The following are the important conclusions which may obviously be deduced from the satisfactory evidence which has been detailed.

1. That Vaccination has, within the space of twenty-five years, been the direct means of preserving, within the London^[8] Bills of Mortality alone, a number of lives amounting to 21,127; and that if we extend the ratio of calculation to the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, it will appear that not fewer than 393,356 lives have been saved by this most valuable discovery, while an equal number have been preserved from “blindness, deformity, scrofula, or broken constitutions.”

2. That in accomplishing this result, Vaccination has acted in two ways,—1. by superseding the practice of inoculation for Small Pox, which (while it afforded a certain degree of security to the inoculated) has been proved to have materially increased the gross number of deaths, by creating, artificially, many new sources of infection,—and, 2. by rendering the vaccinated entirely insusceptible of Small Pox infection, or the disease produced by it, in almost every instance, mild, harmless, and devoid of danger.

3. That Vaccination is capable, if universally employed, of exterminating the Small Pox altogether, as has been proved by the experience of other countries.

That Vaccination is a process perfectly unattended with danger to the individual who passes through it, and incapable of communicating any noxious infection to those around him, are facts too well known and too generally admitted, to require more than a passing notice; nevertheless it is essential that they should not be lost sight of.

But if these be indeed plain and legitimate conclusions from the facts and arguments which have been adduced—and to myself they appear irresistible ones—then must Vaccination cease to be considered as a matter of policy, or of curious medical research only, for it plainly resolves itself into a momentous moral question. Let it once be admitted that it is capable of eradicating so great an evil as the infection of Small Pox, and it becomes the imperative duty of every individual to promote, to the utmost of his ability, an end so infinitely desirable. The question involves consequences so closely connected with the well-being of individuals and of society in general, and the actual existence of so many thousands annually, that ignorance, or doubt, will scarcely form an admissible apology for the omission of what is alike essential for private and for public security. If then any be ignorant on this momentous subject, let him not delay to obtain information; if any doubt, let him use every exertion to satisfy himself. If he hesitate to confer on his children the advantages, which Vaccination has been proved to be capable of bestowing, let him remember, that it has already been the means of preserving nearly four hundred thousand of his countrymen, and that, perhaps, he owes his own existence at this day, to its salutary influence; that but for Vaccination he might possibly himself, long ago, have fallen a sacrifice to the destructive disease from which it has rescued so many victims, and have been equally unable to call its efficacy in question, or to assist in consummating the grand object, which by means of it alone, appears capable of being accomplished.

It was in our own country, that this most remarkable discovery originated; it was our own countryman, who, with such noble disinterestedness, as soon as he had satisfied himself of its real value, disclosed it to the world, and who sacrificed every personal consideration of pecuniary gain, to the general welfare of mankind. As Englishmen, we have just cause to be proud of both—the discovery and the discoverer; but we may well feel humbled when we remember, that the merits of neither have been adequately acknowledged amongst us; and that while the latter has been more justly estimated and more highly honoured in almost every other part of the world, the former has also been more effectively employed, and with proportionally more decisive results.

It is true, that in some of the continental nations, where Vaccination has been most extensively and successfully employed, it has been made a matter of state policy, and legislative measures have been used to enforce its adoption; while, at home, it has rested with the public to adopt or reject it, as might be agreeable to their opinions or prejudices. Some writers have proposed that a similar mode of enforcing its general employment in England, by legislative compulsion, should be made use of; but, I conceive, such measures would be too little in accordance with the spirit of our government, and too repulsive to the feelings of Englishmen, to render them advisable, notwithstanding the paramount national importance of the object. That the time will presently arrive when this object will be fully accomplished, without any such unpalatable interference of the legislature, but by the irresistible force of truth alone, on the minds of the public, I cannot permit myself to doubt. Means of information on the subject, ample and satisfactory, are within the reach of all who are anxious to enquire; and it cannot be that they should long remain unexplored, or that they will fail to carry conviction to the mind of every candid and intelligent enquirer. But, when I reflect that the early conviction of a single individual, who entertains a doubt of the protective efficacy of Vaccination, or a prejudice against the practice, may be the direct or indirect means of saving the lives of many, I cannot refrain from most earnestly exhorting every one to consider this subject maturely—to be strenuous and unremitting in his enquiries respecting it, until every doubt is satisfied. He will then see one straight forward path of duty before him, which he will feel himself compelled, by every moral and religious obligation, most perseveringly and undeviatingly, to pursue. He will feel that his own personal exertions, in promoting the general use of Vaccination in his own family, amongst his dependents and all those whom he can in any the slightest degree influence, are essential to the accomplishment of the great philanthropic end proposed—the total extinction of Small Pox: a consummation that would prevent a larger portion of human misery, and preserve a larger number of human lives, than any other which it is in the power of imagination to conceive, or of reason to contemplate.