VOL. LXX.] l-HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 633 



was seized with the symptoms of the small-pox, and had a very numerous erup- 

 tion. In this state she was delivered of a child, as full of variolous pustules as 

 herself. The child died soon after birth ; the mother 3 days afterwards." Van 

 Swieten infers, that the mother and the child were in this case infected at the 

 same time ; therefore the child not infected by the mother. 



Dr. Mead asserts, that when a woman in the small-pox suffers an abortion, 

 the foetus is generally full of the contagion ; but that this does not happen always. 

 This variety, he says, depends on the state of the mother's pustules when the 

 child is born ; that is, whether they are or are not in a state of purulence. 

 Whence he has observed it sometimes to happen, that on the 2d day from the 

 birth, or the 3d, or any day before the 8th, the disease caught from the mother 

 shows itself in eruptions on the child. Dr. Mead here relates the history of a 

 lady of quality, of which this is the substance. A lady, in the 7th month of her 

 pregnancy, had the confluent small-pox, and on the 1 1 th day of the disease 

 brought forth a son, having no signs of the disease on his body ; and she died 

 on the I4th day. The infant having lived 4 days, was seized with convulsions, 

 and, the small-pox appearing, died. The doctor i»ence infers, that the suppura- 

 tion being in some measure completed on the 1 1th day, the mother's disease was 

 communicated then to the foetus, and made its appearance on the child after 8 

 days. 



If there be no abortion. Dr. Mead pronounces, that the child will ever be free 

 from the disease, unless the birth should happen before the maturation of the 

 pustules. He brings a case to prove, that the foetus in the womb may be in- 

 fected by the contagion of which the mother does not partake. " A woman, 

 who had long before suffered the small-pox, nursed her husband, under that 

 disease, towards the end of her pregnancy ; and was brought to bed at the due 

 time. The child was dead, and covered all over with variolous pustules." 



With respect to the case quoted from Mauriceau, it has been proved by Sir 

 George Baker (Med. Trans, vol. 2, p. 275,) that Dr. Mead drew a conclusion 

 from it directly contrary to the author's meaning. The negative opinion appears 

 evidently to be supported by that history. Sir George Baker mentions, in the 

 same paper, the case of 2 pregnant women who were inoculated at Hertford. 

 They both had the small-pox favourably, and afterwards brought forth their 

 children perfectly healthy at the usual time. Both these children, at the age of 

 3 years, were inoculated with effect. Sir George Baker also mentions a case 

 which fell under the observation of Dr. Clarke of Epsom. " A woman towards 

 the end of her pregnancy had the small-pox, from which she narrowly escaped. 

 Five weeks after the crisis she was delivered of a healthy female child, who, 

 having numerous marks on her skin, was judged by all who saw her to have 

 undergone the same distemper before her birth. However, at the end of 12 



VOL. xir. 4 M 



