The Anti-Vaccine Minority
The following anonymous print provides some insight into the nature and virulence of the opposition to Edward Jenner's vaccination methods, and is intended to supplement the commentary on The Cow-Pock, or the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!
Jenner and his devilish fellow "cow poxers" are shown dumping baskets full of children into the giant maw of a monstrous cow, labeled for all the effects supposedly produced by vaccination, including "pestilence," "plague," "leprosy," "faetid ulcers," and, for good measure, "Pandorah's Box." The resulting horned or dead babies appear at the other end being shoveled by William Woodville (identified by the Lectures on Botany for which he was famous) into a waiting cart.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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Meanwhile, a batallion of anti-vaxxers appears with the supposed sword of "Truth" to put at end to this practice. Their initials appear on their shields and their names on the obelisk next to them. They include Benjamin Mosely (1742-1819) physician to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, Robert Squirrell a pseudonym for John Gale Jones (1769-1838) the political activist, William Rowley physician and author of Cow-Pox Inoculation No Security Against Small-Pox Infection, John Birch (1745-1815) Surgeon extraordinary to the Prince of Wales and author of Serious Reasons for Uniformly Objecting to the Practice of Vaccination, and George Lipscomb.