Cow-Por.k it'ith the Small-Pox, 243 



2dly, The chances that Infants at the breast have (f d'j'inrr ; 

 early age being found most 2infavQurable to the inscrtio/f, 

 of the small-pox, 

 A tact which soon drew the atlcution of inany eminent me- 

 dical writers, who endcavrmred to account tor this circum- 

 stance. 'I'hiis Dr. I'crcival : 



** I. The nunibcr of diseases to which infants arc Hable, 

 render them unlk subjects for inoculation. Hippocrates, 

 two thousand years ago, remarked, (etatibui morbosissimi 

 sunt jani'ires. And when wc consider tlic great and sud- 

 den changes, both external and internal, which they undergo 

 at birth ; the laxity and wonderful delicacy of their frame ;» 

 and their extreme irritability, perhaps depending upon it; 

 the copiousness of glandular secretions, with the difficulty 

 of preserving that equilibrium, the least deviation from 

 which aliccts them ; it is matter of real astonishment that 

 life itself can be supported under a series of such apparently 

 unfavourable circumstances. Scarcely hath the little stranger 

 been ushered into the world but he discovers signs of in- 

 disposition, bv his restlessness, anxiety, crying, and vo- 

 miting; by the swelling of his belly, and sometimes by 

 convulsions. These symptoms arise from the load of me- 

 conium with which the stomach and bowels are oppressed, 

 and generally cease when those organs have been gently eva- 

 cuated. Th': jaundice next succeeds, and is sometimes com- 

 plicated with a very acrimonious state of the fluids, as appears 

 by the eruption of little red pustules, with whicli the skin is 

 every where loaded. The thrush, watery gripes, and con- 

 vulsions, observe no regular order of time, but attack most 

 infants, either singly or collectivtly, according as they are 

 more or less obnoxious to the causes which produce them. 

 The quick growth of children in the first period after birth, 

 is likewise a source of numerous ailments; notwithstanding 

 the provisions which nature hath made to guard against the 

 inconveniences rc-ulting from it, by the laxity of the glan- 

 dular system. And as most of these causes continue to 

 exert their inilucnce after birth, though in a less degree, 

 the increment of the young animal proceeds apace, and re- 

 dundances are formed, which in a healthy state are carried 

 ofi' by one or other of the glandular excretions. But a de- 

 ficiency or excels in any of these, ncccs.-arily produces dis- 

 eases. And in such l<.eble, delicate, and irritable subjects, 

 the equilibrium cannot long be preserved. If they arc de- 

 fective, all the complaints which arise front plenitude ensue; 

 O 2 the 



