Author: Jurin, James.
Title: AN ACCOUNT OF THE SUCCESS OF INOCULATING THE SMALL POX in Great Britain, for the Year 1724. With a Comparison Between the Miscarriages in that Practice, and the Mortality of the Natural Small Pox.
Description: London : printed for J. Peele, at Locke’s Head, in Pater-Noster-Row, N.d. c.[1725]. 1st Ed. Sm. thin 8vo. [iv] + 31pp. + [i] Advertisement. Some browning, blue wrapps., some discolouring. ¶ With a 1725 press cutting tipped onto at pp.17 regarding a gentleman who died after inoculation, but due to ‘the miscarriage to some other Distemper.’ ESTC T18702 ‘Advertisement at end dated: May 12. 1725. Half-title: ’Dr. Jurin’s account of the success of inoculating the small pox, for the year 1724’.’ G & M ‘Jurin was an enthusiastic supporter of inoculation against smallpox and statistically proved its efficacy. During the last few months of his life he was president of the Royal College of Physicians of London.’ ODNB ‘His dispassionate, yet forceful advocacy of smallpox inoculation using an innovative statistical approach brought him widespread recognition both in Britain and abroad ... During the first decades of the eighteenth century in England smallpox inoculation was debated fiercely on medical, ethical, and religious grounds. Jurin approached the issue differently by calculating the risks of inoculated and natural smallpox. Using his position as secretary to the Royal Society, he placed an advertisement in the Philosophical Transactions inviting readers to send accounts of their experiences with inoculation. Over sixty individuals responded, the majority either physicians or surgeons who performed the inoculations themselves. From these accounts Jurin calculated the relative odds of dying from smallpox inoculation (roughly 1 in 50) and natural smallpox (roughly 1 in 7 or 8). He published the results of his calculations in a series of annual pamphlets entitled An Account of the Success of Inoculating the Small-Pox, which appeared from 1723 until 1727. Contemporaries were generally persuaded by Jurin's figures and his pamphlets were acknowledged as central to the establishment of smallpox inoculation in England.’

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