INOCULATION. 



3 fubjeft too mterefting to be omitted incur work. After 

 a few obfervations on tlie commencement of the fmall-pox, 

 we ihall lherefi)re endeitvour to give fome account of the 

 rife and progrcfs of the pra<jticc. 



Oi-i^in of the Small-po\-. — The fmall-pox, like the meafles, 

 pnd feveral other diieafes, is produced by a matter fui ge- 

 jicils, or, in other words, by a fpecific contagion, and it 

 has originated from caufcs fo perfeclly incomprchenfible, as 

 to fet at defiance all rational conjedure. From tlie filcnce 

 of tlie ancient Greeks and Romans refpefting a difeafe fo 

 very fatal, and of fucli peculiarity, as the fmall-pox, it is 

 reafonablc to conclude, that its date is fubfequent to their 

 times, and, coufequenlly, that the world cxiiled feveral 

 thoufand years before it was vifitcd by this dreadful pelli- 

 lonce. Rhazes, an Arabiaa phyfician, who praAifed at 

 Bagdad in the beginning of the ten-;h century, is one of tlia 

 oldelt writers on the fmall-pox, whofe works are ftill ex- 

 tent. On this fubjeift, however, he quotes feveral of his 

 predeceffors, the mod ancient of whom is Aliron, who was 

 a prieft and phyficinn at Alexandria, when that city was 

 befieged by the Saracens. Ahroii's book has, therefore, 

 been deemed the fuil in which any notice is taken of the 

 fmall-pox. The introduction of the difeafe, at that time, 

 into Egypt, might have been by the armies of Amrou, 

 whicli, in the kaliphate of Omar, poured in thitlicr from 

 Arabia. 



The celebrated Dr. Friend conceived, that the Arabians 

 might originally have derived the contagion from fome of 

 the more diftant regions of the Ealt, and Pere D' Entrecolles, 

 a miffionary jefuit at Pekin, informs us, that, upon looking 

 over fome Chinefc books, he found the fmall pox mentioned 

 in them as a difeafe known in very ancient times. See 

 «' Lettres editiantes et curieufes,'' tom. 21. p. 33. ed. 1781. 



Mr. HoUvell, a Bengal furgeon, has likcwife'endeavoured 

 to confirm the accuracy of Dr. Friend's opinion, obfcrving, 

 that, " at the period in which tlie Anghtonah Bhade fcrip- 

 tures of the Gentoos were proniulgcd, (according to the 

 Bramins 3366 years ago,) this difeafe mud; then have been 

 of fome Handing, as thofc fcriptnres inftitute a form of di- 

 vine worlliip, with poojuhs, or offerings, to a female divinity, 

 ftyled by the common people Goote ka Tagooran, the God- 

 dcfs of Spots, whofe aid and patronage are invoked during 

 the continuance of the fmal!-pcx feafon ; alfo in the meafles, 

 and every cutaneous eruption that is in the fmallell de- 

 gree epidemical. See " An Account of the Manner of ino- 

 culating the Small-pox in the Eaft Indies," p. 7. 



On the otlier hand, Dr. Woodville is unwilling to admit, 

 that the fuppofed antiquity of the fmall-pox in India is 

 at .all proved by what DEnlrccolles and Mr. Holwell 

 have ob.''crved. Tie remarks, that the former has adduced 

 no dire£l faft, (liewing, that the difeafe was really defcribed 

 by the ancient Chinefe phyficians; while Mr. Holwell's 

 reafons mu!l be inconclufive, not only as founded on the 

 verity of the Hindoo chronology ; but becaufe the God- 

 defs of Spots was not fuppofed to jirefide over any parti- 

 cular eruptive diforder, but over all cutaneous affeaions 

 that were epidemical. Bcfides, as Dr. Woodville juftly no- 

 tices, had the fmall-pox cxiHed in India more than 3366 



years, it could not fail to have been tranfportcd in early 

 times both to the Greeks and Romans, by the conilant in- 

 tercourfc, whicli they indirectly maintained with the Indian 

 liations. 



Dr. John James Reiflce mentions, that, in an old Arabic 

 MS. preferved in the public 1 brary at Leyden, heread, that, 

 in the year of the birth of Mahcmiet, the meafles and fmall- 

 pox made tlieir firft appearance in Arabia. Difp. inaug. 

 X.ujjd. Bat. 17.^6. Now it appears alfo from fome Arabian A. 15. No. 30, 



annals, procured by that adventurous traveller, Mr. Br jce, 

 that the era of the fu-fl appearance of the fmall-pox in 

 Arabia attaches to that of the fiege of Mecca, and that the' 

 Abyflinian army, commanded by Abrahah, was the firft 

 viftim of its fury. Mr. Gibbon ftates, that the fiege of 

 Mecca happened only two months before the birth of Ma- 

 homet ; a fa£l, which Dr. Woodville points out as deferving 

 very particular notice ; for if the year of the birth of Maho- 

 met be afcertained to be alfo that of the fiege of Mecca, the 

 Arabian MS. cited by Dr. Reifl'ce, and that written by 

 Hameef)-, the Arabian author mentioned by Mr. Bruce, 

 perfectly coincide. According to Gibbon, Mahomet was 

 born A.D. 569 ; which, on the above independent autho- 

 rities, is to be confidered as the period when the fmall- 

 pox firft ma je its appearance in Arabia. 



From this era, to that of the conqueft of Alexandria in 

 640, no traces of the exillence of the fmall-pox are to be 

 difcovered ; but the difeafe certainly fpread into that city 

 at the time it was inverted by the Saracens ; and, as Dr. 

 Woodville ftates, it may therefore be fuppofed to have been 

 brouglit into Egypt by the Mahometan army, which, fix 

 years before, had invaded Perfia and Syria, where this de- 

 ftruftive peftilence probably had already made aconCderable 

 progrefs. 



After this period, to the revival of litei-ature in the 13th 

 century, fucceeded that general ftate of ignorance and bar- 

 iarifm, during which the prefent fubjeift, in common with 

 many others, is fo obfcured in the darknefs of the times as 

 to elude the mcft diligent refearch. 



It is raanifeft from the works of Rhazes, that many of 

 the Arabian phyficians had written on the fmall-pox before 

 the lOth century ; and notwithftanding the Saracen hiftory 

 is filent on the ravages which muft have accompanied the 

 general diffufion of the fmall-pox during the empire of the 

 cahphs, the progrefs and prevalence of the diilemper are 

 to be inferred from collateral evidence. Thus, the caliph 

 Yczid, who died in 6S3, is mentioned as being pitted witk 

 the fmall-pox ; and the caliph Abul-Abbas AlfafFah ac-' 

 tually died, in 753, of this difeafe. 



The time when the fmall-pox contagion firft fpread into 

 Great Britahi is involved in doubt. Moft writers fuppofe 

 that the diftemper was imported into Europe by the cru- 

 faders, upon their return from the Holy Land in the 13th 

 century. The improbability of this iiatement is infilled 

 upon by Dr. Woodville, who adverts to the knoivn aftivitj' 

 of variolous matter, the long time it retains its infettious 

 quahty, and the unlikely circumftance of the fmall-pox' 

 prevailing fix or feven centuries over various parts of Afia,' 

 having free infercourfe with Europe, before it was conveyed 

 into this kingdom. It is indeed furprifing, that the dreadful 

 eftedts which muft have attended the firft introduflion of 

 th.e fmall-pox into this as well as any other country, have' 

 efcaped the notice of all our hiftorians and medical writers. 

 But, by examining fome of the MSS. of the Harleian and' 

 Cottonian colleflions, preferved in the Britifh Mufeum, and 

 bearing indubitable evidence of having been written before 

 the year 900, Dr. Woodville f\icceeded in tracing the ex- 

 iftence of the fmall-pox in our ifland, and on the neighbouring 

 continent, long before the crufades took p'ace. In thcfe' 

 curious records the word variolx occurs feveral times in the' 

 fame fcnfe in wliich it is nowufed. We likewifeiearn from- 

 the MSS. that the people in tliofe early times lived in con- 

 tinual dread of the fmall-pox, as feveral prayers, exorcifms, 

 nd incantations, to which they had recourle for preferva- 



tion, are to be found. Dr. Woodville refers us to No. j-Sc, 

 of the Harieian Catal. vol. i. and Bibl. Cotton. Cahgula' 



The 



