94 BARON DIMSDALE AND INOCULATION CHAP. 



General Inoculation. The purpose of this institution 

 was to inoculate the poor at their own homes. Dimsdale 

 opposed the plan, on the ground that infection would be 

 spread in the crowded houses and narrow courts where 

 the children played together ; the operation was, he 

 said, much better and more favourably done in the 

 Inoculation Hospital an airy house, standing in four 

 acres of ground. The controversy soon degenerated into 

 a personal one, pamphlet reply being quickly followed 

 by rejoinder, and if it was Dimsdale who first took up 

 the contentious pen, that of the younger doctor was 

 dipped in the bitterer gall. Perhaps the dignity of the 

 Baron led him to pose as an authority " the Great 

 Inoculator," as Lettsom styled him, " who claimed an 

 exclusive right to the theory and practice of inoculation." 

 On the other hand, the wounded vanity of his antagonist 

 caused him to heap unmeasured satire and reproach upon 

 his former friend. Fothergill tried in vain to dissuade 

 them from the unworthy contest, derogatory he thought 

 to the honour of their profession. Dimsdale comes out 

 the better of the two from the encounter, and their strife 

 does not seem to have led to a permanent estrangement, 

 Lettsom in after years writing Dimsdale 's biography for 

 the Gentleman's Magazine. 1 



A second visit was paid to Russia in 1781, in order 

 to inoculate the two sons of the Grand Duke, Prince 

 Alexander, afterwards well known as Czar during the 

 Napoleonic era, and his brother Constantine. 2 A diary 

 of this visit was written by the Baron's third wife, who 

 accompanied him. The volume, elegantly bound, is 

 still preserved in the family ; it is adorned with a fine 

 portrait of the Empress, illustrations of buildings, etc. 

 The visitors were received, we are told, with much state 

 and also great cordiality. 3 It is said that the Baroness 



1 See the various pamphlets by Dimsdale and Lettsom on Inoculation, 

 printed in 1778 and 1779. 



2 The Czar Nicholas I., who died at the outset of the Crimean War, was a 

 much younger brother. 



3 The Empress wrote to Dimsdale, Sept. 25, 1781 : " Le papier que M. 

 le Baron Dimsdale m'a remit hier, je le regarde coffie une nouvelle preuve du 

 meme zele et attachement pour ma personne et ma famille qu'il n'a cesse 



