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PLATES IN VOL. X.

Plate

LXVIII. Table of the Barometer and Thermometer at Belfast and in
Dublin, Sept. 1816, to March, 1817..

Page

11

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No. LIX. page 258, line 9, for stopped, read stepped.

ANNALS

OF

PHILOSOPHY.

JULY, 1817..

ARTICLE I.

Biographical Account of Jean de Carro, M.D.

JEAN DE CARRO, a physician practising at Vienna, was born at Geneva, Aug. 8, 1770. He is descended from one of the most ancient families of that little independent state. Already in the beginning of the 15th century, members of this family had there. filled the highest posts of trust; had served as distinguished officers in the armies of different powers, particularly in Russia; and had united themselves by marriage with the other ancient and noble families of Geneva.

In the year 1790, de Carro, having completed his general studies, went to Edinburgh, a University for which his countrymen had always a great predilection, in order to pursue his medical studies. On June 24, 1793, he obtained the degree of Doctor, after having publicly defended An Inaugural Dissertation de Hydrocephalo Acuto, which was also printed.

On returning to his native country, he found it in a state of agitation which must have rendered it a most unfit residence for a young man of inquiring mind, desirous of information. He determined, therefore, to pursue his studies at the University of Vienna, at which he entered in the year 1794. His intention was during a year to profit by all the opportunities which the hospital, and the other institutions of this capital, would afford; and then, prepared with fresh stores of knowledge, to return to his native town.

The French revolution, the influence of which extended even to Geneva, the change, which took place in the government, and the barbarous way in which this change was brought about, induced De Carro to remain in Vienna, to await another order of things, and in the mean time to enrol himself in the medical body of that city. VOL. X. N° I.

A

Successful practice, and, above all, his marriage with the Traulein von Kurzbeck, in 1795, induced him to take up his residence permanently in Vienna, where, after the customary examinations, he was formally admitted, in 1796, as a Member of the Faculty of Medicine.

De Carro's scientific connexion with England had scarcely made him acquainted with Jenner's important discovery of the cow-pox, and put him in possession of his work, which appeared in 1798, when he, relying implicitly on the accuracy and skill of Jenner, endeavoured to obtain matter, and resolved to make the first trial upon his own sons, Carl and Peter. These children, then, on May 10, 1799, became the first subjects of the cow-pox inoculation upon the continent of Europe, and of course in the Austrian monarchy. Two months afterwards he subjected them both, under the observation of physicians who had obtained the public confidence, to the inoculation of the small-pox, which, as was to be expected, was found deprived of all its injurious influence upon the protected children.

Moravia was the first province of the Austrian monarchy in which the Graf Hugo Salm, under the direction of De Carro, and by his disinterested assistance, introduced in a short time the general use of the cow-pox inoculation.

De Carro was required by the Archduke Charles to draw out a statement and instructions how the vaccine might be best introduced into all the establishments for the children of the military, and particularly those of the frontier regiments. When he had completed this, in a manner suited to the objects in view, the Commander, in a private audience, thanked him, in the name of the state and of the army, in the most flattering terms. On March 10, 1803, the Imperial Council of War issued an order that the German edition of De Carro's first work upon the vaccine (Observations et Experiences sur la Vaccine) should be distributed to all the medical officers of the army, that it might serve them as an instruction and rule. In this order the work is styled "the best which has made its appearance upon the subject."

After he had propagated the vaccine inoculation, not only through the whole of the Austrian monarchy, but introduced it into many other countries of Europe, and to this end maintained an epistolary correspondence with other countries, in which the Government took upon themselves to promote the beneficial discovery, and communicated his letters to committees named for the purpose; after he had instructed young men gratis, rendered the modes of conveying the matter more simple, and improved them by the adoption of ivory needles; De Carro determined to introduce the vaccine matter over land into the rich country of India, where the small-pox was feared as the wicked deity presiding over the cradle of infant manno one having yet succeeded, what care soever had been adopted, in introducing it uninjured, and possessed of its power, when carried by sea.

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