SMALL-POX. 287 



England by persuading physicians in London to employ it. Lady 

 Mary had her child inoculated in Turkey. An old Greek woman inocu- 

 lated one arm, and Mr. Maitland, surgeon to the Embassy, the other. 

 The disease ensued in due course with an eruption of a hundred 

 pustules. This was the first time that the Byzantine method of 

 inoculation was performed upon an English subject. In 1721 Dr. 

 Harris delivered a lecture before the College of Physicians, and 

 described the successful inoculation of four children of the French 

 consul at Aleppo, by means of a thread imbued with variolous pus. 

 A "daughter of Lady Mary was inoculated in England by Maitland in 

 1721, and subsequently a number of criminals were inoculated by 

 him. Incisions were made through the cutis, and pledgets which had 

 been steeped in variolous pus from ripe pustules, were applied to the 

 wound. This was known as Maitland's or the reformed operation, 

 but it was soon modified, as troublesome ulcers resulted. Shortly 

 afterwards Maitland encountered another obstacle. The child of a 

 Mr. Batt was inoculated, had plenty of pustules, and soon recovered, 

 but six of Mr. Batt's domestic servants, " who all in turn were 

 wont to hug this child while under this operation, and whilst the 

 pustules were out, never suspecting them to be infectious, were all 

 seized at once with the right natural small-pox of several and very 

 different kinds." 



Dr. Jurin in 1729 reverted to the' Eastern method, and recom- 

 mended virus from a mild case of small-pox, but the virus was still 

 taken from perfectly maturated pustules, and the operation continued 

 to be followed by bad results. In order to diminish the risks, Burgess 

 in 1766 advocated certain improvements. An incision about an inch 

 long was made on each arm through the cuticle, but not so deep as 

 to wound the cellular tissue. A variolous thread was laid along the 

 whole length of the wound and fixed with plaster. Ulcerations and 

 other accidents continued to take place, and a new epoch in the 

 history of inoculation was the introduction of the Suttonian method, 

 in 1764-6. 



It was said that Mr. Button, with his assistants, inoculated 

 one hundred thousand persons. The method was kept secret at first, 

 but the essential points were all discovered and published by Dr. 

 Dimsdale. Dimsdale recommended a very slight puncture with a 

 lancet wet with variolous matter. Subsequently, Sutton published 

 an account of his method, and the result of his operation may be 

 given in his own words. 



"The lancet being charged with the smallest perceivable quantity 

 (and the smaller the better) of unripe, crude, or watery matter, immediately 



