EAKLY QUAEANTINE ARRANGEMENTS OF SALEM. 15 



the men who had its home interests at heart and they may 

 have established, by mutual consent, a system for the pro- 

 tection of the town, without spreading it on the records or 

 having recourse to penalties. It is proper to say that fre- 

 quent days of public fasting, humiliation and prayer were 

 resorted to by the law-making powers, colonial and pro- 

 vincial, as among the preventive measures of the day. The 

 very frequent recurrence of these observances, which Avere 

 intended to "avert the frowns ofProvidence" as discovered 

 in " Fevers," " Small-pox, " "Plagues " and "Unwonted dis- 

 ease," as well as in "the low state of religion," "sins," 

 "blastings," "grasshoppers," and the "palmer- worm," 

 would, if the long list of dates were enumerated, show what 

 a terrible scourge these diseases were, especially the small- 

 pox before the introduction of inoculation. ^ 



'^ Inoculation was introduced into America in 1720 by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of 

 Boston who for some years, alone and under great discouragements of hostile leg- 

 islation as well as personal peril, persisted in the practice. It seems to have pre- 

 vailed earlier and more generally here than in Europe. See " Diseases of America," 

 u letter dated '• New York, December, 1780," from the pen of Dr. Johann David 

 Schoepft", Surgeon of the Anspuch-Bayreuth Troops in America, Also, for the con- 

 nection of Dr. Increase Mather with the subject, see Collections Mass. Historical 

 Society, 1st Series, Vol. IX, pp. 275-80. Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse of Cambridge, 

 who, with Dr. James Jackson of Boston in 17%, introduced vaccination into 

 America, wrote as follows in 1787 to his friend Dr. Ilolyoke of Salem. 



Cambridge Octob' 23<i 1787. 

 Sir 



I herewith send you a Book entitled " an Inquiry how to prevent the Small-Pox," 

 written hy Dr. Haygarth of the City of Chester in England. This leai-ned and be- 

 nevolent Physician intends to publish a Proposal for exterminating the S. Pox from 

 Great Britain, and as he thinks the communications I made him (as expressed in 

 p. 138 ) of no small consequence to his plan, and requests more information, I feel 

 heartily disposed to give all tlie assistance in my power, which is indeed no moi'e 

 than collecting the best information our Country affords.— With this view I send 

 the publication for your perusal. — 



I suspect that we in N. England know more of 

 the S. Pox than they do in G. Britain, and that there are more and better materials 

 for forming an accurate history of that Disease, with us, than with them ?— Even 

 their Physicians seem to have forgotten, that an Inhabitant of Boston was the first 

 who put in practice the obscure hints given by Timonius of Constantinople, and 

 transferring it to England, thence diffused this salutary practice among every pol- 

 ished nation in the world.— There appears an heroism in D' Boylston that is worth 



recording. — 



I remain, 



very respected Sir, 

 Dr. Ed. Aug. Holyoke M. D. your humble servant 



Salem, Mass. B. Waterhouse. 



