S52 Precise Date of the Cote -Pock in America, 



some experiments on this subject. My intention is to make. 

 small tablets to imitate mosaic. I shall communicate the 

 result to the public as soon as my experiments are termi- 

 nated . 



XLIV. Evidence of the precise Date of the Cou'-Pock i» 

 America. 



To Mr. TiUoch. 



SIR, 



X* iNDiNG that the honour of the first instances of the vac- 

 cine inoculation in America is not bestowed upon the gen- 

 tleman to whom it is due, and that there have been even 

 some little contradiction and mistakes among the English 

 practitioners witli regard to which of them first introduced 

 the new practice into that country by furnishing matter, I 

 trust the following statement of facts may establish liie his- 

 torical truth in question. 



In the winter of the year 1799 Dv. .fohn Chichester, a 

 practitioner of the first distinction in Charleston, South 

 Carolina, and to whom I have been pupil, received vaccine 

 matter from his learned friend and former teacher Dr. Pear- 

 son, accompanying the first pul)licatlons written on the 

 cow-pock by Dr. .Tenner and himself. With this matter 

 several persons were inoculated, but the disease was pro- 

 duced in one case only. 7'his was a mulatto bov named 

 Robert, about seven or eight years old, the property of 

 Thomas Tunno, esq. merchant. The small-pox matter was 

 subsequently inserted, in the most careful manner, without 

 effect. It was some time after the occurrence of the above 

 case, before those which have been published as the first 

 instances in America really happened. 



It may be proper to notice that my late worthy master 

 - Dr. Chichester was not supported by the approbation of hi» 

 brethren in his introduction of the vaccine inoculation in 

 America, notwithstanding the high authorities above men- 

 tioned who first proposed it to the public. 



I remain, sir, )our humble sen'ant, 



Nath. II. Rhodes, 



P. S. Since my arrival in London I have seen doctor 

 Waterhouse's latest Treatise on the Variola Vaccina, 8vo, 

 Cambridge 1802: hence I am enabled to fix the preci;>c 

 date of his first inoculation from his own words, viz.: — " I 

 commenced the experiment July 8, 1600, on my own chil-. 



dren. 



