On opposition to vaccines - photo 1
On opposition to vaccines - photo 2
On opposition to vaccines - photo 3
On opposition to vaccines - photo 4

On opposition to vaccines

Lot 65
02.02.2024 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 4 410
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 1129683
Lot 65 | On opposition to vaccines
Estimate value
$ 4 000 – 6 000
JENNER, Edward (1749-1823). Autograph letter signed ("Edw. Jenner") to his friend and physician Caleb Hillier Parry, Cheltenham, 13 December 1810.

Three pages, bifolium, 180 x 223 mm, with integral address leaf in Jenner's hand (partial separation along central fold, some loss to integral address leaf from the removal of the wax seal, one spot of adhesive on front page, one small tear to the address panel neatly mended with tape).

An excellent content letter, referring to two opponents of vaccination as "noxious Vermin." Jenner opens the letter by mentioning five "French Captives of distinction" under his care and introduces Parry to one "Genl. Lefevre" who suffers from cardiac issues. Jenner then expresses sorrow for the malady suffered by Parry's daughter Matilda, adding while he wished he could have provided his prognosis: "since the melancholy termination of the Case of our late worthy F[rein]d Hickes, I have made up my mind to the early opening of every large Abcess about the Thorax." John Hickes, a colleague of both men, joined Jenner in inoculating the infant Edward Jenner Jr., with material "from a disease variously described as swinepox, pigpox, and cowpox".

Jenner then sends his appreciation of his correspondent's compliments, adding: "You know how many years have pass'd away since I first began to inquire into the nature of Hydatids [parasitic cysts]. The result of this enquiry has certainly develop'd many curious & interesting Facts. You shall have them, which according to my opinion, elucidate the Case of Lord Berkeley, very shortly." On the subject of two notable skeptics of vaccinations, Benjamin Moseley and Charles Maclean, Jenner decides to heed Parry's "advise respecting Moseley & Maclean, & for the present shall suffer this noxious Vermin to move as their malignant nature directs them." Charles Maclean, a physician for the East India Company, vocally opposed the efficacy of Jenner's vaccines, as his view was that environmental factors, not contagions, were responsible for the spread of disease. Dr. Benjamin Moseley was one of Jenner's fiercest opponents, spearheading a fear campaign that injecting matter from a cow-borne illness could cause bovine mutations, such as the growth of horns or cow hair; in one of his works, he even used a reference to the Greek myth of Pasiphaë—the Cretan queen who was mother of the Minotaur.
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