Well, even if it was so ?--I gasped when the thought struck me--as Merchison had recognised in the case of Jane, by immediate vaccination the virus could be destroyed, or if not destroyed at least so much modified and weakened as to become almost harmless.

Smallpox takes thirteen or fourteen days to develop; cowpox runs its course in eight.

So even supposing that I had been infected for two days there was still time.

Yes, but none to lose! Well, the thing was easy--I was a doctor and I had a supply of glycerinated lymph; I had procured some fresh tubes of it only the other day, to hold it up before my audiences while I dilated on its foulness and explained the evils which resulted from its use.

Supposing now that I made a few scratches on my arm and rubbed some of this stuff into them, who would be the wiser?
The inflammation which would follow would not be sufficient to incapacitate me, and nobody can see through a man's coat sleeve; even if the limb should become swollen or helpless I could pretend that I had strained it.