VACCINATION AGAINST SMALLPOX 173 



combinations? The same question will apply respecting the 

 origin of many other contagious diseases which bear a 

 strong analogy to each other. 



There are certainly more forms than one, without consid- 

 ering the common variation between the confluent and dis- 

 tinct, in which the smallpox appears in what is called the 

 natural way. About seven years ago a species of smallpox 

 spread through many of the towns and villages of this part 

 of Gloucestershire: it was of so mild a nature that a fatal 

 instance was scarcely ever heard of, and consequently so little 

 dreaded by the lower orders of the community that they 

 scrupled not to hold the same intercourse with each other as 

 if no infectious disease had been present among them. I 

 never saw nor heard of an instance of its being confluent. 

 The most accurate manner, perhaps, in which I can convey 

 an idea of it is by saying that had fifty individuals been taken 

 promiscuously and infected by exposure to this contagion, 

 they would have had as mild and light a disease as if they 

 had been inoculated with variolous matter in the usual way. 

 The harmless manner in which it shewed itself could not 

 arise from any peculiarity either in the season or the weather, 

 for I watched its progress upwards of a year without per- 

 ceiving any variation in its general appearance. I consider 

 it then as a variety of the smallpox. 16 



In some of the preceding cases I have noticed the atten- 

 tion that was paid to the state of the variolous matter pre- 

 vious to the experiment of inserting it into the arms of those 

 who had gone through the cow-pox. This I conceived to be 

 of great importance in conducting these experiments, and, 

 were it always properly attended to by those who inoculate 

 for the smallpox, it might prevent much subsequent mischief 

 and confusion. With the view of enforcing so necessary 

 a precaution I shall take the liberty of digressing so far as 

 to point out some unpleasant facts relative to mismanage- 

 ment in this particular, which have fallen under my own 

 observation. 



u My friend. Dr. Hicks, of Bristol, who, during the prevalence of this 

 distemper, was resident at Gloucester, and physician of the hospital there 

 (where it was seen soon after its first appearance in this country), had 

 opportunities of making numerous observations upon it, which it is his 

 intention to communicate to the public. 



