VACCINATION AGAINST SMALLPOX 163 



First, Thomas Pearce is the son of a smith and farrier 

 near to this place. He never had the cow-pox; but, in con- 

 sequence of dressing horses with sore heels at his father's, 

 when a lad, he had sores on his fingers which suppurated, 

 and which occasioned a pretty severe indisposition. Six 

 years afterwards I inserted variolous matter into his arm 

 repeatedly, without being able to produce any thing more 

 than slight inflammation, which appeared very soon after 

 the matter was applied, and afterwards I exposed him to 

 the contagion of the smallpox with as little effect.* 



CASE XIV. Secondly, Mr. James Cole, a farmer in this 

 parish, had a disease from the same source as related in the 

 preceding case, and some years after was inoculated with 

 variolous matter. He had a little pain in the axilla and felt 

 a slight indisposition for three or four hours. A few erup- 

 tions shewed themselves on the forehead, but they very soon 

 disappeared without advancing to maturation. 



CASE XV. Although in the former instances the system 

 seemed to be secured, or nearly so, from variolous infection, 

 by the absorption of matter from the sores produced by the 

 diseased heels of horses, yet the following case decisively 

 proves that this cannot be entirely relied upon until a disease 

 has been generated by the morbid matter from the horse on 

 the nipple of the cow, and passed through that medium to 

 the human subject. 



Mr. Abraham Riddiford, a farmer at Stone in this parish, 

 in consequence of dressing a mare that had sore heels, was 

 affected with very painful sores in both his hands, tumours 

 in each axilla, and severe and general indisposition. A sur- 

 geon in the neighbourhood attended him, who knowing the 

 similarity between the appearance of the sores upon his 

 hands and those produced by the cow-pox, and being 

 acquainted also with the effects of that disease on the human 

 constitution, assured him that he never need to fear the in- 

 fection of the smallpox ; but this assertion proved fallacious. 



It is a remarkable fact, and well known to many, that we are frequently 



' < 

 to "account for' this on rational principle F 



foiled in our endeavours to communicate the smallpox by inoculation to 

 blacksmiths, who in the country are farriers. They often, as in the above 

 instance, either resist the contagion entirely, or nave the disease anoma- 

 lously. Shall we not be able t 



