Edward Jenner and the introduction of vaccination in Malta.

IN THE mid-eighteenth century smallpox was prevalent in Malta. Variolation had been tried as a preventive measure but was found disappointing and dangerous in its results, so much so that its practice was prohibited in 1769 by the Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which then ruled over the Island., At the time of Jenner's discovery of vaccination in 1798, Malta was occupied by Napoleon, but by 1800 it was under British protection. In the meantime the British government had taken steps to introduce vaccination to its naval and military forces abroad and to its possessions overseas. Malta was thus among the first British territories to benefit from this policy. Dr. Joseph Marshall and Dr. John Walker were sent as vaccinators to the British fleet in the Mediterranean. They left England in the early days of July 1800 on the Endymion. After calling at Gibraltar, where they vaccinated both servicemen and civilians, they proceeded to Minorca on the Florentine.' They subsequently came to Malta, most probably on the same ship, as the Florentine was, in those days, a visitor to Maltese waters.3 Captain Alexander Ball, the President of the Provisional Government of Malta, ordered all men in the British fleet based on Malta to be vaccinated.4 It has been said that 'Jenner's book' was distributed in the island.5 Was this book the Inquiry or A Continuation of Facts and Observations? A prolonged search in private and public archives in the Maltese Islands has not revealed any copies of the Inquiry but I have succeeded in finding three copies of A Continuation etc. at the Royal Malta Library at Valletta. This booklet, however, is not the English original but an Italian translation which must have escaped the attention of W. R. LeFanu as he makes no reference to it in his admirable bio-bibliography of Jenner. This booklet (8vo, 32 pages) is entitled Continuazione di fatti e d'osservazioni intorno al vajuolo della vacca fatte da Odoardo Jenner. It was translated by the 'Abate Bellet D.S.' and published in Malta in 1801. Though it bears no indication as to the identity of the printer and publisher it was probably produced by the Government Printing Office which was then the only press in the island. It is very likely, too, that it was issued as a form of health propaganda to persuade Maltese parents to vaccinate their children against smallpox. It is a faithful rendering of the original except for minor mistakes such as 'fourth' instead of 'fifth day'; 'three or four' instead of 'two and three'; two misprints of English surnames and the omission of inverted commas and of two footnotes.7 The translator added a preface and an epilogue. The former consists of a brief