memoir of dr wiught. 27 



experienced theorists. In the months of ApifC May, 

 and June of 1768, the district of Trelawney and St 

 James's, and the neighbouring country, was severely 

 affected with an epidemic smallpox, which proved fa- 

 tal to many who were seized with it in the natural 

 way. It appears to have been a custom among the 

 Maroons of Jamaica, as well as in some of the nations 

 on the coast of Guinea, to cover the body with wet 

 clay during the eruptive stage of the disease. Com- 

 bining this practice with the cool mode of treatment 

 recommended by Sydenham, and successfully pur- 

 sued by Sutton and Baron Dimsdale, and with his 

 own observation of the relief experienced by the pa- 

 tient, on exposure to the open air, Dr Wright was 

 induced to prescribe the cold-bath in cases of vario- 

 lous fever, whether proceeding from inoculation, or 

 taken naturally. The cold water was applied by as- 

 persion or affusion every four or six hours. By this 

 treatment the febrile symptoms speedily assumed a 

 milder form. An agreeable glow was succeeded by a 

 gentle perspiration, and the eruption was generally fa- 

 vourable *. 



The happy results of the great discovery of Dr 

 Jenner, in staying the progress of smallpox, and 

 the prospect which it affords of at last effecting the 

 total annihilation of this scourge to the human race, 

 has deprived the success of Dr Wright's experiment 

 of much of its interest. But it is worthy of being 

 recorded, as presenting the first link of that chain of 



* Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, \v. 123. 



