I N O C U L 
lers. On this Dr. Ruflel very juftly obferves, that cuf- 
toms, the moft common in diftant countries, are often 
the leaft apt to attract the obfervation of travellers, who, 
engaged in other purfuits, rand be indebted to accident 
for the knowledge of fuch things as the natives feldom 
talk of, upon the belief that they are known to all the 
world. The firft accounts we have in the learned world 
concerning inoculation, are from two Italian phyficians, 
viz. Pylarini and Timoni, whofe letters on the fubjeft 
may be feen in the Phil. Tranf. abridged, vol. v. p. 370, 
&c. The fir ft is dated 1701, the next 1713. 
Whether our inquiries are extended abroad or confined 
to our own country, inoculation has been praftifed under 
one mode or other time immemorial ; in Great Britain 
and its adjacent ifles we have well-authenticated accounts, 
extending farther backward than any from the continent. 
Dr. Williams of Haverfordweft, who wrote upon inocu¬ 
lation in 1725, proves that it had been praclifed in Wales, 
though in a form fomewhat different, time out of mind. 
Mr. Wright, a furgeon in the fame place, fays, that buy¬ 
ing the fmall-pox is both a common praftice, and of long 
(landing, in that neighbourhood. He fays, that in Pem- 
brokefhire there are two large villages near the harbour of 
Milford, more famous for this cuftom than any other, 
viz. St. Ilhmael’s and Marloes. The old inhabitants of 
thefe villages fay, that it hath been a common practice ; 
and that one William Allen of St. Ifhmael’s, who in 1722 
was ninety years of age, declared to foine perfons of good 
fenfe and integrity, that this praflice was ufed all his 
time; that he well remembered his mother telling him, 
that it Vvas a common pradtice all her time, and that fhe 
got the fmall-pox that way ; fo that at leaft we go back 
one hundred and fixty years or more. In the Highlands 
of Scotland and fome of the adjacent ifles, Dr. Alexander 
Monro fenior ‘‘informs us, that the cuftom through ages 
paft hath been, to put their children to bed with thofe 
who laboured under a favourable fmall-pox, and to tie 
worded threads about their children’s wrifts, after having 
drawn them through variolous puftules. 
According to the refult of Dr. RufTel’s inquiries, the 
Arabians afl'ert, that the inoculation of the fmall-pox has 
been the common cuftom of their anceftors, and that they 
have no doubt of its being as ancient as the difeafe itfelf. 
It is remarkable, that buying the fmall-pox is the name 
univerfally applied in all countries to the method of pro¬ 
curing the difeafe 5 it is true that there are other terms ; 
but in Wales and Arabia, as well as many other coun¬ 
tries, that is the ufual appellation. From the famenefs of 
the name, and the little diverfity obfervable in the man¬ 
ner of performing the operation, it is probable that the 
praflice of inoculation in thefe countries was originally 
derived from the fame fource. From its extenfive lpread, 
it is probably of great antiquity too. 
In the year 1717, lady Mary Wortley Montague, wife 
of the Englifh ambaffador at Conftantinople, had her fon 
inoculated there at the age of fix years; he had but few 
puftules, and foon recovered. In April 1721, inoculation 
was fuccefsfully tried on feven condemned criminals in 
London, by permiflion of his majefty. In 1722, lady Mary 
Wortley Montague had a daughter of fix years old ino¬ 
culated in this illand ; foo'n after which, the children of 
the royal family that had not had the fmall-pox were ino¬ 
culated with fuccefs ; then followed fome of the nobility, 
and the practice foon prevailed. And here we date the 
commencement of inoculation under the direction of art. 
From the example of the royal family in England, the 
practice was adopted in Germany, particularly in Han¬ 
over, and its adjacent countries. After Mr. Maitland had 
lucceeded with thofe he had inoculated in and about Lon¬ 
don, he introduced the practice into Scotland in the year 
1726. Sweden foon followed the example of the Britifh. 
Ruffia lately engaged one of our principal promoters and 
improvers of this art. And now there are not many 
countries that do not more or lefs praftife it. 
Yet, even fince the introduction of inoculation, the 
A T I O N. 0 $ 
deaths from the fmall-pox in the united kingdom of Great 
Britain and Ireland are annually from forty thoufand to 
forty-five thoufand. From the London bills of mortality, 
it appears that the fmall-pox has annually deftroyed more 
than two thoufand and twenty, during feventy-five years, 
endingat 1777. The total amount is 151,570. If the po¬ 
pulation of London be taken at one million within the 
bills of mortality, the proportion is one death out of every 
five hundred inhabitants. The proportion in the country 
is greater, becaufe one fourth of all the deaths in London 
is of ftrangers, who do not fix there till the age of eighteen 
or twenty, and moft of them have had the fmall-pox be¬ 
fore they fettle there. In Manchefter, Liverpool, and' 
Chefter, one perfon died of this difeafe every year in two 
hundred and five inhabitants. If we compare the deaths 
with the births in London, there is one death from the 
fmall-pox in each fix and a half births, and in Liverpool 
one in five and a half. In London one tenth (and fome- 
times more) of all the deaths is occafioned by the fmall- 
pox, or at leaft ninety-five out of every thoufand deatjis: 
Of the inoculated fmall-pox, on its firft introduction 
about the year 1721, one in fifty died ; but on the cool 
and improved mode of treatment the proportion of deaths 
is much lefs. Some calculate it as one in three hundred 
in England ; one in one hundred and fifty in the reft of 
Europe, in Afia, Africa, and America. Others calculate 
one in two hundred in London ; one in three hundred in 
the country. Some have calculated the deaths in Lon¬ 
don as one in every hundred inoculated for the fmall- 
pox. The mortality of the natural fmall-pox is eight or 
nine times greater than that of the inoculated ; but it ap¬ 
pears that in the moft favourable circumftances one dies 
of every three hundred inoculated for the fmall-pox. 
Though, by inoculation for the fmall-pox, the chance 
in favour of the individual was increafed, yet the num¬ 
ber of deaths on the whole was much increafed, becaufe, 
the fmall-pox being contagious, the fources of infection 
were increafed. Free expofure to frelh air formed the 
great improvement in the treatment of fmall-pox ; but by 
this expofure the uninfected became expofed to infec¬ 
tion, and the air became full of contagion. Inoculation, 
therefore, though a partial and individual good, was a ge¬ 
neral evil. The late government of France forbade it by 
law. Dr. Jurin fhows, from the bills of mortality for 
eighty-four years, that, for forty-two years before inocu¬ 
lation for the fmall-pox took place, feventy-two deaths in 
every thoufand were from the fmall-pox ; but, in the next 
forty-two years after the inoculation, the deaths amount¬ 
ed to eighty-nine in every thoufand. In the firft twelve 
years it was feventy-four in every thoufand; in the 
next ten years it was eighty-three; in the next ninety- 
fix ; and in the laft ten years it was one hundred and 
nine in every thoufand. Thus, by the fpreading of the 
difeafe by inoculation, the number of deaths in forty- 
two years increafed thirty-feven in every thoufand. It 
has been calculated that in twenty-five years Europe has 
lolt fifteen millions of inhabitants by this difeafe. In 
America the natural fmall-pox is ftill more fatal, and it 
has taken off twenty, thirty, and even forty, in every hun¬ 
dred. Another frequent effeCt of fmall-pox is either to¬ 
tal blindnefs or partial lofs of fight. In one eftablifhment 
in London for the blind, out of thirty-four, fourteen 
owed their blindnefs to the fmall-pox. Thonifon's Cheap 
Trail on the Cow-pox. Insanity has been too frequently 
known to follow inoculation. See that article a few pages 
forward. 
The practice of inoculation having obtaind in every 
part of the world, it may be grateful, at leaft to curiofity, 
to have a general account of the different modes that are 
and have been adopted in that practice. Inoculation with 
the blood of variolous patients has been tried without ef¬ 
fect; the variolous matter alone produces the variolous 
difeafe. The application of the variolous matter takes 
place in a fenfible part only; the activity of the virus is 
fuch, that the fmalleft atom, though imperceptible to any 
