Thomas Brown, Surgeon

Challenging the Blind Dogmatism of Vaccination

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; and humanity is now reaping its reward—not in the extirpation of small-pox, as promised by these fanatics, but in the increase of diseases more frightful in their character, and in their general results more fatal.[1]

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

[An audio version of this book can be found at the end of this article.]

There is one doctor in history that you probably never heard of. His name is Thomas Brown. He was a surgeon from Musselburgh, Scotland, and one of the first medical practitioners who questioned and documented smallpox vaccination failures.

But before we talk about Dr. Brown, I need to provide some context.

Over 225 years ago, the idea of vaccination was born. It was based on the previous medical procedure of inoculation, which had already been around for 80 years. Inoculation was making some incisions on a person’s arm and then taking the pus from someone with smallpox or who died of smallpox, smearing that into those scratches, and having them go through the disease with the idea of giving them immunity to smallpox.

The only real difference with vaccination was that instead of using pus from someone with smallpox, the pus came from a cow, horse, goat, donkey, buffalo, or another animal. Bizarrely similar to the original inoculation, many vaccinations also used pus from someone with smallpox or who had died of smallpox, smearing that into the scratches on cows to make smallpox-cow vaccine material.

However, the initial material used for vaccination was scratched onto someone’s arm, and then the next person would get it from that arm. Subsequent vaccinations would be carried out from arm to arm in a process known as arm-to-arm vaccination. That method would be used for the next 100 years. Although the mythology of vaccination was that it was cowpox from a cow (that’s where the name vaccination comes from, where “vacca” is the Latin word for cow), in fact, it was from all these various sources transmitted from one person’s arm to another.

It's important to know that it wasn’t like shots today, using a nice, clean needle. Instead, it was a series of crisscross scratches called scarification, resulting in cicatrices, or scars that form after vaccination. During that time, you knew if someone was vaccinated by the multiple scars they were left with from vaccination. Of course, no one today would allow such a procedure to be done. But back then, it was considered a valid medical practice during an era where other ideas, such as bleeding patients and using toxic medications such as mercury, arsenic, and strychnine, were all considered perfectly acceptable and widely used.

By 1800, vaccination was quickly adopted, with the inventor Edward Jenner guaranteeing it was perfectly safe and would provide lifelong protection. Although no one could make these claims with any certainty at all, they were made and almost universally accepted. On March 17, 1802, Jenner petitioned the House of Commons, clearly stating that vaccination was perfectly safe, would protect 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.[2]

From the very beginning in 1800, vaccination was almost universally accepted. Thomas Brown noted how quickly vaccination became a raging fashion with medical men and many in everyday society.

No sooner did Dr [Jenner] announce his discovery to the public, and its merits were examined, than every facility was given to its circulation. The rage was extreme, and fashionable, not only amongst the medical profession; but all classes of society…[3]

Thomas Brown was no exception, having become a vaccination follower and vaccinated 1,200 individuals over eight years despite encountering cases of vaccination failures.

I have no hesitation in confessing that I became an early convert, and advocate, for the new practice; and it is now eight years and a half since I have uniformly advised and practised vaccination, in which period, I may safely say, I have vaccinated upwards of twelve hundred patients…. This course I persevered in until the present moment, notwithstanding I met with several instances where it appeared to fail in giving security, about three years after the introduction of the practice; a few more about two years ago; and those which make part of the present volume within the last six months.[4]

But after those many years of practicing vaccination, Doctor Brown came to a revelation and realized he had ignored evidence that contradicted what he had been told.  He had fallen under the spell of the opinions of those promoting vaccination and had ignored the many cases of smallpox after vaccination. People were not being protected from smallpox and certainly not being protected for life as promised. He wrote about how he had been fooled by false promises and his observations in his book, An Inquiry into the Antivariolous Power of Vaccination, published in 1809.

I am convinced from what has passed under my own observation for these last three or four years, that we have been all guilty of rejecting evidence that deserved more attention, in consequence of the strong prepossessions [preconceived ideas] which existed, from the very persuasive proof of its [vaccination] resisting inoculation and exposure to the epidemic, and from our judgments being goaded and overpowered with the positive and arbitrary opinions of its abettors. I am now perfectly satisfied, from my mind being under the influence of prejudice, and blind to the impression of the fairest evidence, that the last time small-pox was prevalent, I rejected and explained away many cases, which were entitled to the most serious attention, and showed myself as violent and unreasonable a partisan as any of my brethren, in propagating a practice, which I have now little doubt we must ere long surrender at discretion.[5]

...the cases before us are to be considered as the most decisive evidence, that, in point of fact, small-pox does occur after vaccination; therefore, although like the test of inoculation, the epidemic contagion was resisted directly, or for some time after vaccination, yet still after some interval, it readily reassumes its influence, so that, by the sixth year from vaccination, to produce all its characteristic phenomena to a distressing, and even alarming extent. Fortunately, however, this conclusion does not rest upon the evidence which I have produced; a prodigious number of cases have been stated, both by vaccinists and antivaccinists, which put the question beyond all contradiction; and when we examine the whole which have hitherto been brought forward, we find they are so uniform in their features, and so exactly correspond in all material points, that it is impossible to refuse our assent, that these circumstances cannot be the effect of accident, but must be produced by the partial, and temporary influence of vaccination.[6]

Doctor Brown concluded that vaccination was driven by ill-conceived enthusiasm. This blind fervor led to the suppression and misrepresentation of problems associated with vaccination.

From the view we have taken of the subject, I apprehend it is impossible, with a safe conscience, or with a mind alive to all the disasters and distress which may ensue, to disregard the danger to which the clearest concerns of the public are exposed; and it must bring indelible disgrace upon the whole medical profession to be detected and exposed, only by the most glaring confusion, and the most damning and disastrous facts. The history of vaccination affords evidence sufficient to create the strongest suspicion, nay, the firm conviction, of the most unwarrantable and uncandid suppression of facts, and that every thing has either been concealed or mutilated, misrepresented and depreciated, which could possibly lead to any conclusion injurious to vaccination. If I am not much mistaken, it will soon appear, that this misguided zeal has been highly injurious to the interests of society, and is more reprehensible than the most violent opposition of its most determined opponents.[7]

In 1818, Thomas Brown wrote in an article titled, On the Present State of Vaccination. He stated that wherever vaccination was introduced in the world, it failed to protect against smallpox.

Experience has also shewn [shown], that the natural small-pox have made their appearance, when the vaccine puncture had previously existed, surrounded with the areola of the most perfect appearance for more than two days, and not in the least modified, but in the highest degree confluent, and followed by death. Small-pox pustules, too, existed within the very areola of the vaccine puncture... The accounts from all quarters of the world, wherever vaccination has been introduced... the cases of failures are now increased to an alarming proportion; and from a fair and impartial examination appears, where the small-pox contagion has access to operate upon vaccinated cases of upwards of six years standing, and the contagion applied in a concentrated and lasting form, nearly the whole of such cases will yield to the influence of the small-pox contagion.[8]

Not only were failures to protect from smallpox increasing, but when smallpox did strike, smallpox was often worse, being of the most severe type, and in many, it resulted in death. In short, no matter who or how the vaccination was done, it hadn’t lived up to the hype of protecting from smallpox. The bottom line was that vaccination did not protect from smallpox.

But it is not only in the number of failures that this subject becomes alarming, it is also in the severity of the disease; and at this period, many instances of failure not only assume the most severe form of the distinct disease, but also have been confluent; and death has followed in a considerable number of cases… The vaccinations conducted by Dr. Jenner, by public institutions, by private practitioners, by ministers, midwives, or farriers have failed: whether the process has been conducted by one puncture, by two, or ever by four, or whether the eventful test has been applied; all have fallen short of the desired effect… I am decidedly of opinion, there is no mode of giving the vaccine disease by inoculation, which can impart perfect and permanent security against small-pox contagion; and I apprehend it is impossible to give the disease in any other form, to obtain that effect... I have seen several hundred cases of small-pox succeeding to vaccination in the last eight or ten years, and at this moment they are occurring here daily at an alarming extent.[9]

Reflecting on his findings in 1842, Brown further revealed a disheartening reality in his book An Investigation of the Present Unsatisfactory and Defective State of Vaccination: more than half of the individuals who believed themselves to be protected by vaccination had, in fact, fallen victim to smallpox.

…it surely would be unreasonable to expect the public should continue their patronage and confidence, when their safety is positively and confessedly in the greatest danger; and it would be downright madness to imagine they ought, or will continue to adopt vaccination, as a defence against small-pox, when experience has proved that no one who trusts to that practice is protected, or his life safe against the variolous epidemic, but must fly from it for safety; and more especially when even now, seven or eight of every hundred vaccinated cases have, for some years past, fallen a prey to small-pox, which exceeds twenty times the number that died from inoculation with small-pox; and also, as far as present experience goes, much above a half of all who have placed their security in vaccination have undergone an attack of small-pox, and that there is no security for any one who has undergone vaccination, as a protection against the variolous epidemic.[10]

However, like anyone who dared to question the efficacy of vaccination, Dr. Brown encountered a staunchly dogmatic stance from the medical establishment. Those physicians who had firmly entrenched themselves in this belief system persisted without the slightest hesitation in advocating vaccination among the populace and influencing lawmakers to do the same.

Upon no other occasion, Sir, have the medical profession shewn more dogmatism or want of candour; for, although the science of medicine is of difficult and accurate observation, and that a thousand errors may be committed, and thousands of our fellow-creatures may perish without our perception of ignorance or guilt, still these do not afford any satisfactory excuse for our determined and obstinate adherence to maintain the character of vaccination, not only by a total disregard of every adverse fact, however true, and however strong and important; but even with the horrid spirit of treating with contempt any member of the profession who dared to challenge the anti-variolous powers of vaccination. Indeed the Board of the London Vaccine Establishment, have here so completely lost sight of their duty, in attending to the interests of the public, that they go on year after year, rejecting without the smallest hesitation and reserve, not only every adverse fact, but persevere in recommending vaccine inoculation to Parliament and the public, with the most unblushing confidence, as a perfect and most satisfactory antidote against small-pox, and have not hesitated to avail themselves, for this purpose, of the most absurd and ridiculous excuses.[11]

Doctor Brown's analysis revealed major flaws in the early claims about vaccination's effectiveness and safety. Despite Edward Jenner's assurances that vaccination provided lifelong protection against smallpox, Brown's extensive experience and observations showed that this was not the case. Initially a strong advocate for vaccination, having vaccinated over 1,200 individuals, Brown encountered numerous instances where vaccination failed to prevent smallpox. Over time, he observed that vaccinated individuals still contracted smallpox, sometimes in severe and even fatal forms.

Brown's reflections, documented in his works from 1809 to 1842, highlighted the misguided enthusiasm and blind acceptance of vaccination by the medical community and society. He criticized the suppression and misrepresentation of adverse evidence, noting that many medical professionals disregarded the increasing number of vaccination failures. Brown concluded that vaccination did not offer the promised protection and that the medical establishment's dogmatic adherence to vaccination was unreasonable and dangerous.

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

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

[3] Ibid., p. 3.

[4] Thomas Brown, Surgeon, Musselburgh, An Inquiry into the Antivariolous Power of Vaccination; in which, from the state of the Phenomena and the occurrence of a great variety of Cases, the most Serious Doubts are suggested of the Efficacy of the Whole Practice, and its Powers at best proved to be only Temporary, Edinburgh, 1809, pp. 12-13.

[5] Ibid., pp. 279-280.

[6] Ibid., pp. 261-262.

[7] Thomas Brown, Surgeon, Musselburgh, A Letter in Reply to the Report of the Surgeons of the Vaccine Institution, Edinburgh, 1809, p. 94.

[8] Thomas Brown, Surgeon Musselburgh, “On the Present State of Vaccination,” The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. 15, 1819, p. 67.

[9] Ibid, pp. 68-69, 78.

[10] Thomas Brown of Musselburgh, surgeon, An Investigation of the Present Unsatisfactory and Defective State of Vaccination, 1842, p. 136–137.

[11] Thomas Brown of Musselburgh, surgeon, An Investigation of the Present Unsatisfactory and Defective State of Vaccination, 1842, pp. 11–12.