6g2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1749. 



The Case of a Lady, who was delivered of a Child, on ivhom the Small Pox ap- 

 peared in a Day or 2 after its Birth ; drawn up by Cromwell Mortimer, M.D. 

 Seer. R. S. N° 493, p. 233. 



This gentlewoman had never in her own knowledge or that of her relations, 

 had the small pox. In Feb. 1700-1, she was within about a fortnight or 3 

 weeks of her full reckoning, when the following accident happened. A poor 

 widow woman in the neighbourhood was seized with the small pox, and had 

 nobody to assist or nurse her j the country people, as much afraid of this dis- 

 temper as of the plague, would neither send her necessaries, nor suffer her to 

 come to their shops to buy : in this extremity she made shift to get to this lady's 

 house, who was noted for her goodness to the poor, especially for giving them 

 medicines when sick : her business was to entreat the lady to desire her husband 

 to use his authority with the overseers of the poor to appoint a proper nurse to 

 attend her ; for that otherwise she must certainly perish for want of necessaries ; 

 for even the parish officers would not go near her. She expressed a very earnest 

 desire to speak to the lady herself, who consented to go to a window, and spoke 

 to her across a court-yard at 30 or 40 feet distance, thinking herself safe from 

 infection in that situation. She looked upon her without any surprize, but 

 thought the sight very disagreeable, the woman having her face and arms full 

 of a large distinct sort, in the state of maturation. About a fortnight after, viz. 

 Feb. 25, 1700-1, the lady was brought to bed of a fine boy: in a day or 2 

 there appeared an eruption all over his skin, which was at first taken by the 

 nurse for the red gum, though the appearance was earlier than that disorder 

 usually attacks children ; but in a day or 2 more it showed itself to be the con- 

 fluent small pox. The child was immediately removed from his mother; but 

 the distemper proved to be of the very worst sort, so that the child died before 

 the turn : the mother took no infection, and lived to the year 1736, without 

 ever having the small pox. 



The above account Dr. M. took down in writing from a daughter of the gen- 

 tlewoman. Indeed many years before he had heard the lady herself mention the 

 accident; but he did not commit it to writing; but he thought it was with this 

 difference that she was surprized, and that the child was born with the small pox 

 upon it, in the eruptive state. 



Some Accounts of the Foetus in Utero being Differently Affected by the Small Pox. 

 By W. Watson, F.R.S. N" 493, p. 235. 



That the human species should only once in their lives be liable to the small 

 pox, has long been observed with surprize, both by physicians and philosophers : 

 nor is it less extraordinary, that the child before birth, which in every circum- 



