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132

OF THE SMALL-POX.

the fiettei of iheir fears, or were determined against conviction. Iwas always a ooinl with me not to perform the operation without theconsent of the parties concerned. I therefore advised the father, aftergiving his son a dose or two of rhubarb, to go to a patient who hadthe small-pox of a good kind, to open two or three of the pustules,taking up the matter with a little cotton, and as soon as he camehome, to take his son apart, and give his arm a slight scratch with apin, afterwards to rub the place well with the cotton, and take mifarther notice of it. All this he punctually performed: and at theusual period the small-pox made their appearance, which were of anexceeding good kind, and so mild as not to confine the boy an hourto his bed. None of the other relations knew but the disease hadcome in the natural way, till the boy was well.

The small-pox may be communicated in a great variety of wayswith nearly the same degree of safety and success. In Turkey, fromwhence we learned the practice, the women communicate the diseaseto children, by opening a bit of the skin with a needle, and puttinginto the wound a little matter laken from a ripe pustule. On thecoast of Baibary they pass a thiead wet with the matter through theskin between the thumb and fore-finger; and in some of the statesof Barbary, inoculation is performed by rubbing in the variolousmatter between the thumb and fore-finger, or on other parts of thebody. The practice of communicating the small-pox, by rubbingthe variolous matter upon the skin, has been long known in manyparts of Asia and Europe as well as in Barbary, and has generallygone by the name of buying the smallpox.

The present method of inoculating in Britain is to make two orthree slanting incisions in the arm, so superficial as not to piercequite through the skin, with a lancet wet with fresh matter takenfrom a ripe pustule ; afterwards the wounds are closed up, and leftwithout any dressing. Some make use of a lancet covered with thedry matter; but this is less certain, and ought never to be used un-less where fresh matter cannot be obtained: when this is the case,Yhe matter ought to be moistened by holding the lancet for sometime in the steam of warm water.

Tndeed, if fresh matter be applied long enough to the skin, thereis no occasion for any wound at all. Let a bit of thread, about halfan inch long, wet with the matter, be immediately applied to thearm, midway between the shoulder and the elbow, and covered witha piece of the common sticking-plaster, and kept on for eight or tendays. This will seldom fail to communicate the disease. We men-tion this method because many people are afraid of a wound : anddoubtless the more easily the operation can be performed, it has thegreater chance to become general. Some people imagine, that thedischarge from a wound lessens the eruption; but there is no greatstress to be laid upon this notion; besides, deep wounds often ulcer-ate and become troublesome.

We do not find that inoculation is at all considen d as a medicaloperation in those countries from whence we learned it. In Turkeyit is performed by the women, and in the East Indies by the Uracil-