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XVII. A fort Account of the Manner of 
inoculating the Small Pox , on the Coaft of 
Barbary, and at Bengal, in the Eaft In- 
dies, extraEled fro?n a Memoir written in 
Dutch, by the Reverend Mr. Chais, at 
the Hague .* by M. Maty, M. D. S. R. S. 
Read April TJT AVING long thought that the 
* 4, I/6 * iT"! Arabs, who, about the middle of 
the fixth century, were the firft who wrote upon 
the fmall-pox, were likewife the firft inventors 
of the method to prevent the fatal confequences of 
that cruel diforder, I was very defirous to get what 
informations I could concerning the introduction of 
inoculation in Africa, and in the Eaft Indies. 
About twenty years ago, Caflen Aga, a Tripoli- 
tan ambaflador at London, informed the people 
about him, that inoculation was univerfally praCtifed, 
as well at his court, as at Tunis and Algiers; but 
that no certain account could be given, either of the 
introducers of the method, or of the place from 
whence it took its rife. 
One of the chief minifters of ftate in Holland was 
fo good, on this information, and at my defire, to 
fend a few queries on that fubjeCt, drawn up by my- 
felf, to a gentleman, who, for feveral years, has red- 
ded with a public character at Algiers. The follow- 
ing is a fummary of his anfwers to my queries. 
“ The fmall-pox is, as well as in Holland, a con- 
11 tagious diftemper at Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, 
“ and 
