160 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



mer increase the putrescent state of the smallpox, it is highly 

 probable that inoculation may have some advantage, from avoid- 

 ing the extremes either of heat or cold. 



DC VI II. Although the original temperament and constitu- 

 tions of men are not to be readily changed ; it is sufficiently 

 certain, that the conditions of the human body may, by various 

 causes, in many respects be occasionally very much changed : 

 and therefore, as the use of animal food may increase both the 

 inflammatory and putrescent state of the human body, so it 

 must render persons, on receiving the contagion of the small- 

 pox, less secure against a violent disease ; and, therefore, ino- 

 culation may derive some advantage from abstinence from ani- 

 mal food for sometime before the inoculation is performed : but 

 I am of opinion, that a longer time than that usually prescribed 

 maybe often necessary; and I am persuaded, that the Scottish 

 mothers, who avoid giving their children animal food till they are 

 past the smallpox, render this disease in them of a milder kind. 



DCIX. I cannot deny that mercurial and antimonial medicines 

 may have some effect in determining to a more free perspiration, 

 and therefore may be of some use in preparing a person for the 

 smallpox ; but there are many observations which render me 

 doubtful as to their effect. The quantity of both these medi- 

 cines, particularly of the antimony, commonly employed, is too 

 inconsiderable to produce any effect. It is true, that the mercu- 

 rials have often been employed more freely ; but even their salu- 

 tary effects have not been evident, and their mischievous effects 

 have sometimes appeared. I doubt, therefore, upon the whole, 

 if inoculation derives any advantage from these pretended pre- 

 paratory courses of medicines. 



DCX. As it has been often observed, in the case of almost 

 all contagions, that cold, intemperance, fear, and some other 

 circumstances, concurring with the application of the contagion, 

 have greatly aggravated the future disease, so it must be the 

 same in the case of the smallpox ; and it is undoubted, that 

 inoculation must derive a great, and perhaps its principal, ad- 

 vantage, from avoiding the concurrences above mentioned. 



DCXI. It has been commonly supposed, that inoculation has 

 derived some advanatge from the choice of the matter employed 

 in it; but, from what has been observed in DXCV., it must 



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