ls us.

Probably, indeed, I had taken it already, and this very moment the seeds
of sickness were at their wizard work within me. 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. Whatever I had preached to prove my
point and forward my ambition, in truth I had never doubted the efficacy
of vaccination, although I was well aware of the dangers that might
result from the use of impure or contaminated lymph, foul surroundings,
and occasionally, perhaps, certain conditions of health in the subject
himself. Therefore I had no prejudice to overcome, and certainly I was
not a Conscientious Objector.

It came to this then. There were only two reasons why I should not
immediately vaccinate myself--first, that I might enjoy in secret a
virtuous sense of consistency, which, in the case of a person who had
proved himself so remarkably inconsistent in this very matter, would
be a mere indulgence of foolish pride; and secondly, because if I did I
might be found out. This indeed would be a catastrophe too terrible to
think of, but it was not in fact a risk that need be taken into account.

But where was the use of weighing all these pros and cons? Such foolish
doubts and idle arguments melted into nothingness before the presence
of the spectre that stood upon my threshold, the hideous, spotted
Pestilence who had slain my father, who held my daughter by the throat,
and who threatened to grip me with his frightful fingers. What were
inconsistencies and risks to