University of Virginia Library

The Small-Pox is attended with a dreadful mortality in some families. It is not uncommon for a little circle of domestic affection and happiness to be compleatly annihilated by such a visitation. About two years ago, I had a melancholy opportunity of witnessing this. The Small-Pox made its appearance in St. Giles's, in London, a quarter inhabited by the lower orders of my countrymen. In my official capacity, (being then the resident Inoculator to the Jennerian society) I attended the poor people, every day, for the course of six or eight weeks. The scenes which I witnessed are not to be described. Domestic affection has made the heart of the Irishman its peculiar shrine. Nearly the half of those who caught the small-pox fell victims to it. Great was the wo of fathers and of mothers. There was scarcely a family in which death had not made more or less havoc. I remember well one poor widow woman who had three children: when I visited her, one of them lay dead, another was dying, the third, a fine girl of eleven years of age, was in the first stage of the confluent eruption. The mother had parted with the last article of apparel she could spare, to obtain such things as the gossips had recommended. For several days she had not tasted food. Not one of her darlings were spared to her! Language becomes dumb, when it would describe such misery as this. But what a contrast did the Cow-Pox produce? I saved about forty children by vaccinating them in time, and had the satisfaction to see them resist the Small-Pox, although there was not one that had not been exposed to contagion: nay the greater part had slept in the rooms, or in the beds with variolous patients.

To give the reader some insight into the mystery of the charms, by which the fetch of Doctor Porcus is conjured, I must inform him that the Doctor is a man whose manners betray neither the rust of the school, nor the polish of society. He is indeed Doctor Porcus; and both in himself, and in every thing that pertains to him, doth smack of the sty and the mire; he is industrious, but not political in devising mischief. The monkey's tricks are easily found out, so may we say of the tricks of Doctor Porcus. With an affectation of philanthropy, he has the conscience and remorse of a bravo, who carves his dinner with his stiletto. He is a devout votary of Bacchus, into whose most sacred mysteries he has been initiated; it is said, that he has uttered the inspirations of the God; and, in the last place, this son of Æsculapius is the convenient favourite of the Nymphæ nobiles Veneris.

The sister has not flattered the Doctor's physiognomy.

This species of fosterage in some measure accounts for the qualifications of Doctor Porcus, and prevents him from passing for a lusus naturæ.

The other occupation of Doctor Porcus was that of the most menial office. The humble origin of a man is his applause and boast, when he has attained to rank and condition, by worth and by merit. Impudence and servility alternately promoted Doctor Porcus.

Not only Doctor Porcus, but the whole junto of the anti-vaccinists may be supposed to have undergone this operation. Those who have not perused the works of these personages will scarcely credit that they should have uttered such monstrous things. A child, who had been vaccinated, happened some time after to be afflicted with scrophula. The anti-vaccinists immediately caught hold of this case, and very gravely asserted, that the child's face had been changed to that of an ox, by the influence of the new practice! In another instance, they declared that a patient went on all fours, and lowed like a bull, in consequence of having been vaccinated! In a third case, in which the patient was afflicted with an inveterate eruption of impetigo, which, in its advanced stage, exhibits a moist and clammy sore, they said that the child was covered with cow's hair, the wool of the blankets having adhered to the affected parts. In short, there was not an eruption of the most simple and common kind which they did not endeavour to transform into some hideous attendant of the Cow-Pox. Here, however, they had to combat an adversary before whom rashness and falsehood could never stand, for he was accomplished in wisdom and truth and virtue—of consummate skill, as a general practitioner, and minutely versed in the knowledge of cutaneous diseases. Before the deliberate and active investigation of Doctor Willan, these fantasies of the anti-vaccinists vanished wherever they were found, and thus the peace and tranquillity of innumerable families were preserved; and the new practice upheld, notwithstanding the outrageous violence of those who attempted to overthrow and crush it.

Hecate is well skilled in physiognomy; she reads Doctor Lignum on the instant. I recollect to have seen a motto of the witty and learned Ring's, which would apply admirably well to Doctor Lignum. It was this—Ex quoxis ligno non fit Mercurius. Mr. Ring had prefixed it to his answer to Mr. Birch, who, as well as Doctor Lignum, is no friend to vaccination. Our Doctor is indeed a most illiterate cub. He can scarcely spell or write. One must wonder that such a man should presume to take a part in a scientific disquisition; however, under the guidance of some of his more humanized brethren, the savage is partly concealed.

It would seem from the language of the Sister, that this gentleman is a woman-hater; such a being can have little of the grace of humanity about him: He is indeed the most detestable of the anti-vaccinists; and the less we say about him, the better. I have concluded this little poem in a manner by no means satisfactory to myself. In fact I might as well have left out the two last characters, having said so little about them; but the truth is, that having given one character at full length, it was impossible to say any thing new about the rest; for the whole fraternity have the most striking resemblance to each other.