DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14729#0050
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST.
advice, and looked upon the event as a punishment frora
heaven. In another village, not far from the above-men-
tioned, I had to attend a whole family of eight persons, old
and young, who were vaccinated all at the same time. After
eight days, upon calling on them, I found a young man of
about twenty years of age, in agony, in consequence of con-
fluent small-pox, which eruption had taken place on the •
evening of the vaccination. He was the only person in the
house on whom the vaccination had failed, on account of the
man having carried on his shoulders a dead body that was
infected with the natural small-pox ; thus the lymph failed,
by the counter-agency of the contagion. The rest of the
family enjoyed excellent health, and were saved through the
medium of vaccination.
There is an opinion prevalent, that vaccination will only
keep off the small-pox for a period of twenty years. I was
(if I am not mistaken) vaccinated in my native country,
in the year 1800, with such an excellent lymph (not
crust), that I treated a great many cases of small-pox,
such as lately occurred in the years 1848 and 1849, at
Lahore, without being, affected by the disease myself,
and that without having been a second time vaccinated.
Nevertheless, if the second or third vaccination is of no use,
it does no injury to the constitution. In one year I got
from English physicians, lymph of quite different quali-
ties, some from Umbala, and some from Delhi ; the former
was of a good quality, but the latter was of a very bad
one, as the pustules sprang rapidly up and vanished in a
very short time ; neither was the areola of them red
enough, which accounted for many of those whom I vaccinat-
ed catching the small-pox. I therefore discontinued to
vaccinate with the matter from Delhi, after I bad receiv-
ed some of a better quality from Umbala.
At Tripoli, I met with the then new Governor Bar-
ber, who although of very low birth, had managed to
get possession of the fortress, and afterwards of the town
itself, by fraud and cunning. He * was a short-necked
man, thickset, inclined to apoplexy (Habitus apoplecticus),
advice, and looked upon the event as a punishment frora
heaven. In another village, not far from the above-men-
tioned, I had to attend a whole family of eight persons, old
and young, who were vaccinated all at the same time. After
eight days, upon calling on them, I found a young man of
about twenty years of age, in agony, in consequence of con-
fluent small-pox, which eruption had taken place on the •
evening of the vaccination. He was the only person in the
house on whom the vaccination had failed, on account of the
man having carried on his shoulders a dead body that was
infected with the natural small-pox ; thus the lymph failed,
by the counter-agency of the contagion. The rest of the
family enjoyed excellent health, and were saved through the
medium of vaccination.
There is an opinion prevalent, that vaccination will only
keep off the small-pox for a period of twenty years. I was
(if I am not mistaken) vaccinated in my native country,
in the year 1800, with such an excellent lymph (not
crust), that I treated a great many cases of small-pox,
such as lately occurred in the years 1848 and 1849, at
Lahore, without being, affected by the disease myself,
and that without having been a second time vaccinated.
Nevertheless, if the second or third vaccination is of no use,
it does no injury to the constitution. In one year I got
from English physicians, lymph of quite different quali-
ties, some from Umbala, and some from Delhi ; the former
was of a good quality, but the latter was of a very bad
one, as the pustules sprang rapidly up and vanished in a
very short time ; neither was the areola of them red
enough, which accounted for many of those whom I vaccinat-
ed catching the small-pox. I therefore discontinued to
vaccinate with the matter from Delhi, after I bad receiv-
ed some of a better quality from Umbala.
At Tripoli, I met with the then new Governor Bar-
ber, who although of very low birth, had managed to
get possession of the fortress, and afterwards of the town
itself, by fraud and cunning. He * was a short-necked
man, thickset, inclined to apoplexy (Habitus apoplecticus),