1808. Large oblong letterpress broadside (347 x 430mm) together with accompanying hand coloured engraved sheet with two figures (192mm x 284mm); broadside uncut with neat vertical central fold, a little creased at tail of fold with a couple of small paper flaws though with no loss, small nick, extremities fainly dustsoiled; engraved sheet a good strong, bright impression; a most appealing and fresh example. A striking and scarce public health broadside published by the medical authorities in Stockholm, promoting Jenner’s smallpox vaccination and warning against the dangers of using ‘non-genuine’ vaccines, compiled by the leading Swedish physician Sven Hedin (1750-1821). As Hedin notes, thanks to ‘millions of reliable findings’ Jenner’s discoveries have been widely accepted as being infallible and thus adopted by many countries, ‘even the wild nations in America’. The present broadside, issued ‘out of sheer kindness, for the greater good, and leaving profit aside’, was designed to be prominently displayed and easily disseminated, and describes a number of key indicators to enable parents and indeed those vaccinated themselves, to assess whether they have received a genuine, rather than counterfeit dose. To aid further, the broadside is accompanied by a striking hand coloured engraved sheet showing the effects of genuine and successful vaccination, as against a non-genuine and ‘spurious’ vaccination which produced a scabious reaction.
Hedin was a professor at Uppsala and personal physician to the King. The author of a number of popular medical works, he had long advocated smallpox vaccination, and had previously espoused its benefits in a short pamphlet ‘Kopporna kunna utrotras eller vaccinationen’ in 1802. Thanks to his advocacy, a mandatory vaccination program was established in Sweden in 1815.
Here found on one sheet, the engravings had originally been included in his work of 1802. We have been led to understand that a comparison with the work of 1802 pamphlet suggests that plate 1 has been newly engraved and plate 2 re-engraved for this issue.