VOL. XL VI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 6Q3 



stance is equally supported by its receiving and circulating its mother's fluids, 

 should be so differently affected by that distemper. 



From the dissections of those who have died of the small pox, we find that 

 the viscera are subject to the variolous abscesses as well as the skin ; but that the 

 foetus does not always partake of the infection from its mother, or the mother 

 from the foetus, is the subject of this paper. 



About 4 years before Mr. W. attended a young man, a servant to a carpenter, 

 who had a very putrid and offensive kind of small pox; of which however he 

 recovered. His mistress, during his illness, came frequently into his room, and 

 sometimes continued there a considerable time. She was then about 7 months 

 gone with child, but had had the small pox herself many years before. At the 

 usual time she was delivered of a girl, whom Mr. W. saw very soon afler its 

 birth ; and there appeared very plainly the marks of about 40 pustules, in dif- 

 ferent parts of her body. From this appearance he then informed the parents, 

 that he apprehended the child would hereafter be very secure from the infection : 

 but as about a month ago the parents thought proper to have a little boy of theirs 

 inoculated, he requested that they would permit the before-mentioned girl to be 

 inoculated also. As he desired, they were both inoculated, from a child of his 

 own, who had, from inoculation, had a favourable kind. On the 10th day afler 

 the operation the boy sickened, and had the small pox, very favourably : about 

 the same time the girl grew pale, and lost her appetite. This indisposition con- 

 tinued for 2 or 3 days, and then she recovered. 



In both these children, the incisions, which were made only in one of their 

 arms, were extremely superficial, and inflamed in both as usual : that in the 

 boy produced the variolous fever and its attendants, as is before-mentioned ; but 

 in the girl occasioned only a paleness and loss of appetite without a fever, and 

 one variolous abscess in one part of the incision, such as is sometimes seen in 

 nurses, and in those who have attended persons in the small pox, who have had 

 it themselves before. This one pustule was a sufficient argument of the va- 

 riolous matter taking place, and endeavouring to excite the usual symptoms. 



Dr. Mead, in his learned Treatise concerning the Small Pox, takes notice of 

 a woman's attending her husband, who, a short time before she expected her 

 delivery, was ill of the small pox. As she had undergone the distemper herself 

 a considerable time before, she felt no inconvenience from it ; but on her de- 

 livery the child was found dead, and its body covered with the small pox. 



These 2 histories evince, that the child before birth, though closely defended 

 from the external air, and enveloped by fluids and membranes of its own, is not 

 secure from the variolous infection, though its mother has had the distemper 

 before. They demonstrate the very great subtilty of the variolous effluvia ; as 

 we find them capable either from their floating in the air, and by their being 



