REPLY OF THE VACCINE AGENT TO DR. WM. P. RICHARDSON OF BARHAMSVILLE, NEW KENT COUNTY, Va.
Richmond, March 1, 1856.
Sir: I last night had an interview with Dr. Patteson commissioned by the Governor to report on the apparent origin of Small Pox in your neighborhood. It grieves me sorely to learn the sad suffering of many of your people, caused undoubtedly by virus obtained from me, supposed to be vaccine virus. I know full well that regrets of mine can afford you no relief, and that nothing I can now say or do will remedy the evil you have been subjected to. While, however, I respect your afflictions you must pardon me for saying that neither you nor your fellow sufferers have acted justly in conceiving for one moment that your visitation has been due to neglect of mine. I am aware that an excited people does not reason logically. The maledictions of the ignorant I might reasonably count on, but I am surprised that those whose profession and education should teach them coolness and prudence, have joined in the general outcry; ascribing fault where none is to be found. I am still more surprised to see that you, a member of the medical profession, should attempt to make public issue of a medical question. Whatever your object, your quiet reflections will show that the only ends to be thus attained arc needless alarm of the public mind, incalculable injury to one who could never have voluntarily harmed you or yours, and, I worse than all, loss of confidence in the operation of vaccination.
I am told that your child is ill with small-pox, that its disease was produced by virus obtained from me, that perhaps the result may prove fatal. I am myself a father, and can appreciate your sorrow, and those of your neighbors who may be similarly situated.- I But, sir, if our positions were reversed. l would not only refrain from public or private expression calculated to excite against you the prejudices of your fellow-men, but would earnestly use every effort in my power to enlighten those who would ignorantly make like attempt. What in the thing of which you complain? Analyze it. Why, Simply this: that my earnest endeavor to shield you and your people, has, under the direction of the great Governor of the Universe, failed; that I extended the malady it was my wish to prevent; that you called on me for assistance; that I responded to the call, and that my caution, my skill, my judgment, were alike in vain,- Pray, sir, have you lived a practicing physician these many years, and never been guilty of a like offence. Have you never yet seen the case where all your art and all your science has failed to save the patient from the grasp of death? Have you never yet seen the man, woman or child who might, in all human probability, have lived longer but for your professional interference! Lives there the doctor of even limited experience, who esteems his own sagacity an unerring guide! Yet, what would you think, if the friends of one of these unfortunate sufferers were to reward your thought and toil In his behalf by & well-directed effort to destroy or weaken your moral or professional influence? Would you not severely censure so unfair a course? And, yet, are you willing to commit yourself to a like procedure?
It is useless to pursue this question; your reasoning, if admitted, lends not alone to the conclusion that I should resign my vaccine agency, and that the Legislature should abolish the office, but that you and I and all men, should cease to occupy any position involving the exercise of judgment or of faith. Are you fully aware of the import of your accusation? It is that my intelligence is not superhuman; that I am not infallible; that I am not always able to discern the invisible forces of a piece of scab. In short, my great crime is that I am an erring mortal like yourself! I am willing to confess, sir, that I do not pretend to any preeminent qualities of head or heart, but I do feel sure that I have exerted the utmost care in the administration of my office; that I have done even more than might be considered my duty; that I have often uselessly expanded my own funds rather than risk injury to others, and I am conscious of distributing, at no time, any virus which I would not have fearlessly used on my own family. Would you do as much? Can any man do more? With such faith before your eyes, will you now persist in seeking my injury? Can you find no other explanation of the difficulties and dangers of the past month but by ascribing them to my misconduct? It In wisely intimated in your letter that I must expect imposition if I send to Philadelphia.- But the reason why I send to this or any other city, it is not attempted to explain. The truth is, sir, you and your professional brethren throughout the State, force me to adapt the method you are so prompt to condemn, and if lives are thus lost, you are responsible, and you alone! Instead of protecting every infant as soon after birth a practicable; instead of inculcating and practicing the re-vaccination of your people at stated periods; instead of urging the importance of these considerations on the notice of your patients, you seldom think of virus, except under immediate fear of infection: and when the agent sends you good matter, having reaped its advantages, you fail to make any return. The consequence is obvious, more virus is needed at one time than the agent can procure by his own unassisted endeavors. Opprobrium is heaped upon him by applicants mad with fear; and, deserted by those from whom he might naturally expect aid, he is compelled to seek the assistance of those whom you term "the picayune cormorants of Northern cities." There is no leisure for trial, the only test of virus. All must be vaccinated at once. If the matter chance to be I good, not even thanks are returned. If, on the other hand, as has now occurred, it proves bad, all must suffer- some may die, and the cry is still against the agent. The agent is sagaciously expected to remedy all the evils resulting from the carelessness and negligence of 2,000 practicing physicians and a million of people.
To resolve these difficulties, you say "abolish the office." Similar argument might be directed against all the articles of your materia medica, of worth, or of power. Some have suffered, others have died, because of their use; and the extension of the principle would terminate in the suppression of your own art. Suppose the agency abolished, where should you get virus! The reply is plain: by sending either directly or indirectly to the North. The fact is, air, in thinking of this question, you must balance the evil against the good. Don't imagine that, because one or two hundred people in New Kent, or elsewhere, have suffered from the only accident which has occurred for fifteen years, that therefore, many thousands have not received benefit, many thousand who might otherwise have shared your fate.
The fault is not in the agent, but in the law. The present law expects miracles at the hands of the agent, and rewards him with so much of $500, as is saved from payments of postage and purchases of virus.- To earn this magnificent remainder, he must suffer himself to be set up a mark for the ill-conceived rage of dissatisfied citizens. The greater the work, the less the pay: the more doubtful the encomiums is passed upon his labors. But with all its imperfections and its impossible requirements the vaccine agency has done and will yet do much service, unless the Legislature, inflamed by your exciting appeal, acts without reflection. But if the present law has obtained good results, one may be framed far preferable and more protective in all its provisions. If your intentions have not for their end the gratification of private malice or the manufacture of political capital at my expense- if you are truly patriotic in your desire, do not waste precious time in accusing me of faults of which you must be conscious I am innocent; but exert your energy to procure a just vaccine law, which shall protect both the people and the agent; forcing the latter to assume no more than his true share of responsibility and affording him reasonable remuneration for the fulfillment of its requisitions.
Under the circumstances, be it understood that no expression in this epistle is intended to bear other than a kind and courteous interpretation. I am attacked; I must defend myself; but I do so coolly and dispassionately, with both the hope and the belief that the time which shall terminate your apprehensions for the safety of your family and friends will enable you to recognise(sic) the truth of my remarks.
A.E. PETICOLAS, Vaccine Agent.
Dr. Arthur Edward Peticolas, 32, a charter member of the Medical Society of Virginia, was at this time Professor of Anatomy at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.
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