From the time that I entered into the practice of medicine, and saw the danger to which the generality of those who had the small-pox in the natural way were exposed, I could not but sincerely wish, with every sensible person of the faculty, that Inoculation might become general. A considerable share of employment in this branch of my profession has for upwards of twenty years occurred to me; and altho’ I have been so fortunate as not to lose a patient under inoculation, except Nor have the subsequent effects of this practice always been so favourable as one could wish; and tho’ far from equalling those which too often follow the natural small-pox; either in respect to difficulty or number, yet they sometimes gave no small uneasiness to the operator. It cannot likewise, it ought not to be concealed, that some of the inoculated have died under this process, even under the care of very These circumstances, however, tended to discourage the operation in some degree. Practitioners were cautious of urging a process, of whose event they could not be certain: and parents, who were sensible enough to observe, that though the chance was greatly in their favour, yet a blank might cast up against them, engaged in it with hesitation. Humanity, as well as a wish to promote the honour and advantage of the art I profess, made me ever attentive to the improvement of Many facts had induced me to think that regimen, preparation, and management would do much: that as the disease was of an inflammatory kind, a cooling regimen must certainly for the most part be reasonable. Some faint essays were made to try how far this sentiment might be just. But those who are the best acquainted with the first aphorism of Hippocrates, will be the first in justifying a cautious pro In this situation I first heard, and with the utmost satisfaction, that in some parts of the nation, a new and more successful method of inoculating was discovered, than had hitherto been practised. The relators gave incredible accounts of the success; which was the more marvellous, as the operators were chiefly such, as, by report, could lay but little claim to medical erudition. Knowing that improvements, which would do honour to the most elevated human understandings, are sometimes stumbled upon by men of more confined abilities; and that in medicine, as well as in every other circumstance in life, it is our To expose patients, even in the inoculated small-pox, to all weathers, was a thing unheard of. To permit them through the whole pro The design of this treatise is to bring the practice still one step nearer to perfection, and lessen the ravages of a distemper, which is not a native of Britain, but, like the plague, has been imported from a foreign country, and demands the exertion of all the powers we are possessed of, either to exterminate it from amongst us, which perhaps is not practicable, or to render it less The following directions for this purpose, are the result of an extensive practice: and if a strong persuasion of the truth of what he writes, founded on repeated trials and impartial observations, should have led the author to express himself in a very sanguine manner, the future experience of others, he trusts, will be his justification. Hertford, 1. Nov. |