S02 TEE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



itself to a clear acquaintance with the connections subsisting 

 between the diseases of animals and those of man. It is true 

 that Jenner's great discovery of the principle of vaccination, like 

 many other priceless revelations, seems to have had something 

 of the nature of an intuitive grasping after hidden truth. If, 

 then, with the comparatively limited knowledge of the intrinsic 

 nature of disease possessed at that time, gifted persons could 

 find out such a preventive measure as that of vaccination, how 

 much more is it likely that medical and scientific men of light 

 and leading in these days will be able to trace the many concealed 

 factors which yet remain to be found, and among these the 

 numerous links betwixt the disorders of man himself and those 

 of various animals. Vaccination, in despite of the most reckless 

 and determined onslaughts against it, has been abundantly 

 proved to be most necessary to prevent the ravages of small- 

 pox, a scourge formerly liable at any time to strike terror and 

 dismay and wholesale death into the midst of a community. 



Inoculation, without doubt, was practised in Asia long before 

 its employment in Europe. It seems to have been known to the 

 Chinese, and there is a tradition that it began as early as the 

 dynasty of Song, in the year of Christ 590. The practice was 

 kept secret, and probably was not much approved of by the 

 Chinese. They used to take a few dried small-pox crusts and 

 add a little musk and wrap up the mixture in a little cotton 

 wool, and place it in the nostril, so that it could not easily drop 

 out, and they still carry out this custom This method was also 

 practised by the Brahmins in Hindostan, by the Persians, 

 Armenians, and Greeks; but the operation generally was that of 

 scratching or puncturing the skin, and inserting variolous matter 

 into the wound. The Circassians used three needles tied 

 together, and having pricked the body in five different places, 

 inserted variolous matter into all. 



Lady Mary Wortley Montague is said to have been the first to 

 introduce inoculation into England. When residing in Turkey 

 in 1717, she found that the old women were wont to inoculate 

 children every autumn, and that the sraall-pox thus brought 

 on was usually mild. Her son passed favourably through the 

 malady, and in 1722, on her return to England, she submitted 

 her daughter to the same operation, likewise favourably. Dr. 

 Keith followed her example, by inoculating his son, and the 



