VOL. XXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 209 



Stances connected with it ; of the chief and most material part of which he 

 himself had been an eye-witness. 



First, the proper season for performing the operation should be chosen. 

 Winter was the only season in which the Greek woman inoculated ; but Dr. 

 Pylarini supposes that the spring would be equally favourable. 



Secondly, the best sort of matter (fermentum) should be chosen. This per- 

 son would not inoculate with matter taken indifferently from any subject ; but 

 when the small-pox prevailed epidemically, she fixed upon some young boy, 

 who appeared to be of a sound constitution in other respects, and in whom the 

 pustules were distinct and of a good sort, and having punctured the pustules 

 when they had come to maturity, she squeezed the matter out of them into a 

 little shell or small glass made very clean, and afterwards covering it from the 

 air, she put it into the bosom of her servant, where it was kept of a proper 

 temperature, in readiness for inoculation, which she performed without delay. 

 She never used matter from the inoculated small-pox, deemhig it inefficacious; 

 although Dr. P. very shrewdly conjectures that such matter may be milder, and 

 yet at the same time equally capable of exciting the disease. 



Thirdly, she directed the patient's room to be kept warm. 



Fourthly, when she entered upon the operation, she punctured the middle 

 and upper part of the forehead, the chin and both cheeks, with a needle. The 

 puncture was made not perpendicularly, but obliquely, the cutis being separated 

 a little with the sharp point of the instrument, from the subjacent flesh. She 

 then introduced into the wound the pus contained in the small vessel before- 

 mentioned ; and afterwards tied on a bandage. She made similar punctures in 

 the back of the hands, and on the feet, strictly cautioning the patient against 

 scratching or wetting the inoculated places.* All other modes of operating be- 

 sides this were deemed improper. The patient was directed not to lie in bed 

 more than was necessary. 



Fifthly, with regard to regimen and diet, the patients were ordered to abstain 

 from all kinds of animal food (including even flesh-broths) for the space of 40 

 days. It is added, that where this regimen had not been strictly observed, 

 a fresh crop of eruptions had taken place, accompanied with alarming 

 symptoms. 



The interval of time between the performance of the operation and the ap- 

 pearance of the eruption varies according to the diversity of temperaments, 



* Dr. Pylarini remarks that he should choose for this pui"pose the more fleshy parts of the body, 

 rather than the tendinous parts above-mentioned. 



VOL. VI. E E 



