In Ireland little more was effected than in Scotland. It was said that 25 inoculations took place between 1723 and 1728 with 3 fatalities. Dr. Bryan Robinson inoculated five children in Dublin in 1725, and was the death of two of them.[51]
Inoculation met with faint acceptance on the Continent. Maitland went over to Hanover in 1724 and inoculated Prince Frederick and eight children of Baron de Schulenberg. In France the practice had been discussed by Dr. Boyer so far back as 1717; and in 1723 the English experiments were recounted in Paris with much enthusiasm by Dr. de la Coste, evoking a declaration from the College of Physicians, “that for the benefit of the public, it was lawful to make trials of inoculation.” A commencement was about to be made in the hospitals under the Sanction of the Regent, the Duke of Orleans, when his death put a stop to the design. Soon after Dr. Hecquet published _Raisons de Doute contre l’Inoculation_, which, coupled with bad reports from England, made an end of the project.
If a London journalist had been called upon in 1728 to report upon Inoculation, he might have written as follows--
Seven years ago the practice was introduced to this country under powerful auspices. It was confidently averred that anyone might have his blood infected with the virus of smallpox, that a trifling ailment would ensue, and that thenceforward he would be secure from smallpox in the natural form. Experience rapidly belied these promises. The trifling ailment proved, in many cases, a serious ailment--so serious that physicians tried to anticipate and mitigate its severity by a preliminary regimen of bleeding, purging and vomiting. So exhausting and hazardous is the whole operation, that only sound and vigorous constitutions are considered fit for it; and the delicate and feeble, who require protection most, are advised to submit themselves as of old to the ordinary course of nature. Moreover, the induced smallpox is occasionally as severe as the spontaneous; the pustules are multitudinous, and sometimes confluent, with death for the issue. Fear may exaggerate the risks of inoculation, but more are believed to have perished than the inoculators are willing to confess. Again, many are not susceptible of inoculation, and though the infection fails to operate in their blood as desired, they do not always escape injury: they find their health disordered--are rendered sickly and uncomfortable. Worst of all, what none at first reckoned on, the artificial smallpox turns out to be infectious, and begets natural smallpox in those who are with the inoculated. Thus, the very means taken to limit the disease become a cause of its extension. Smallpox was more than usually prevalent in Hertford in 1721, and in London in 1724, and there was fair reason to conjecture that it was extensively disseminated by inoculation. Lastly, it is doubtful whether even successful inoculation protects from subsequent smallpox; for it is maintained that some of the inoculated have already fallen victims to the natural disorder. In short, the preventive appears to have so many drawbacks that it is questionable whether it is not worse than the malady; and it is probable that in a year or two it will pass into forgetfulness in common with many other remedies as highly extolled on early and imperfect acquaintance.