Coiv-Vofk u'ifh the 5;?zo//-Pot. C43 



eruptions in infancy than in the more advanced stages ot" 

 lite. 



" A considerable number of those wlio die of the 

 natural disease, before the expuUion of the variolous erup- 

 tion, are infants, or very voung cliildren. This does not 

 arise, as Dr. Kirkpatrick supposes, from the extreme weak- 

 ness of the vis vide of infants ; for the contraction of their 

 hearts is proportionably stronger than in adults, as tlie quick- 

 ness of their growth evinces ; but from the high degree of 

 irritability with which their nervous system is endued. 

 Hence the convulsive paroxysms which often precede the 

 appearance of the pustules, and which, though regarded by 

 Svdenhani as no unfavourable signs, are alwavs alarunnij;, 

 and, when tJjev happen to very young infants, are irequenllv 

 fatal. 



" If the number of pustules be so great in the mouth 

 or throat as to obstruct suction, the disease, in all probability, 

 will prove falal. Even a few pocks in those ])arts are highly 

 troublesome and dangerous to infants; for, besides the pain 

 and restlessness which thev produce, they often terminate 

 ni ill-conditioned ulcers. Under such cu'cunistances the 

 mute wailinos, or shrieks, of an infant occasion equal em- 

 barrassment and distress, 



" Those who are ajeetcd with cutaneous diseases 

 liavc been generally regarded as unfavourable subjects of 

 moeulalion. Infancy, therefore, which is seldom unat- 

 tended with eruptions on the skin, must be an improper 

 period for receiving the small-pox by ingraltment. 



*' The th'ckness of the teguments of infants, which 

 arises from the quantity of iiuids interposed between their 

 fibres, by wliich the skin is rendered soft and (rdematous 

 to th-j touch, and theiiT perspiring less than clulclren who 

 are capable of using exercise, are further objections to very- 

 early inoculation. 



" But the most forcible argument against this prac- 

 tice is deduced from the ill success which hath attended 

 infant inoculation in general. For it appears by Dr. .Turin's 

 account of the progress of inoculation in Great Britain from 

 1721 to 17ii(3, anct by Dr. Seheuchzcr's continuation of it 

 to 1728, that of lifty-eisiht children under two years old 

 who recei\ed the small-pox by ingraftn)ent, s/.y died ; 

 wJiLTcas of I wo hundred and twenty-one, inoculated between 

 the ages of two and five, only ihrcc died." 



" It is too common an opinion," says that able writiT 



Dr. Underwood, in his Treatise on the Diseases of Children, 



O .< ' '• that 



