Armstrong – Table of Contents

proceeded exactly as described by Woodville and Jenner; but my desire is to confirm the
doctrine by having some of them inoculated by you.
“I can obtain variolous (smallpox) matter and inoculate them privately, but I wish
to do it in the most open and public way possible. As I have imported a new distemper, I
conceive that the public have a right to know exactly every step I have taken in it. I write
this, then, to enquire whether you will on philanthropic principles try the experiment of
inoculating some of my children who have already undergone the cowpox. If you accede
to my proposal, I shall consider it as an experiment in which we have co-operated for the
good of our fellow citizens, and relate it as such in the pamphlet I mean to publish on the
subject. I am etc. B.W.”.
Dr. Aspinwall agreed readily to test the efficacy of vaccination. Dr. Waterhouse
offered 3 of his children he had vaccinated. Using fresh, dependable smallpox matter, Dr.
Aspinwall chose to inoculate the 12-year old boy in the presence of Dr. Waterhouse. Dr.
Aspinwall also hospitalized the boy in proximity to a patient ill with smallpox. On the
fourth day post-inoculation, the boy developed a slight swelling of his arm but in a day or
two, the swelling subsided, the arm became well, and the boy did not develop smallpox.
Waterhouse proclaimed (11), “One fact, in such cases, is worth a thousand arguments”, a
refreshing attitude in light of Jenner’s experience with the English medical establishment.
Following the successful demonstration of the protective effect of vaccination
against smallpox, the practice of vaccination became accepted and gradually found its
way prominently into the practice of medicine in the United States during the 19th
century. It became part of the standard immunization schedules of most of the 20th
century in pediatric practice and in the Armed Forces. Various pharmaceutical companies