262. I contended, that this beastly application _could not, in nature, be efficacious in preventing the Small-Pox_; and that, even if efficacious for that purpose, _it was wholly unnecessary_. The truth of the former of these assertions has now been proved _in thousands upon thousands of instances_. For a long time, for _ten years_, the contrary was boldly and brazenly asserted. This nation is fond of quackery of all sorts; and this particular quackery having been sanctioned by King, Lords and Commons, it spread over the country like a pestilence borne by the winds. Speedily sprang up the 'ROYAL _Jennerian Institution_,' and Branch Institutions, issuing from the parent trunk, set instantly to work, impregnating the veins of the rising and enlightened generation with the beastly matter. 'Gentlemen and Ladies' made the commodity a pocket-companion; and if a cottager's child (in Hampshire at least), even seen by them, on a common, were not pretty quick in taking to its heels, it had to carry off more or less of the disease of the cow. One would have thought, that one-half of the cows in England must have been _tapped_ to get at such a quantity of the stuff.
263. In the midst of all this mad work, to which the doctors, after having found it in vain to resist, had yielded, the _real small-pox_, in its worst form, broke out in the town of RINGWOOD, in HAMPSHIRE, and carried off, I believe (I have not the account at hand), _more than a hundred persons_, young and old, _every one of whom had had the cow-pox 'so nicely_!' And what was now said? Was the quackery exploded, and were the granters of the twenty thousand pounds ashamed of what they had done? Not at all: the failure was imputed to _unskilful operators_; to the _staleness of the matter_; to its not being of the _genuine quality_. Admitting all this, the scheme stood condemned; for the great advantages held forth were, that _any body_ might perform the operation, and that the _matter_ was _every where abundant_ and cost-free. But these were paltry excuses; the mere shuffles of quackery; for what do we know now? Why, that in _hundreds_ of instances, persons cow-poxed by JENNER HIMSELF, have taken the real small-pox afterwards, and have either died from the disorder, or narrowly escaped with their lives! I will mention two instances, the parties concerned being living and well-known, one of them to the whole nation, and the other to a very numerous circle in the higher walks of life. The first is Sir RICHARD PHILLIPS, so well known by his able writings, and equally well known by his exemplary conduct as Sheriff of London, and by his life-long labours in the cause of real charity and humanity. Sir Richard had, I think, two sons, whose veins were impregnated by the _grantee himself_. At any rate he had one, who had, several years after Jenner had given him the insuring matter, a very hard struggle for his life, under the hands of the good, old-fashioned, seam-giving, and dimple-dipping small-pox. The second is PHILIP CODD, Esq., formerly of Kensington, and now of Rumsted Court, near Maidstone, in Kent, who has a son that had a very narrow escape under the real small-pox, about four years ago, and who also had been cow-poxed _by Jenner himself_. This last-mentioned gentleman I have known, and most sincerely respected, from the time of our both being about eighteen years of age. When the young gentleman, of whom I am now speaking, was very young, I having him upon my knee one day, asked his kind and excellent mother, whether he had been _inoculated_. 'Oh, no!' said she, 'we are going to have him _vaccinated_.' Whereupon I, going into the garden to the father, said, 'I do hope, Codd, that you are not going to have that beastly cow-stuff put into that fine boy.' 'Why,' said he, 'you see, Cobbett, it is to be done by _Jenner himself_.' What answer I gave, what names and epithets I bestowed upon Jenner and his quackery, I will leave the reader to imagine.