ROOK II. CHAP. XIII. 275 



" only mifcarried, /. e. one in five hundred. Now, not to mcn- 

 *' tion that tlie hazard is, by a long experience fince, reduced al- 

 " moil: to nothing, according to this computation, which has never 

 " been invalitlated ; in every five hundred perfons inoculated, fe- 

 " venty lives are prelervcd to Ibciety ! Let the computation be 

 " extended to the probable number inoculated every year, from the 

 " time wlien the pra6lice began to obtain generally, and to thefe 

 " add the pofterity derived from the marriage of thefe redeemed 

 " peifons, as they advance to maturity ; and we fliall find a poh- 

 " tive and happy increale of people, continually rifing up, and 

 *' flaring out of countenance all declaimers againft the prac- 

 '■' tice [w]." 



I tliought I might, without impropriety, give tills quotation at 

 large, becauie I have obferved iome tender mothers in the ifland led 

 away by vani terrors, or influenced by predeflinarian fcruples ; not 

 conddering, that the hand of the Almighty has pointed out this 

 ealy method of preferving his creatures from the horrid ravages of 

 this difeale, the feeds of which are probably congenial to our very 

 frame, and from whole infedion very few are exempted ; nor per- 

 ceiving the force of pofitive evidence, which, through a long courfe 

 of experience, has demonftrated, that inoculation is almofl: an infal- 

 lible means of rendering it harmlefs. Nothing can be more mild 

 than the diforder in Jamaica, received in this manner. Infants, of 

 one month old, have gone through it very fafely. The working 

 Haves followed their ufual occupations with the puftules upontJieir 

 bodies, without inconvenience ; and even bathed themfelves in the 

 rivers, without any ill confequence. When a preparation was ufed, 

 they either had no puftules, or at leaft fuch as never came to a fup- 

 puration. Two very moderate dofes of the mercurial medicines, 

 and as many gentle purgatives, with an interval of three or four 

 days between them, were found fufficient. With relpeft to chil- 

 dren at the breaft, care was only taken to keep their bodies gently 

 lax during the continuance of the eruptive lymptoms ; and, after 

 the eruption, to correal any gripings with daily dofes of teftaceous 

 powder, and a few drops of tin^. thebaic, at night. The eruption 

 generally appeared, on thefe young fubjeifts, about the fixth day ; 



[ii] Critical Review, 



N n 2 and, 



