Virus and Response 1856 Pt VI--- -"Report of the Special Committee of the House of Delegates"

Dr. John Henry Claiborne, Del- Petersburg

Art II. Report of the Special Committee of the House of Delegates on the Vaccine Agency. By J. Herbert Claiborne M.D. Delegate from Petersburg and Chairman of the Committee.*

 The committee to whom was referred the communication of the governor of this commonwealth relative to the conduct of the vaccine agent have had the same under consideration and have examined the documents appertaining to the subject the letters of certain persons in the county of New Kent complaining that the agent had distributed among them the matter of small pox instead of vaccine matter together with the communication of Dr. Patteson who was dispatched by the governor to New Kent to enquire(sic) into the case and other papers in the possession of the house germane to the whole and beg leave to submit the following report.

The committee have found it to be well established that Dr. A.E. Peticolas has been the unfortunate agent of dispensing to sundry persons in the county of New Kent matter which by inoculation has produced variola and varioloid instead of the vaccine disease Of this fact the agent himself is convinced and avers it in his candid and impartial communication to the governor. It remains then for the committee to enquire into the motives of the agent whether the distribution of this noxious matter was intentional on his part and into his official conduct whether it has been marked by sufficient carefulness and by intelligent precaution. 

In the total absence of any reason why the agent a state officer of high character and unimpeached integrity should intentionally lend himself to the fiendish act of spreading a fatal and loathsome disease among the people of this commonwealth the committee cannot conceive it possible that his motives should be impugned by any one. They deem it unnecessary to say more on this point. 

 In reference to the official conduct of the agent the committee believe that he has exercised as much caution and sagacity in the procurement of the matter which he distributed to the citizens of New Kent as he has done in all other cases when called on for matter And that he has in all other cases acted with care and prudence will appear from the fact that in a term of five year’s service in which he has supplied many thousand people with virus he has never before been accused of sending improper matter And moreover it will appear on an investigation of the mode in which Dr. Peticolas procures the vaccine scab that no man can do more to obtain and transmit that which is genuine.

- as reported in The Stethoscope and Virginia Medical and Surgical Journal Combined , April 1856



*This is different than the previous committee mentioned which was from the Virginia Senate.

Virus and Response 1856 Pt V- Dr. Patteson's Report

Below find more than one would ever likely want to know about epidemic disease and its treatment in antebellum New Kent County . . . probably.  From the pages of the The Stethoscope and Virginia Medical and Surgical Journal Combined of April 1856 we Dr. Patteson's report to General Assembly about the Smallpox outbreak. The first paragraph is from the Journal article followed by the report itself.

During the month of February last various communications were received by Dr. A.E. Peticolas the vaccine agent in Richmond charging him with having transmitted small pox instead of vaccine virus to several persons who had made application to him, the result of which was that many persons had been inoculated with small pox matter. During the same month a petition was forwarded to the governor from New Kent county desiring him to remove the vaccine agent from office on account of neglect of duty in as much as forty or fifty persons had been afflicted with serious disease resulting from the use of matter received from the agent purporting to be vaccine virus. Dr. Peticolas at once submitted these papers to the governor who with commendable alacrity directed Dr. Patteson to visit the county of New Kent and report to him on the condition of the sufferers in that locality and also to ascertain whether the agent was chargeable with any culpable mismanagement or neglect of duty. In pursuance of the order of the executive Dr. Patteson submitted the interesting report which we now lay before our readers.- Editor

Art I. A Report on the Eruptive Disease lately prevailing in New Kent County. Submitted to the Hon. Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia. By William A. Patteson M.D. Richmond.
                                                                                Richmond, March 1, 1856 

Dear Sir,
Having received from the secretary of the commonwealth an executive order dated 25th February 1856 referring certain letters and papers received from the county of New Kent and the letter of Dr. Arthur E Peticolas to me and directing me to repair to the county of New Kent and ascertain whether the cases reported to be varioloid or small pox in that locality are such and also to enquire whether they have been occasioned by any neglect or mismanagement of the vaccine agent and report thereupon to the governor. I have now the honor to say that I have duly executed the order as will more fully and at large appear by the following detailed account.

On Tuesday the 26th February 1856 I repaired to the said county and was kindly and professionally met by Drs Robert S. Apperson, Vernon P. Jones, Wm Pryor Richardson, A.J.E. Jennings and some other citizens of the vicinity of Barhamsville.

I learned from them that the small pox appeared in the county of New Kent some time about the second week in January last in the person of a white man named Thomas Breeden about 21 years of age who was a trader to Richmond. He sickened with chill and fever and was visited by Dr. Vernon Jones and Dr. James Richardson. After a few days an eruption appeared on his body which was at first thought to be measles. In a very short time it was ascertained to be small pox of a dangerous kind and he died on the 28th day of January. There then sickened at and about the same time in this house George W. Mitchell the head of the family, his wife, and infant daughter, Mrs Breeden the wife of the deceased, her son Lloyd, Joseph Robbins a boy of 12 years of age living in the family, Pryor a free negro lad aged about 18 years, and Peter an old man aged about 70 years the property of John G. Mitchell.

Of these Pryor, Lloyd Robbins, and old Peter had smallpox. The rest had varioloid of a mild form having been previously protected by vaccine except the child which also had varioloid. These were all inmates of this house.

After these occurrences a hospital was established by the magistracy of the county on the 4th day of February and Drs. Vernon Jones and Wm Pryor Richardson appointed physicians thereto. Mitchell's house was constituted said hospital. Dr. Wm P. Richardson had not visited it before this date. It is said to be about five miles from Barhamsville not on the public road but in an out of the way place and the communication with it and the surrounding country was interdicted. Interdiction with it had been established by common consent some time before it was constituted the hospital almost directly after the eruption appeared on Breeden. Thus much as to circumstances and facts attending the origin of small pox in New Kent on the information of others communicated to me.

. . . (wherein is contained a lengthy account of medical examinations of New Kent residents both free and enslaved) . . .

Having now sir duly discharged the trust committed to my charge by your executive precept of the 25th February, 1856, having examined the letters and papers from the county of New Kent and the letter of Dr. Arthur E. Peticolas to you dated 23rd February, 1856, and having as you will see visited and carefully examined the families and cases aforesaid and noted the facts as they were presented to me I have come to the following conclusions:

  "That small pox appeared naturally in New Kent about the second week in January.

"From close and particular enquiry(sic) I believe that those families reported on have had no intercourse with the first subjects of small pox in New Kent. They not only forbade all communication with them but the places of residence and infantile ages of many of those now sick forbid the idea that their sickness has been produced by any connection with those first subjects.

"In reasoning from consequences to causes it is clear that these cases are all to be traced back to the use of matter received by Dr. A.J.E. Jennings and Dr. Vernon Jones and the four small packages covered under the envelop to Dr. Robert S. Apperson for himself, Richardson, Turner, and Hockaday from the vaccine agent. 

"Its use has produced small pox varioloid and apparent vaccine the sickness of all being the direct sequitur of the use of the virus about the usual time and in the usual manner. 

"I suspect and have but little doubt that it was a vaccine crust cropped from the arm of some patient who had been exposed to the contagion of small pox in whose blood smallpox was incubating when vaccined and sufficiently matured to modify it. Such crusts are not distinguishable from genuine crusts by any known law except trial. 

"The agent must have become possessed of some crusts of modified virus from his sources of supply other than his own rearing. 

"His frank letter to you clearly shows the impossibility of answering the public demand for virus in time of panic from croppings under his personal observation alone and therefore the possibility of mistake.

"There are no other modes of supply known than those to which he has had recourse in times of panic.

"I do not see that he has been guilty of any neglect or mismanagement in the discharge of his public duty.

"Very respectfully,

                                 W.A. PATTESON M.D. "

Hon. H.A. Wise, Governor of Virginia 

Virus and Response 1856 Pt I - "Such persons as may be effected"

The County Court of Henrico concluded its February term yesterday. Before adjourning, an order was passed directing such persons as may be effected with small pox on the suburbs of the city, to procure a certificate of two county justice and go to the city hospital, the county to pay the expenses.

- Daily Dispatch, 7 February 1856



                                                                                 WANTS.

WANTED.— A Female Nurse, to attend Small Pox patients, in the county of New Kent, liberal compensation will be paid. Immediate application may be made to Alex. Walker, North side of Main street, between 18th and 19th streets, Richmond, Va.                            fe 12—lt*

- Richmond Daily Dispatch, 12 February 1856

SMALL POX IN NEW KENT COUNTY.  —The Williamsburg Gazette learns that the Small Pox has made its appearance in the neighborhood of Barhamsville, New Kent county, Va. About ten or twelve cases have appeared. It broke out in the house of Mr. Washington Mitchell, at Ware Creek. A young man at Mr. Mitchell's, by the name of Wm. F. Breeden died of it about three weeks since. This is the only death reported. We learn by Mr. William Meanly, that Dr. Richardson who lives at Ware Creek has taken the disease. The residence of Mr. Mitchell has been converted into a hospital for the treatment of cases.

  - Richmond Daily Dispatch, 19 February 1856