84 BARON DIMSDALE AND INOCULATION CHAP. 



Brassey, and being disengaged, offered his services free 

 of charge as a surgeon to the army, and, these being 

 accepted, continued in that office until the surrender of 

 Carlisle. He was not now a member of the Friends. 

 Dimsdale married again, in 1746, Anne lies, and with 

 this lady, as well as by the decease of Sir John Dimsdale 's 

 widow, acquired a considerable fortune. Retiring from 

 practice, he resided at the Priory, Hertford, a house built 

 on the site of an old monastery, and here many sons 

 and a daughter were born to him. The house is no longer 

 standing, having been removed about 1906. The increase 

 of family claims led him to resume medical work as' a 

 physician, and to this end he graduated M.D. of King's 

 College, Aberdeen, in 1761. 



It was after this that Dimsdale turned his attention 

 to the practice of inoculation for smallpox. 



As has already been noted, the Buttons of Essex introduced 

 about this time an improved method. This method was used, 

 according to their own account, upon 17,000 persons, with 

 only five or six deaths, and these not attributable to the opera- 

 tion. Dimsdale studied their work, and devoted himself to the 

 practice of inoculation both amongst the poor and the rich. 

 His experience became very large and his success great. His 

 methods, which were published in a series of papers, with a 

 free acknowledgment that they were based upon the Suttonian 

 practice, comprised the following measures. A fortnight's 

 regimen in preparation was enjoined, in which no animal food 

 was taken, nor fermented liquors, nor spices : a " preparitive " 

 powder containing calomel, crabs' claws and tartar emetic 

 (gr. ^) was given occasionally, followed by a saline. The 

 matter for inoculation was often taken from another recently 

 inoculated person at the point of insertion ; or similar dried 

 matter was used. A minute incision 1 was made in the skin 

 of the arm, seldom drawing blood, and was touched with the 

 charged lancet ; this is contrasted with the large wound 

 formerly inflicted, in which a string steeped in pus was laid, 

 the wound sometimes sloughing in consequence. Dimsdale 

 not infrequently operated on children in their sleep without 

 awaking them. No dressing was applied. One or more of 

 the powders and purging salts were given on subsequent days. 



1 Fothergill urged, as early as 1754, that the slightest scratch with the 

 point of a needle was sufficient. Works, i. 226. 



