( S±0 ) 



ACCOUNT 



OF A 



CHILD WHO HAD THE SMALL-POX IN 

 THE WOMB. 



["Communicated to the Royal Society, in a Letter addressed to John 

 Hunter, Esq. F. R. S. Read 21st May 1781, and first pub- 

 lished in the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. lxxi. Part I. p. 372.1 



Sir, 



X have read with much pleasure and information Mrs Ford's 

 case, which you published in the Philosophical Transactions,, 

 vol. lxx, p. 128. From the facts you have adduced, it amounts 

 to a certainty that her foetus had received the variolous infec- 

 tion in the womb. 



This induces me to lay before you a singular case that fell 

 under my care some years ago. I am sorry I cannot be more 

 particular, having unfortunately lost all my books, and my 

 notes of practice of this case, and several others, by the cap- 

 ture of the convoy, on the 9th of last August. 



In 1768, the small-pox was so general in Jamaica, that 

 very few people escaped the contagion. About the middle of 

 June, Mr Peter kin, merchant at Martha Brae, in the pa- 

 rish of Trelawney, got about fifty new Negroes out of a ship. 

 Soon after they landed, several were taken ill of a fever, and 

 the small-pox appeared ; the others were immediately inocu- 

 lated : Amongst the number of those who had the disease in 



