INOCULATION. 101 



wrapt in a little cotton, to prevent its drop})ing out of 

 the nostril*." 



This method of transmitting the small-pox was fol- 

 lowed by the Bramins in llindostan, and also by the 

 Persians, Armenians, and Greeks. We learn likewise 

 from the same authority that " the operation was va- 

 riously performed, and on different parts of the body, 

 in the several countries where it was introduced ; but 

 it always consisted in scratching or puncturing the 

 skin, and inserting into the wound variolous matter. 

 The Circassians, to make sm^e work, employed three 

 needles tied together, and pricked the body in five dif- 

 ferent places, inserting matter in them allf ." 



The introduction of inoculation into England is at- 

 tributed to Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who, when 

 residing in Turkey in 1717, at the time her husband 

 was ambassador to the Ottoman Court, determined to 

 have her son inoculated, in consequence of ascertaining 

 that the old women were in the habit of inoculating 

 children every autumn, and that the small-pox thus 

 produced was usually mild. The son having passed 

 favourably through the malady, she, on her return to 

 this country in 1722, submitted her daughter to the 

 operation with a similar result. This example was 

 followed by Dr. Keith inoculating his son, and the 

 practice emanating from such a source soon became 

 general. Plumbe states that, '^ shortly after this, Ca- 

 roline Princess of Wales, one of whose daughters, the 

 Princess Anne, had been much disfigured, and had 

 nearly lost her life by the small-pox, became anxious 



* History of Small-pox, p. 218, & scq. London, 1815. 

 ■\ Ibid. p. 224. 



