Lelter from Dr. Thornton on the Oow-Pox. 39 



of private advantaee, considering only the public welfare, 

 had shown himselt adverse to partial inoculation*: hence 

 the younger part of the whole village for upwards of twenty 

 years were exempt from the small-pox, and therefore liable 

 to this disease. 



As fortune would have it, during the period Rose was 

 under vaccine inoculation from matter obtained by me from 

 Mr. Ring, who has been a most zealous advocate for vaccine 

 inoculation, one of the industrious little villagers, a lad aged 

 nine or ten years, had picked up mushrooms, which at that 

 time were uncommonly abundant, and carried them for sale to 

 Penrith, unknown to his parents, where the small -pox then 

 raged, and had swept off a number of persons. This child 

 took, in consequence, the natural small-pox, and exhibited 

 signs of it, when Rose, set. 9, the child of his lordship's 

 porter, was in a right state for propagating the vaccine ino- 

 culation. 



It was now harvest-time in the north both for hay and 

 corn, and there was not to be an idle hand throughout the 

 whole village. No language can express the dismay that 

 was spread from this event.'' Amidst this universal conster- 

 nation and dread of the small-pox, seen by groups of old 

 people anxiously conversing of the impending calamitv, his 

 lordship ordered the glad tidings of a general inoculation 

 with the cow-pock to be proclaimed, the advantages of 

 which werestated, and had been seen in the caseof Rose, who 

 had ailed little or nothing, and had but one local pustule, 

 with slight constitutional affection ; and the whole assembly 

 were ordered to appear in review at Lowther before his lord- 

 ship. 



Upon going to see the child labouring under the natural 

 small-pox, I found his face greatly tumefied, not a feature 

 to be discerned; blind, covered with pustules from head to 

 foot; the whole face was one smear of blood and gore ; and 

 the parlour he lay in bein^ small, the stench was so into- 

 lerable, that I was obliged soon to quit the room to hinder 

 myself from being sick. I proposed inoculating the other 

 two children with the small-pox; but the mother was much 

 prejudiced against inoculation, and had rather " trust them 

 to God's win ;" hence I foresaw that I should obtain a full 



completion of my views f. 



The 



• There is a section in this work, ** Whether society at large hat be- 

 nefiteil by the introduction of the bwall-pox inoculation ?" The answer 

 ii in the nrgtitivr. 



t Maiuruiton appears to be the season when the variolous miasnis ar* 

 Q A emitted 



