ix DIMSDALE'S SKILL AND REPUTATION 85 



Moderate exercise was used, if possible in the fresh air, not 

 shrinking from the cold ; and cold water was given to drink. 

 In some cases even feverish patients were taken into the air, 

 and this was done in all cases when the sweating had abated. 

 The eruption was generally slight, consisting of not many 

 spots, but sometimes it was abundant, with fever and distress, 

 an event which could not, he says, be avoided. Precautions 

 were taken against infecting others. 



Under the care thus exercised, the results were 

 excellent, and it is clear from Dimsdale's writings that 

 the operation was brought in the hands of himself and 

 others at that period to a high perfection. His first 

 paper on inoculation was published in 1767 : it passed 

 through seven editions, and was translated into various 

 languages. In it he states that during many years' 

 practice he had but one death after inoculation, and 

 that attributable to other causes. Dimsdale was now 

 much resorted to ; many people coming to Hertford to 

 be inoculated under his care. There is no doubt that 

 there was at this time something like a furore for the 

 operation. 1 The prize poem for the year 1772 at Oxford 

 University celebrated its benefits. Pierced with deep 

 anguish at the ravages of the monster smallpox, Lady 

 M. Wortley-Montagu seeks a heaven-taught nymph, 

 Inoculation 



Whose potent arm, with wondrous power endued, 

 Had oft on Turkey's plains the Fiend subdued. 

 Then fraught with mighty power her arm outspread, 

 And thrice she waved it o'er the Monster's head : 

 " By me protected shall they now deride 

 Thy baffled fury and thy vanquished pride." 2 



1 Charles Blackstone, brother of Sir William Blackstone the lawyer, writes 

 from Winchester, January 24, 1767, to his friend Seymour Richmond of 

 Sparsholt, Berks. His wife was resolved to make trial of the new method, 

 and was going to Hertford for the purpose, with two maids, to a house ready 

 furnished. He suggests that his friend should buy into the same lottery 

 " a lottery very different from our catch-penny state lotteries ! a lottery 

 which (under Providence) has had 9000 prizes and not one blank, oh, rare 

 lottery ! " alluding to 9000 persons inoculated by the Buttons. A letter 

 one month later reports his wife quite recovered, with only six pocks on her 

 face. " Dr. Dimsdale has everything to recommend him as an operator, 

 sagacity, tenderness, diligence, and genteel behaviour." MS. Letters in 

 possession of J. J. Green, Hastings, who has made collections on the Dimsdale 

 family, pedigree, etc. 



z " Beneficial Effects of Inoculation," by W. Lipscomb. Oxford Prize 



