Prevention of Small Pax... 
‘Rhode. Ifland, in North America. To 
this inftance; I fhall add fome facts, 
which have fallen under my own immedi- 
ate’ cognizance, during a temporary fo- 
journ in France, and which prove, in 
my humble opinion, the practicability of 
a preventative fyftem. The department 
of the Cote d’Or, contains a commune, 
ifolated as it were, from the reft of the 
province, by a range of mountains, 
which of courfe excludes them in a great 
meafure from:all communication with the 
neighbouring diftriéts. In this com- 
mune, the memory of the oldeft inhabit- 
ant cannot furnifh a fingle. inftance of 
a perfon infected with the fmall pox 
amongft them. But, then, the inhabit- 
ants no fooner are apprized that the 
fymptoms of this cruel difeafe have ap- 
peared among their neighbours, than 
they fcrupuloufly abftain from all inter- 
courfe with them. In Dijon, no fymp- 
toms of the fmall pox had manifefted 
themfelves for a confiderable number of 
years, when, unfortunately, the wife of 
an organift and mufic-mafter, refident in 
that town, received a letter from her 
filter, who lived at Aix, informing her 
that fhe lay dangeroufly ill of the fmall 
pox. This letter, the mufic-mafter’s 
wife kept in her pocket, and not many 
days after complained of a violent pain 
in her head. A phyfician was immedi- 
ately confulted, who, on examining his 
patient, pronounced her illnefs to be the 
fmall-pox; which prognoftication was 
foon verified. Meanwhile, her hufband, 
who was in the practice of giving leffons 
on the harpfichord, not being willing to 
decreafe his profits by neglecting his 
{cholars during his wife’s illnefs, con- 
tinued to repeat his daily vifits of inftruc- 
tion. Ina very fhort time the contagion 
‘became general in every family where he 
taught; and, from the precincts of the 
town, communicated ,to the adjacent vil- 
lages; and, in brief, to the diftri& at 
ge; where a confiderable number of 
perfons fell victims to the virulence of a 
diforder, which, if proper means of pre- 
vention had been fpeedily employed, 
would, in all probability, have been con- 
fined to a fingle patient. 
As a farther proof that the progrefs of 
contagion depends entirely upon the 
communication by contact, may be ad- 
“duced the following interefting experi- 
‘ment, made at Paris. In one of the 
hofpitals of this city, a ward was pur- 
pofely fitted up for afcertaining this im- 
portant point. It was divided into two 
parts, feparated by a double range of 
Monruty Mac. No, xxx!, 
Winter Scenes onthe Wye. 343 
railing, fo that the tenants of each refpec-« 
tive divilion could fee and converfe with 
each other, but were kept at fuch a di- 
{tance as to prevent any poflible commu- 
nication by contact. One of thefe divi- 
fions ;was occupied by children infected 
with the fmall-pox; the other, by a party 
who were exempt from all variolous taint. 
Notwithftanding both parties breathed 
the fame air, and converfed hourly toge-~ 
ther, none of the children not previoufly 
infected, caught the diforder. A ftronger 
proof, I apprehend, cannot be furnifhed 
of the ultimate practicability of totally 
eradicating this cruel difeafe, by the 
adoption of a preventive fyftem, fanc- 
tioned by the legiflature, and converted 
into an objeét of national poliee, 
Ss TETHER eee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
The PHENOMENA of the WYE, duriug 
the Winter of 1797-8. 
HE enchanting beauties of the River 
Wye, of fuch parts at leaft as lie 
between Rofs and Chepftow, are by this | 
time pretty generally known among the 
lovers of the piturefque. ‘They have 
acquired a due celebrity from the defcrip- 
tions of GILPIN, and curiofity has been 
inflamed by poetry and by profe, by 
paintings, prints, and drawings, till 
they have been rendered a fubject of uni- 
verfai converfation ; and an excurfion on 
the Wye has become an effential part of 
the education, as it were, of all who af 
pire to the reputation of elegance, tafte, 
and fafhion. But artifts in general are a 
fort of butterfly race—they expand their 
wings only in the genial rays of the fun, 
when the rofe is in bloom, and zephyrs 
play with the foliage of the grové. In 
thofe chilling months, when vegetation is 
at a ftand—when the bleak rock cafts its 
long fhadow over {cenes of equal fterility 
——when the rivers are turbid with defcend- 
ing torrents, or locked in icy fetters, and 
the mountains are covered with a veil of 
{now, they remain wrapped up in their co- 
cons, fhrinking from the blaft, and ftran-. 
gers to the ftern magnificence of Winter. 
This, in the profeffed-artift at leaft, is 
not very wile. Nature, to be underftood, 
fhould be ftudied in all her varietics. To 
know how to cloath her to the beft ad- 
vantage, we mutt ftrip her naked. The 
anatomy, if I may fo exprefs myfelf, of 
woods and hills, is-as effential to the 
Jandfcape painter, as that of the human 
form to the hiltorical branch of the art; 
and the leafiefs grove, the difmantled hill, 
nay, the very gloom of night itfelf, when 
yothing ig difcernible but the mere out- 
x oY f ling 
, 
