92 BARON DIMSDALE AND INOCULATION CHAP. 



word. I am to inoculate one of the archbishops. I 

 dare say this is intended to strike at the root of all re- 

 ligious scruples." Altogether Dimsdale inoculated about 

 140 persons at the capital, and all did perfectly well. 



Nothing had as yet been said as to Dimsdale's reward. 

 His friend Dr. Ingenhaus, who had inoculated the imperial 

 family at Vienna, had just been appointed councillor and 

 chief physician, with a pension for himself and his wife, 

 besides large presents and court privileges. About the 

 middle of November, Dimsdale received a message from 

 the Empress, that she had the highest sense of his services, 

 and was desirous that the name of Dimsdale might be 

 honoured as long as Russia existed, and with that purpose 

 had determined to create him a Baron of the Empire. 1 

 The public declaration of his nobility was made on a day 

 appointed for Thanksgiving, in the presence of a court 

 brilliant beyond expression. The new Baron kissed the 

 Empress's hand, receiving from her at the same time a 

 present of 10,000 and miniatures of the Empress and 

 Grand Duke. He was appointed physician to her Majesty 

 and conseiller de l'tat, with the rank of major-general 

 and an annuity of 500. 2 The dignity of Baron was also 



1 The following is taken from a copy of the patent of nobility, translated : 

 " We Catherine the Second by the Grace of God Empress and Autocratrix of 

 all the Russias . . . make known [that] in justice to the rare merit of Thomas 

 Dimsdale English Gentleman and Doctor of Physic whose virtue and laudable 

 concern for the good of mankind . . . induced him ... to apply all his . . . 

 faculties towards improving the inoculation of the smallpox, as the only 

 rational preservative of the human species against that mortal disease, and 

 . . . [who] has raised this practice to such a degree of perfection, as that all 

 the apprehensions of danger from the smallpox in the natural way may be ... 

 dispelled ; who, regardless of his private Interest, and intent only upon 

 accelerating human Happiness, did not hesitate to lay open to the World 

 his Discoveries ; who . . . refused not on our invitation to leave his Family 

 and to visit our Court, purely to render Us all the services in his Power, . . . 

 and who at last did with remarkable Care Skill and Success actually inoculate 

 as well Us Ourselves and Our beloved Son the Czarowitz and Grand Duke, 

 as also many inhabitants of Our Capital, and who thus removing the anxious 

 Fears of our Faithful Subjects destroyed at the same time that baleful Hydra 

 Prejudice, and the dreadful apprehensions of this (hitherto) fatal disease. 

 We have been pleased to testify to the said Thomas Dimsdale our grace and 

 favour, by such . . . marks of distinction as shall not only tend to his . . . 

 Honour for ever, but may also excite his Posterity and other Learned Men, . . . 

 to pursue such studies and Investigations of Nature as may prove equally 

 beneficial to the human Species." 



* He received also from an old Count, whose children his son had inoculated, 

 a parcel of 500 in gold coin, with which, he says, he went limping out of the 

 hous .. 



