[ * 4-8 ] 
with in a progrefs through various nations, of which 
fome are feparated by polity as well as religion, while 
others, peculiarly tenacious of their own cuiloms, are 
little difpofed to admit thofe of Grangers. 
That no mention is made of inoculation by Rhazes, 
Avicenna, or any other of the ancient Arabian medi- 
cal writers known in Europe, is, I believe, in ge- 
neral fuppofed j and I am allured by the native phy- 
ficians here, that nothing is to be found regarding 
it, in any of a more modern date. Some learn- 
ed Turkifh friends here, fome time ago were pre- 
vailed on at my requefl to make enquiry, but have 
not hitherto been able to diicover any thing con- 
cerning inoculation ; although they fearched not only 
the medical writers, but alfo the hidorians, and fome 
of the poets. 
It appears from accounts communicated to the 
Royal Society, in the year 1723, by Dodtor Williams 
and Mr. Wright, that inoculation had been known 
in certain parts of Wales fo far back as the lad century ; 
and it is remarkable, that it there bore the fame name, 
by which it is mod; generally known to the Arabs. I 
think it has alfo been difcovered to be an ancient 
practice among the vulgar in different parts of the 
continent. 
If inoculation was really known fo long ago in 
Europe, and the accounts of it till within thefe fifty 
or dxty years are found to be merely traditional, the 
filence of the Arabian writers, on a pradtice which 
probably was never adopted by their phyficians, is the 
lei's to be wondered at. What may perhaps appear 
more ftrange, is, that after the year 1720, though 
. , ' * the 
