Smallpox and the First Vaccine

A brief journey through a forgotten history

In his recent exhaustive work on the Pathology of Vaccination, Montague R. Leverson, M. D., A. M., Ph. D., points out twenty-three different sources from which the various disease-products termed vaccines have been derived. One of the most recent and approved sources from which seed-vaccine virus has been produced is the corpse of a human subject whose death had resulted from smallpox... If the human cadaver is the ultimate source of the H. K. Mulford Company’s vaccine, I can readily understand why you might have business scruples for concealing the gruesome fact from physicians and the general public. [1]

— J. W. Hodge, MD, Niagara Falls, New York,
author of The Vaccination Superstition, 1907

This madness—first filtered through the brain of Jenner by the superstitious old women of Berkeley and its neighbourhood, who had long secretly practised vaccination upon children—was, after some few years of hard fighting, transmitted to Sir Gilbert Blane and a few of his class; and as these were the great ‘medicine men,’ whose wisdom excelled all others, the delusion was soon shared by the King. From the King, it passed to the Court, from the Court to the Government, from the Government to the profession, and from the profession to all who readily move by example in high places. In this way, not England alone, but every part of the civilized world, more or less, went mad.[2]

— Dr. Skelton, Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery, London and Edinburgh

The history of smallpox and the first vaccine is far more complicated—and bizarre—than most people realize. Hidden within long-forgotten books, medical journals, and obscure articles lies a story rarely taught or discussed. In this brief piece, I’ll uncover some of the strange ideas in vaccination’s origins, offering a glimpse into this idea that existed alongside other medical notions such as bleeding, hot regimen, using toxic metals such as mercury and arsenic, and locking women into asylums after receiving a diagnosis of hysteria. After learning about this curious journey, perhaps you’ll wonder if vaccination should have also remained a relic of medical history—relegated to the dustbin of peculiar ideas from a less enlightened age.

Before our modern era, people had to endure many diseases. During the 1800s, tuberculosis and pneumonia were by far the biggest killers, followed by scarlet fever. Typhoid and diphtheria were next. Lastly, whooping cough, measles, and smallpox were at the bottom of the list, although they are the ones we most recognize because the idea of vaccination was applied to these three. Smallpox holds a unique place in medical history, as it was the disease that first gave rise to the term vaccination. Derived from the Latin word vacca, meaning cow, the term reflects the early practice of using material from cowpox lesions to inoculate against smallpox—a process initially referred to as cowpoxing.

Inoculation

But before we dive into vaccination, we need to rewind the clock to many decades before vaccination became a societal phenomenon. In 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu returned from the Ottoman Empire with the idea of engrafting (AKA variolation or inoculation). The idea was to take some material from someone suffering from smallpox, make some scratches on a person’s arm, and then insert the material. Some medical professionals quickly latched on to this procedure. However, a few thought this idea was unnecessary and dangerous as they considered smallpox a mild disease if appropriately treated.

In 1688, Thomas Sydenham, MD, renowned as the English Hippocrates and regarded as the Father of English medicine, noted that smallpox was a mild disease.

…from all the observations that I can possibly make, that if no mischief be done, either by physician or nurse, it [smallpox] is the most slight and safe of all other diseases.[3]

Isaac Massey’s observations at Christ’s Hospital in the early 1700s indicated that smallpox was rarely fatal when managed with appropriate treatment.[4]

A natural simple smallpox seldom kills, unless under very ill management...[5]

The procedure was hazardous, with a 2-3% fatality rate.[6] One such death from this procedure was the 9-year-old daughter of Mrs. Anne Rolt early on despite being guaranteed the procedure was safe by the inoculator. The inoculator had assured Mrs. Rolt that her daughter would remain in good health and would “play about the room the whole time” after undergoing the inoculation of smallpox and going through the induced disease process. The grim reality unfolded quite differently as her daughter suffered immensely and also endured bloodletting, a common medical practice of the era. She eventually succumbed to a horrific death over the following nine weeks.

About five or six days after the inoculation, she was seiz’d with great pains in all her joints. The Small-Pox came out about the 10th or 11th day very violently… In nine Weeks after the Inoculation, and after the most miserable suffering, that ever poor creature underwent, she died worn to nothing but skin and bone.[7]

Yet, over the decades, the idea of protecting people from the specific disease of smallpox became an established medical notion. In 1754, the Royal College of Physicians of London strongly endorsed inoculation.

...experience had refuted the arguments urged against the practice; that it was now more extensively employed in England than ever; and that it was highly beneficial to mankind.[8]

From 1748 to 1798, public acceptance of physician-promoted smallpox inoculation continued to grow. Yet, despite this procedure, the London Bills of Mortality show that over nearly 80 years, deaths from smallpox as a percentage of total deaths increased by more than 50% after the introduction of inoculation.

Smallpox is a mild disease?

No doubt, part of the deaths from smallpox (and other diseases) were from the poor health of the people, the often horribly polluted living conditions they existed in, the arduous work adults and children endured, and the harmful medical notions, such as bleeding, violent purging of the bowels, use of hot regimen, calomel, and other toxic medicines.

John Birch, a distinguished member of the Royal College of Surgeons, expressed his belief in 1814 that a significant number of smallpox fatalities were, in fact, attributable to poor diet, unclean environment, and deadly medical notions.

I consider even the Natural Small-pox a mild disease, and only rendered malignant by mistakes in nursing, in diet, and in medicine, and by want of cleanliness… It would hardly be too bold to say, that the fatal treatment of this disease, for two centuries, by warming and confining the air of the Chamber, and by stimulating and heating cordials, was the cause of two-thirds of the mortality which ensued.[9]

Henry G. Hanchett, M.D. would make the observation later in 1889 that it was the medical procedures that were largely responsible for the deaths of many patients.

We can recognize the mistakes of our predecessors and those of some of our contemporaries. We wonder that the old-time doctor did not suspect that his lancet, his calomel and tartar emetic, put many a patient under-ground, whose disease would have ended in recovery if it had been let alone. We are ready to admit frankly that in the past many patients have unquestionably “died of the doctor;” in fact this very disease, variola [smallpox], is a case in point, for the change in the death rate… as compared with earlier records, leaves no possible doubt that mistaken treatment had more than anything else to do with the great mortality of the scourge. Some of us can see very plainly that our colleagues, who are to-day puzzling their brains to explain the terribly increased mortality of pneumonia, need only to leave their hypodermic syringes and morphine at home to find the solution of their problem.[10]

There is a lot more to this part of smallpox inoculation history, but the poor living conditions and deadly medical notions were not largely recognized as significant factors in the deaths from smallpox and other diseases of that era. By the end of the 1800s, despite a highly lucrative and established medical treatment due to perceived worsening smallpox deaths, many, particularly among the educated and wealthy class, were eager to embrace something new that could replace inoculation and eradicate this seemingly never-ending plague of smallpox. The stage was set for Edward Jenner and his notion of cowpoxing.

Cowpoxing AKA Vaccination

It was rumored among milkmaids that infection with cowpox could protect one from smallpox. Believing these stories, Edward Jenner, at the end of the 1700s, began his experiments of inoculating with lesions from those that had cowpox onto healthy people. This idea, virtually identical to the original failed idea of inoculation, would take material from lesions, not some who had smallpox but someone who had an animal disease, namely a cow. In just a couple of years, by 1800, this idea of cowpoxing (or vaccination) became incredibly popular.

On March 17, 1802, Jenner petitioned the House of Commons, stating that vaccination was perfectly safe, protected you for life, and would eliminate smallpox from the world.

That your petitioner having discovered that a disease which occasionally exists in a particular form among cattle, known by the name of cow-pox, admits of being inoculated [vaccinated] on the human frame with the most perfect ease and safety, and is attended with the singularly beneficial effect of rendering through life the person so inoculated perfectly secure from the infection of small-pox... [vaccination] has already checked the progress of small-pox, and, from its nature, must finally annihilate that dreadful disorder.[11]

Yet early on, some found and exposed vaccination as not being remotely close to “safe and effective,” as Jenner had claimed. In the year 1805, a mere few years after the widespread adoption of vaccination within the medical community, Dr. William Rowley, MD, who held the esteemed position of Physician to Her Majesty’s Lying-in Hospital, made a notable observation:

Out of 504 persons vaccinated, 75 died from the consequences [14.9%.] There is no question here of supposition, or calculation of probability—it is truth: It is evidence which seems to speak, and leaves no doubt. Now, if in the space of seven or eight years (from 1798 to 1805) Vaccination has shown itself so grievous to society, what may we not fear for the future.[12]

His work, Cow-pox inoculation NO SECURITY against Small-pox infection, documented that many children who had been vaccinated had contracted smallpox, despite the confident claims of invulnerability made by those administering the vaccinations. He conclusively exposed the vaccination theory as a faulty concept through careful observation. He raised a stern cautionary flag, predicting that the millions fooled by the illusion of impregnable smallpox immunity were inevitably destined to fall prey to the very disease they sought protection from.

Merely a decade after vaccination became all the medical rage, in 1810, Charles Maclean, MD, penned an extensive book delving into the shortcomings of the vaccination practice. Within the pages of his work, he meticulously presented tables filled with names of individuals, accompanied by references, which revealed a staggering 535 cases of smallpox emerging after cowpox inoculation. Additionally, the records indicated 150 fatalities resulting from either smallpox or adverse reactions to cowpox after cowpox vaccination.[13]

Astonishingly, only a short time after the introduction of this novel medical intervention, it had already taken such deep root in the minds of the medical fraternity that no evidence could dislodge its pervasiveness. Dr. Maclean knew these massive failures were being covered up by those already entrenched in this vaccination dogma, and the few who did notice kept quiet due to fear.

Very few deaths from cow-pox appear in the Bills of Mortality, owing to the means which have been used to suppress knowledge of them. Neither were deaths, diseases and failures transmitted in great abundance from the country, not because they did not happen, but because some practitioners were interested in not seeing them, and others who did see them were afraid of announcing what they knew.[14]

As time went on, the medical community conveniently continued ignoring any instances of failure and steadfastly clung to the practice of vaccination. They found themselves trapped within the confines of their own beliefs, and this predicament grew more pronounced over the passing years. Failures became commonplace, and as time progressed, vaccination had to undergo constant modifications in a futile effort to fulfill the lofty assurances initially made. A single vaccination performed with “perfect ease and safety” and lifelong protection from smallpox had to be repeatedly morphed in a vain endeavor to achieve this unattainable pledge.

First. One vaccination was claimed to protect for life against smallpox. When this proved untrue, one vaccination during infancy and one at puberty were deemed necessary. This failing a third vaccination was advised at maturity. Still smallpox attacked those vaccinated at the three periods mentioned; and now vaccination every seven years was recommended. This also failing, it was claimed that vaccination to be effected, must be repeated every three or four years while the latest claim is, that vaccination to be absolutely protective, must be repeated at short intervals (every few weeks) till it no longer takes.[15]

Vaccination menagerie

Now, the idea that vaccination or cowpoxing was based only on a cow is far from the truth. Jenner believed the disease came from a sickness on the heels of horses called the grease. Confident in his notion, Edward Jenner endeavored to induce the disease in another horse but ultimately failed.

I even procured a young horse, kept him constantly in the stable, and fed him with beans in order to make his heels swell, but to no purpose.[16]

However, he persisted in his idea, and in 1817, Edward Jenner wrote that he had sources of horsepox and supplied them to the National Vaccine Establishment and other locations. Edward Jenner “took matter from Jane King (equine direct) for the National Vaccine Establishment... I received supplies of it, and it was likewise sent to Scotland.”[17]

In this country it is more than probable that some of Jenner’s stocks of equine lymph are still in use; but equination is not wittingly practised, for it is commonly supposed that all the lymph employed for the purposes of vaccination has been derived from Cow Pox. In France, on the other hand, it is extensively employed. M. Layet informed me that at the Animal Vaccine Station at Bordeaux, the lymph which gave most satisfaction was derived from the horse, and that he had been able on two occasions to renew his stock from equine sources.[18]

As time passed, many animals came into the picture, with their pus and blood being used as the so-called “virus” material. This included cows, horses, goats, pigs, sheep, mules, asses, buffalos, and rabbits. To add to the mix, the blood and pus from deceased smallpox patients were scratched onto cows, and the resulting ulcerated pus from the cows was used for the vaccine material.

For a whole century, this perplexing concoction of materials was used for vaccination, passed from one person’s arm to another’s (arm-to-arm vaccination), mixed with various yeast, fungus, bacteria, and whatever else resided on each individual’s skin and in their blood.

In a paper presented before the District of Columbia Medical Society on June 5, 1895, Dr. Walter Reed, a distinguished surgeon in the U.S. Army, raised concerns about the exaggerated claims and “certificates of purity” provided by vaccine-farm proprietors.[19] Dr. Reed thoroughly examined the vaccine points, revealing the presence of bacterial colonies, as shown in the table.

As regards the presence of pathogenic bacteria, colonies of these were found in all the plates from the six farms whose virus was subject to examination. The pus organisms were staphylococcus albus and aureus... I did not fail to find pus-cells on the cover slips from any, of the points coming from the various vaccine farms which were subjected to careful microscopical examination.[20]

Vaccine points bacterial colonies. (Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer, MD, PhD, Vaccination Brought Home to You, 1904, Terre Haute, Indiana, p. 48.)

Appallingly, in England, it became a legal requirement for children to be vaccinated before they reached three months of age. George William Winterburn, PhD, MD, noted in his work The Value of Vaccination: A Non-partisan Review of Its History and Results, published in 1886:

It will thus be seen what slight foundation the whole question of vaccinal virus rests. Millions of vaccinations are made every year, and nobody knows what they are made with. The whole process is a haphazard game with chance. Vaccination was accepted on the simple dictum of Jenner that it would stamp out smallpox. The medical profession of today buys its vaccinal virus of [sic] those who make merchandise of it on their simple dictum that it is the right thing to use.[21]

This graphic depicts the many sources of what was termed the “vaccine virus.” Millions were inoculated with pus and blood, mixed with bacteria and fungi, from various animals and corpses, and passed through from one person to another in arm-to-arm vaccination.

We might imagine vaccination at that time might have been through a hypodermic needle after rubbing your arm with alcohol. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Vaccination was introduced at the end of the 18th century into a relatively dirty age, using the methods already established for smallpox inoculation (variolation). Vaccine was either inserted without any skin preparation, or perhaps the skin was wiped with a non-too-clean cloth, possibly soaked in equally-dirty water or perhaps spirit.[22]

Incisions were made with a sharp knife called a lancet, which was used for bleeding patients, and then an unknown concoction, as I just described, was smeared into the arm.

Multiple site vaccination of 1898, showing a ‘typically good arm.’ (Derrick Baxby, “Smallpox Vaccination Techniques; from Knives and Forks to Needles and Pins,” Vaccine, vol. 20, no. 16, May 15, 2002, p. 2142)

Imagine if we were to follow the same procedure today. Picture taking material from a pus-filled sore on someone’s arm, which possibly originated from another person’s arm, or a pus-filled sore of a cow, horse, goat, or some other animal. Then, imagine inserting that pus and blood material into a scratch made on a child’s arm using a sharp knife (lancet), and, mind you, this child is three months or younger. Ultimately, you would have no idea the chain of animals and people culminated in the sore from which you were extracting pus. Perhaps the lancet would be wiped with a cloth between each child, but there would be no sterilization of the child’s arm with alcohol or any other disinfectant. Would you think this would be for the health of your child? Would you allow this?

Vaccination failure and the decline in smallpox deaths

Yet, despite the failures, deaths, and multiple sources from which vaccine material was obtained, vaccination not only continued but was lawfully imposed by governments through compulsory vaccination laws. Despite all this, repeated smallpox epidemics continued over the decades, culminating in a large smallpox pandemic from 187 to 1873.

The London Lancet of July 15, 1871, said: Of nine thousand three hundred and ninety-two [9,392] small-pox patients in London hospitals, six thousand eight hundred and fifty-four [6,854] had been vaccinated. Seventeen and one-half per cent [17.5%] of those attacked died.

In the whole country more than one hundred and twenty-two thousand [122,000] vaccinated persons have suffered from small-pox... Official returns from Germany show that between 1870 and 1885 one million [1,000,000] vaccinated persons died from small-pox.[23]

However, around 1875, smallpox deaths began to decline, along with all other infectious diseases. This is despite, or in part because of, falling vaccination rates.

This phenomenon did not go completely unnoticed. In 1914, Dr. Millard published his book The Vaccination Question in the Light of Modern Experience: An Appeal for Reconsideration, clearly indicating that vaccination was not what the vast majority of the medical profession had and continued to believe. In his book, Dr. Millard provided a chart of deaths in England and Wales that clearly showed that death from diseases of scarlet fever, enteric fever, and smallpox declined at about the same time, beginning approximately in the 1870s. Of critical note is that vaccination rates also began to drop by about 1885 and reached a 40% lower rate by about 1910 with no resurgence of smallpox.

For forty years, corresponding roughly with the advent of the “sanitary era,” smallpox has gradually but steadily been leaving this country (England). For the past ten years the disease has ceased to have any appreciable effect upon our mortality statistics. For most of that period it has been entirely absent except for a few isolated outbreaks here and there. It is reasonable to believe that with the perfecting and more general adoption of modern methods of control and with improved sanitation (using the term in the widest sense) smallpox will be completely banished from this country as has been the case with plague, cholera, and typhus fever. Accompanying this decline in smallpox there has been a notable diminution during the past decade in the amount of infantile vaccination. This falling off in vaccination is steadily increasing and is becoming very widespread.[24]

Moreover, it will be noticed that the drop in the mortality from “other zymotics” was almost as striking. So much is this the case, that, without being informed, it is difficult to tell which line represents small-pox, and which “other zymotics.” Obviously, causes other than vaccination must have been at work to have produced this fall in “other zymotics,” and we cannot say that the same cause did not also influence the mortality from smallpox

From deadly killer to chickenpox

At the end of the 1800s, smallpox changed. After the summer of 1897, the severe type of smallpox with its high death rate, with rare exceptions, had entirely disappeared from the United States.

Extremely mild case of smallpox, bearing some resemblance to chickenpox. (American Medicine, vol. II, no. 23, December 7, 1901, p. 901)

The author of a 1913 article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases presented a table showing that, in 1895 and 1896, the smallpox death rate was where it had been historically recorded for decades, around 20%. The table also showed that after 1896, the death rate fell rapidly, down from 6% in 1897 to as low as 0.26% by 1908.

On the whole the disease seems to have shown a tendency to diminish, somewhat in severity. This tendency is not marked and the somewhat lower case fatality noted in later years may be due to the better recognition of cases, now that the type has become more widely known. At first fatalities of 1 to 2 per cent and even more were commonly reported, while later fatalities have often been much less. Thus in North Caro­lina in 1910 there were 3,875 cases with 8 deaths, a fatal­ity of 0.2 per cent, and in 1911 there were 3,294 cases in that state without a single death.[25]

By the 1920s, it was recognized that the new form of smallpox produced few symptoms, even though few people had been vaccinated.

Individual cases, or even epidemics, occur in which, although there has been no protection by vaccination, the course of the disease is extremely mild. The lesions are few in number or entirely absent, and the constitutional symptoms mild or insignificant.[26]

By the 1920s and into the 1930s, mild smallpox had almost completely replaced the severe form in the United States.

Although mild cases of smallpox were known before, they have come practically to replace the severe forms in many extensive areas, such as the whole United States, Brazil, large parts of Africa.[27]

The mild form of smallpox commonly designated by its Portuguese name, alastrim, has prevailed over vast regions of the United States for over 30 years.[28]

Vaccination rates declined from the late 1800s and remained low up until the time compulsory vaccination ended in England in 1948.

Vaccination rates... fell to 50 percent in 1914 and 18 percent in 1948.[29]

By the time the following report was written in 1946, smallpox had all but vanished from England and the Western world.

What has been the cause of the rise and fall of smallpox? Its decline in the later decades of the nineteenth century was at one time almost universally attributed to vaccination, but it is doubtful how true this is. Vaccination was never carried out with any degree of completeness, even among infants, and was maintained at a high level for a few decades only. There was therefore always a large proportion of the population unaffected by the vaccination laws. Revaccination affected only a fraction. At the present the population is largely entirely unvaccinated. Members of the public health service now flatter themselves that the cessation of such outbreaks as do occur is due to their efforts. But is this so? The history of the rise, the change in age incidence, and the decline of smallpox rather lead to the conclusion that we may here have to do with a natural cycle of disease like plague, and that smallpox is no longer a natural disease for this country.[30]

It is hardly recognized that the death rate for every infectious disease had fallen by 100% or nearly 100% well before the advent of antibiotics or vaccination for the disease or without any vaccine at all. That’s right, all infectious disease death rates plummeted at the same time as smallpox. What does that tell you?

So, knowing a little more than perhaps you have before, would you consider vaccination one of the greatest medical discoveries in history?

Our work in Dissolving Illusions builds upon the invaluable contributions of remarkable individuals who dared to question the conventional belief in vaccination and toxic medicine. Creighton, Crookshank, Hodge, Tebb, Winterburn, Wallace, Peebles, Collins, Gunn, Leverson, Kimball, Clarke, Brown, Clymer, Birch, Holmes, Thomson, Trall, Nightingale, and many others challenged the prevailing medical orthodoxy. They penned articles and meticulously researched books that were unfortunately disregarded by those who held a vested interest, both ideologically and financially, in perpetuating the medical paradigm. Much like the present day, no matter what well-researched information was presented by the most honored and intelligent people of the time, if they criticized vaccination in any way, they were sidelined and dismissed by the orthodoxy. As noted by Professor Robert A. Gunn, MD, over a century ago in 1891:

How strange it is that, no matter what the professional or scientific attainments of a man may be, no matter how he may have previously been honored, nor what positions of preferment and trust he may have occupied, the moment he says a word against vaccination he is denounced as not knowing anything of the subject, and not being an authority in medicine.[32]

These dissenting voices, akin to those who criticized bloodletting and the use of toxic substances like mercury and arsenic in medicine, were ignored. Instead, the proponents of vaccines persisted, driven by medical hubris and profits, enacting laws that curtailed individual freedoms in the process.

The panic over the last few years was fanned effectively beyond what I thought possible by incompetent name-calling politicians, a small rabid clique of infectious disease/vaccine fanatics who ignored health and only focused on vaccination, a compliant, parroting, corrupt media largely incapable of critical thinking, and a large portion of the population that has been deceived by decades of propaganda. The dread propagated by these entities has resulted in widespread grief and loss of life.

Amidst this frenzy, I frequently assisted the overlooked homeless population while most others remained fearful and confined to their homes. Yet, none of these people I met with, who were often not in the healthiest condition and seldom wore masks, appeared to get sick (including me), and they certainly did not die. I felt fortunate to have written Dissolving Illusions. It taught me not to fear these types of diseases because never in history was it ever just about a particular microbe; instead, it was primarily about a person’s health. Writing the book also taught me not to give in to fear and coercion by medical and political extremists who have beaten the drums of doom for centuries.

In today’s world, I have a hopeful vision that more individuals will embark on personal journeys and unearth forgotten aspects of history. I firmly believe that we stand at the threshold of a new era of enlightenment, where we will relearn the core principles of genuine well-being. These principles encompass vital aspects such as having clean water, wholesome nourishment, plenty of sunlight, fresh and clean air, regular physical activity, adequate rest, connections to nature, nurturing relationships with others, and engaging in fulfilling work. It has become increasingly evident that relying on medical interventions, often ineffective, hazardous, or even deadly, is not the ultimate solution for achieving and maintaining optimal health.

In a world filled with hidden truths and untold stories, we stand at a precipice, ready to witness the unraveling of a concealed history. It is a moment that beckons us to seize our own destiny, break free from the chains of ignorance, and embrace the power within us. It’s a time of empowerment, where the forces of oppression are challenged, and the voice of the unheard rises to prominence. It is a time when the shackles of fear and conformity are cast off, making way for a new era of health, self-discovery, and freedom.

It is difficult to conceive what will be the excuse for a century of cow-poxing; but it cannot be doubted that the practice will appear in as absurd a light to the common sense of the twentieth century as blood-letting now does to us. Vaccination differs, however, from all previous errors of the faculty, in being maintained as the law of the land on the warrant of medical authority. That is the reason why the blow to professional credit can hardly help being severe, and why the efforts to ward it off have been, and will continue to be so ingenious.[31]

— Dr. Charles Creighton, MD, professor University of Cambridge, author of numerous writings, including History of Epidemics in Britain (vol 1 & 2), Bovine Epidemics in Man, Cowpox and Vaccinal Syphilis, Jenner and Vaccination: A Strange Chapter of Medical History, and Vaccination in the Encyclopædia Britannica in 1888

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For a deeper dive into history, please check out Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History 10th Anniversary Edition.

Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History 10th Anniversary Edition is now available as an audiobook.

For still more, check out Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History 10th Anniversary Edition Companion and Reference, a treasure trove of intriguing quotes, fascinating facts, and hidden histories.

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[1] J.W. Hodge, MD, “What is the substance which vaccine propagators and vaccinating doctors erroneously style ‘pure calf-lymph?’” The Critique, January to December 1907, vol. XIV, p. 259.

[2] Vaccination Tracts. Letters and Opinions of Medical Men, 1892, Province: Snow & Farnham, p. 14.

R. G. Latham, MD, The Works of Thomas Sydenham, MD, vol. I, 1848, London, pp. lxxii–lxxiii.

[4] Isaac Massey, Apothecary to Christ’s Hospital, A Short and Plain Account of Inoculation, 1722, London, pp. 20–21.

[5] Isaac Massey, Remarks on Dr. Jurin’s Last Yearly Account of the Success of Inoculation, 1727, London, p. 5.

[6] Frederick F. Cartwright, Disease and History, 1972, Rupert Hart-Davis, London, p. 124.

[7] Francis Howgrave, apothecary, Reasons Against the Inoculation of the Small-pox, 1724, Printed for John Clark at the Bible under the Royal-Exchange, pp. 26–28.

[8] William White, The Story of a Great Delusion, 1885, London, E. W. Allen, p. 43.

[9] The Gentleman’s Magazine, July 1814, p. 24.

[10] Henry G. Hanchett, M.D., “An Inquiry in Prophylaxis,” The New York Medical Times, January 1889, vol. XVI, no. 10, p. 306.

[11] John Baron, The Life of Edward Jenner, pp. 490–491.

[12] George William Winterburn, PhD, MD, The Value of Vaccination: A Non-partisan Review of Its History and Results, 1886, F.E. Boericke, Philadelphia, p. 115.

[13] Charles Maclean, MD, On the State of Vaccination in 1810, London, Sherwood, Neely, and Jones; [and] C. Birnie, pp. 82–92, 95–97.

[14] Charles Maclean, MD, On the State of Vaccination in 1810, London, Sherwood, Neely, and Jones; [and] C. Birnie, London, p. 101.

[15] Order to Show Cause. N. Y. SUPREME COURT, KINGS COUNTY, In the Matter of The Application of Edmund C. Viemeister for a Peremptory Writ of Mandamus, Patrick J. White, President of the Board of Education, and F. H. Meade, Principal of Public School No. 12. Borough of Queens Supreme Court: Appellate Division-Second Department, 1903, pp. 5–10.

[16] John Baron MD, The Life of Edward Jenner, 1827, p. 141.

[17] John Baron, MD, FRS, Life of Edward Jenner, MD, vol. II, 1838, London, p. 226.

[18] Edgar March Crookshank, History and Pathology of Vaccination Volume 1: A Critical Inquiry, 1889, London, p. 418.

[19] Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer, MD, PhD, Vaccination Brought Home to You, 1904, Terre Haute, Indiana, p. 48.

[20] Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer, MD, PhD, Vaccination Brought Home to You, 1904, Terre Haute, Indiana, p. 48.

[21] George William Winterburn, PhD, MD, The Value of Vaccination: A Non-partisan Review of Its History and Results, 1886, F.E. Boericke, Philadelphia, pp. 42–43.

[22] Derrick Baxby, “Smallpox Vaccination Techniques 2. Accessories and Aftercare,” Vaccine, vol. 24, nos. 13–14, March 28, 2003, pp. 1382–1383.

[23] G. W. Harman, MD, “A Physician’s Argument Against the Efficacy of Virus Inoculation,” Medical Brief: A Monthly Journal of Scientific Medicine and Surgery, vol. 28, no. 1, 1900, p. 84.

[24] Harry Bernhardt Anderson, State Medicine a Menace to Democracy, 1920, p. 84.

[25] Charles V. Chapin, “Variation in Type of Infectious Disease as Shown by the History of Smallpox in the United States,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 13, no. 2, September 1913, p. 178.

[26] John Price Crozer Griffith, The Diseases of Infants and Children, Volume 1, 1921, W.B. Saunders Company, p. 370.

[27] George Dock, MD, “Smallpox and Vaccination,” Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, vol. 19, April 1922, p. 168.

[28] Charles V. Chapin and Joseph Smith, “Permanency of the Mild Type of Smallpox,” Journal of Preventive Medicine, 1932.

[29] Arthur Allen, Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver, 2007, p. 69.

[30] Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute, vol. 66, 1946, p. 176.

[31] Dr. Charles Creighton, MD, “Inaccuracies about vaccination,” The Lancet, January 12, 1889, pp. 96-97.

[32] Robert A. Gunn, MD, “The Truth About Vaccination,” The Sanitarian: A Monthly Magazine, vol. XXVII, 1891, New York, pp. 550–551.