 were severe and confluent, and the remaining 5 were mild attacks. Of those who had been vaccinated in early life 16 died. The mortality here stated as occurring from variola after vaccination was 16 out of 66, or 24 per cent."—Medical Gazette.---Dr. Charles T. Pearce, M.D.  [1868 Book: Essay on Vaccination]

[*The effect of vaccination in increasing the mortality in Fevers, in France, was shown in 1854 by Dr. Perrin. Of 114 cases of typhoid-fever, 76 had been vaccinated, 38 unvaccinated. Of the 76 vaccinated, 85 died; of the 88 unvaccinated, 3 died. The mortality is, therefore, in the relation of 35 to 6, or nearly 6 times greater among those who had been vaccinated. It is to be regretted that in England we have no statistics to show whether fever patients admitted into hospitals have been vaccinated or not.  In the army of Paris, consisting of twenty-five thousand men, the following are the causes of death, as furnished by Baron Michel:—

STATISTIQUE DE L’HOSPITAL DU GROS CAILLLON:

Diseases

1816

1838

Small-pox
Fever, intestinal or continued  
Chest disease
All other causes

    4
  46
159
  41

  21
276
159
  41

Total number of deaths

250

500

The doubling of the mortality in the army of Paris from 1816 to 1838 is, therefore, not due to small-pox becoming more frequent, but to the fact that fevers became more frequent in the proportion of six to one, after the army was vaccinated. The most remarkable confirmation of the fact that increased mortality is due to vaccination is found in the report of Drs. Desgenettes and Broussais, physicians at the hospital at Val de Grace. In the two years 1816, 1817, the deaths were fifty-one in a thousand; in 1818, 1819, eighty-one in a thousand, Thus, in the same hospital, under the same physicians, without the occurrence of any epidemic to account for the increased mortality, the increase was sixty per cent. The explanation being that in 1818, 1819, there was a large accession of volunteers who had been vaccinated; while before 1818, it was difficult to find one soldier who had been vaccinated."—Homoeopathic Record, Jane, 1860.]

In Sweden the mortality from small-pox advanced steadily from 2 in 1846 to 13 in 1847; 71 in 1848; 341 in 1849; 1,376 in 1850; 2,488 in 1851; and to 1,534 in 1852; notwithstanding that Sweden is so "well-vaccinated."

The conclusion to which the Author of this Essay has arrived, after ten years' diligent investigation of the statistics and mutual relations of epidemic and endemic diseases, and after, also, more than twenty years observation and experience of vaccination, is that vaccination is an evil, a crime against nature, unclean in its source, dangerous in its practice, uncertain in its operation as a prophylactic, and, also, if persisted in and extended, will, proportionately, produce all the evils which have been mentioned in this essay.