For the terrible virulence of the smallpox in New England up to the introduction of the inoculation, see McMaster, History of the People of the United States, first edition, vol.i, p.

30.
The steady evolution of scientific medicine brings us next to Jenner's discovery of vaccination.

Here, too, sundry vague survivals of theological ideas caused many of the clergy to side with retrograde physicians.

Perhaps the most virulent of Jenner's enemies was one of his professional brethren, Dr.Moseley, who placed on the title-page of his book, Lues Bovilla, the motto, referring to Jenner and his followers, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do": this book of Dr.Moseley was especially indorsed by the Bishop of Dromore.

In 1798 an Anti-vaccination Society was formed by physicians and clergymen, who called on the people of Boston to suppress vaccination, as "bidding defiance to Heaven itself, even to the will of God," and declared that "the law of God prohibits the practice." As late as 1803 the Rev.Dr.
Ramsden thundered against vaccination in a sermon before the University of Cambridge, mingling texts of Scripture with calumnies against Jenner; but Plumptre and the Rev.Rowland Hill in England, Waterhouse in America, Thouret in France, Sacco in Italy, and a host of other good men and true, pressed forward, and at last science, humanity, and right reason gained the victory.