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SMALL-POX.

culation only open one of the ripe pustules with a lancet,and while it is wet with the matter make a slight incision inthe arm of the person to whom they want to communicatethe disease ; afterwards they close up the wound and leave itwithout any other dressing. It is likewise done with a lan-cet covered with the dry matter ; hut this is less certain. Itfrequently fails, and ought never to be depended upon unlesswhere fresh matter cannot be had.

Indeed, if fresh matter be applied long enough to the skin,there is no occasion for any wound at all. Let a bit ofthread, about half an inch long, wet with the matter, be im-mediately applied to the arm, midway between the shoulderand elbow, and covered with a piece of the common stickingplaster, and kept on for eight or ten days. This will seldomfail to communicate the disease. We mention this methodbecause many people are afraid of a wound ; and doubtlessthe more easily the operation can be performed, it has thegreater chance to become general. Some people imaginethat the discharge from a wound lessens the eruption ; butthere is no great stress to be laid upon this notion. Besides,deep wounds often ulcerate and become troublesome.

We do not find that inoculation is at all considered as amedical operation in those countries from whence we learnedit. In Turkey it is performed by the women, and in theEast Indies by the Brahmins or priests. In this countrythe custom is still in its infancy ; we make no doubt howeverbut it will soon become so familiar, that parents will think nomore of inoculating their children, than at present they doof giving them a dose of physic.

No set of men have it so much in their power to render thepractice of inoculation general as the clergy, the greatestopposition to it still arising from some scruples of conscience,which they alone can remove. We would recommend it tothem not only to endeavor to remove the religious objectionswhich weak minds may have to this salutary practice, butto enjoin it as a duty, and to point out the danger of neglect-ing to make use of a means which Providence has put in ourpower for saving the lives of our offspring. Surely suchparents as wilfully neglect the means of saving their children'slives are as guilty as those who put them to death. We wishthis matter were duly weighed. No one is more ready tomake allowance for human weakness and religious prejudices,yet I cannot help recommending it, in the warmest manner,