144 Secbnd Letter tb Mr. Tillock on the Cow- Pock. 



into pustules, containing a transparent fluicl, and feach has 

 an accompanving inflammation around. 



At this period^of the disease the throat becomes infiarhed, 

 and is painful ; the breath is hot and foetid ; swallowing is 

 difficult; the voice hoarse ; in adults there conies on a sa- 

 livation, and in infants a diarrhcea. 



On the seventh day the eye-lids swell, and are glued (o- 

 «rether, and the patient has both the sensation and appfe- 

 kension of the loss of sight. 



On the eighth dav the aqueous fluid of the pu^tuks is 

 clianged into thick pus, and the effluvia now issuing from 

 the patient are highly noisome and infectious ; or, instead of 

 a vcllow pus, or matter, only ichor is produced, which 

 erodes deep, and ends in mortification of the parts. 

 Often, purple spots appear in the spaces surrounding the 

 eruption, which fovebode the approaching catastrophe. 

 OJten, profuse hemorrhages of thin corrupt blood pass 

 off bv Itie sp.vcral outlets of the body. The human face 

 divine, bereft of every feature, then exhibits the most dis- 

 tressinsi sight, being one mass of corruption ; and at this 

 time, should sleep kindly come in to appease ins miseries, it- 

 is disturbed and short, and he frequently wakes with a start, 

 as if roused by some dreadful apprehension ; but more gene- 

 rally the sleepless nights are passed in tearing off this mask 

 of humours, which from a dark brown changes to a Ijlack, 

 and each morning presents a horrid scene of gore mingled 

 v>ith corruption. 



To behold the poor tortured victim muffled, resisting, and 

 finally overcoming every artifice to prevent him tearing his 

 flesh \o pieces, is the most melancholy sightwhich thefcmd 

 mother can witness. By-standers no longer recognize the 

 temper or features of the lovely infant — happy if lie escape 

 without actual loss of vision, and the dimples of the cherub 

 cheek are not furrowed into deep seams and unsightly pits. 

 Parents at such a moment would willingly compromise 

 Cverv external grace for the possession of life. But fate yet 

 honirs suspended on a thread. The swelling of the face 

 a!>ates ; the limbs in their turn become tumefied ; the fever, 

 which had remitted soniewhat of its first violence, re- 

 curs, froni the matter absorbed ; and the poor tortured vic- 

 tim, undercioinii a second conflict morce dreadful than the 

 first, with weakened powers of resistance, most com- 

 monlv from between the 14tli to the 17ih day (one out of 

 three or four usually dying of the natural small-pox) finds 

 a release froin his miseries bv the arrow of death, now 

 esieemed as a kind deliverer, instead of the horror of the 

 human conception Or, if nature should come off vic- 

 torious. 



