528 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO l/Od. 



character at Algiers. The following is a summary of the answers to ills queries. 

 " The small-pox is, as well as in Holland, a contagious distemper at Algiers, 

 Tunis, and Tripoli, and fully as destructive. To avoid the bad consequences 

 of the natural disorder, many people have recourse to inoculation, which there 

 is performed in a very different manner from what is used in our country. The 

 person, who intends to be inoculated, having found out a house, where the 

 small-pox is, and of a good sort ; goes to the bed of the sick person, if he is 

 old enough, or, if a child, to one of his relations; and speaks to him in the 

 following manner; I am come here to buy the small-pox: the answer is, buy 

 if you please. A sum of money is accordingly given, and 1, 3, or 5 pustules 

 (for the number must always be an odd one, not exceeding 5), extracted whole, 

 and full of matter. These are immediately rubbed on the skin of the hand, 

 between the thumb and fore finger. This is sufficient to communicate the 

 infection; and as soon as it begins to take effect, the inoculated patient is put to 

 bed, carefully covered with red blankets; and heating medicines are given him 

 with some honey of roses. He is allowed goat's broth for his nourishment, and 

 for his drink an infusion of some herbs; notwithstanding this treatment, 

 it seldom happens that the small-pox procured in this manner has any bad 

 consequences; and almost never that any body dies of it; but hitherto the pro- 

 portion of the mortality in the natural, to that in the artificial way, has not been 

 ascertained. Lastly, though the time when this practice was introduced in 

 Africa be unknown, yet it is there very old, and the Arabs are generally thought 

 to have been the inventors of it." 



From this account it plainly appears; 1. That in Africa the operation is 

 performed as it is in Wales, by the rubbing in of the matter, and that this is 

 done to prevent the fatal consequences too often following the natural infection ; 

 2. That this inoculation is generally successful, notwithstanding the heat of the 

 climate, and the bad management of the patients; and 3. That the origin of it 

 is very ancient, and ascribed to the Arabs. 



Before Mr. C. had received these informations from Algiers, he had engaged 

 some friends settled in 3 different parts of the East-Indies, to procure him some 

 accounts from thence, on the same subject. He, at last, received the following 

 answer from one of them, who resided at Patna, in the province of Behaar, 

 180 leagues from Bengal. " I have sent for several physicians, to be informed 

 of the things you seem desirous to know about inoculation; the practice is 

 hitherto not used in this province; but having met with a Bengalian doctor, 

 he gave me the following account. Though the first introduction of the 

 operation at Bengal is now unknown, it has been in use in that country for a 

 very long time, and is performed in two different ways. For the first, some of 

 the variolous matter of a good kind, having been gathered, is kept for use. 



