34 On the Paccine Disorder. 
because the Indians were ignorant of the nature of the dis~ 
ease, and bathed and scratched themselves. 
In the new kingdom of Leon there were several wander- 
ing nations, so warlike that the Spaniards could not with 
arms in their hands resist their attacks upon their towns : 
the small-pox, however, extirpated almost all of them; and 
fifty years ago heaps of bones, like so many trophies of the 
disease, were to be seen under the old tufted oaks in the 
fields. At this present time, when a savage sees one of his 
companions attacked with the infection, he leaves him, his 
horse, and his provisions, and flies to a great distance in the 
woods. 
It_has never happened that the Spaniards have secured 
themselves against infection by stopping their communica- 
tions with the Indians. 
As soon as the inoculation for the natural small-pox was 
introduced into Europe, the Archbishop of Mexico, Haro, 
ordered the curates and ecclesiastics to perform it through 
their several towns with their own hands; and although 
the prejudices and scruples of some hindered the practice 
becoming general, it is certain that to this inoculation i 1s to 
be attributed the diminisbed evil which the small- -PoOx oc- 
casioned fourteen years ago. 
The King of Spain having sent the art of vaccination 
with Dr. Balmis, it was received with such pompous cere- 
monies, both civil and military, that the people caught the 
enthusiasm. J believe that not a person remained at that 
time unvaccinated. The Viceroy’s lady herself, Dona Jues de 
Toregui, employed herself in vaccinating the Indian children. 
And as the vaccine is found in the cows of the provinces of 
Puebla and Michauacan, every body having it at hand, all 
the children are now vaccinated, and the small-pox has not 
appeared for fourteen years. They already believe their 
country to be free from such a scourge ; and should its 
contagion appear again in Vera Cruz, it would be easy to 
counteract it in the ‘beginning by employing the vaccine, al- 
though its use might have been for some time laid aside. 
The celebrated Dr. Unamie also writes at Luna, that in 
the two towns of the Sierra of Peru there had been na 
small-pox, because the inhabitants inoculated themselves 
by milking the cows who actually had the vaccine. Upon 
being asked, whether they had ever the small-pox, they an- 
swered, they only had a few pimples on their hands. 
(Signed) Dr. Senvanpo pe Meir y Nonigca. 
V. On 
