Our next head of inquriry, is concerning the practice of inoculating, or artificially communicating the disease.

To the discovery of inoculation, medical science cannot prefer any claim. Into Britain the practice was first imported from Constantinople, and it has therefore been called by some the Byzantine operation. It was not however, in this part of the world, that the suggestion of thus communicating the virus of small pox, was made and acted upon. According to medical authorities ' in China, the custom of sowing the small-pox, which is in some ' degree analagous to inoculation, had long been in use.' In the "Memoires concernant l'Histoire, les Sciences, &c. des Chinoises," (a work above referred to,) we are told, that the practice was 'invented in the tenth century, and there is a tradition that it 'began as early as the Dynasty of Song, which was in the year of Christ 590." The mode, it is said, in which the cominunication of the malady was first made, was, by taking a few dried crusts of small pox, as if they were seeds, and planting them in the nose; C a bit of musk was added in order to correct the virulence of the poison, and perhaps to perfume the crusts, and the whole was wrapped in a bit of cotton to prevent its falling out of the nostril. Respecting the manner in which inoculation was practised in Hindostan, our Author extracts the following account, from a work entitled, On the Manner of inoculating in the East Indies, by Holwell;' which work was published in London in 1767.

"In Hindostan, if tradition may be relied on, inoculation has been practised from remote antiquity. This practice was in the hands of a particular tribe of Bramins, who were delegated from various religious colleges, and who travelled through the provinces for that purpose The natives were strictly enjoined to abstain during a month preparatory to the operation, from milk and butter, and when, the Arabians and Portuguese appeared in that country, they were prohibited from taking animal food also. Men were commonly inoculated on the arm, but the girls not liking to have their arms disfigured chose that it should be done low on the shoulders. But whatever part was fixed upon was well rubbed with a piece of cloth, which afterwards became a perquisite of the Bramin: he then made a few slight scratches on the skin, and took a little bit of cotton which had been soaked the preceding year in variolous matter, moistened it with a drop or two of the holy water of the Ganges, and bound it upon the punctures. During the whole of this ceremony the Bramin always preserved a solemn countenance, and recited the prayer appointed in the Attharva Veda to propitiate the Goddess who superintends the Sinall-Pox. The Bramin then gave his instructions, which were religiously observed. In six hours the bandage was to be taken off, and the pledget to be allowed to drop spontaneously. Early the next morning cold water was to be poured on the patient's head and shoulders, and this was to be repeated till the fever came on.

The ablution was then to be omitted; but as soon as the eruption appeared, it was to be resumed and persevered in every morning and evening till the crusts came off. Whenever the pustules should begin to change their colour, they were all to be opened with a fine pointed thorn. Confinement to the house was absolutely forbidden. The inoculated were freely to be exposed to every air that blew; but when the fever was on them, they were sometimes permitted to lie on a mat at the door. Their regimen was to consist of the most refrigerating productions of the climate, as plantains, water melons, their gruel made of rice or poppy seeds, cold water and rice.'

We are informed by Shaw, and other oriental travellers, that inoculation had long been practised in Persia, Armenia, Georgia, and Greece, without its origin having been known; but in the opinion of many, the Arabians were the first who employed it; and it is a remarkable fact, that the practice had made its way from the East, along the coast of Africa into Europe, and had even been adopted in parts of this island, especially in Wales and in Scotland, where being used only by the common people, it was vulgarly called buying the small-pox. Still, however, the faculty of medicine either remained totally ignorant of the subject, or indolently disinclined to investigate its claims to attention, until, in the year, 1703, the great success of inoculation first attracted the notice Dr. Emanuel Timoni, a Greek, who had graduated at Oxford, and was now residing in Constantinople, his native city. This physician corresponded with Dr. Woodward in Britain, and wrote an account of the new mode of preventing the dangers of small-pox. This account was published in the Philosophical Transactions of 1714-16. In 1715 a Mr. Kennedy, an English surgeon, who had visited Constantinople, wrote a pamphlet on the practice of what he calls ingrafting the small-pox. These several incidents failed, however, to excite interest on the part of the profession, until it happened that Lady Mary Wortley Montague, then blooming in health and beauty,' accompanied her husband, as ambassador to the Ottoman Court, and was struck with observing that in Constantinople there was a general ingrafting of children with the small-pox, by a set of old women, which took place every autumn; and that the disease thus communicated, was, in the majority of instances, extremely mild, so much so, that she had witnessed no single instance of death from it. In consequence of this observation, Lady W. courageously determined upon the ingraftment of her own son, which in every way so entirely succeeded, that upon her return to England she determined to subject her daughter to the same process; a determination which was put into effect, and which again completely answered her hopes. Still, however, the medical men of the time, shewed a disinclination to adopt the ractice; until two princesses of the Royal Household were

subjected to the operation, and in these instances also the communicated disease proved mild and benighant. The progress of inoculation was nevertheless exceedingly slow; to medical were now added moral and religious objections against the project. It was denounced, both by writers and preachers, as interfering with the ordinances of Providence, and proclaimed to be sinful, even allowing it to be efficient, whieh was all along doubted. So great and so successful was the outcry against the new method of imparting small-pox, that we are told, in spite of the writings and recommendations of some able physicians, and in defiance of the example even of the Court, the practice, instead of becoming popular, declined to such a degree, that from the year 1730 to 1740, it was almost disused in England. Indeed throughout Europe the plan was almost entirely relinquished, and there seemed little reason to imagine it would be revived,'

when in this dormant state news was brought that multitudes of Indians in South America had been inoculated with much success by Carmelite Friars, as the Asiatics had been by the Greek old women. A physician and surgeon also began in the year 1788 to inoculate in South Carolina, and only lost eight persons out of eight hundred. But a planter inoculated three hundred persons without the loss of one. For it is singular that in those days all inoculations performed by private gentlemen, monks, and old women, were uniformly successful and empirics afterwards were equally fortunate; rone lost patients from inoculation excepting the regular members of the faculty.'

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This statement reminds us of a well authenticated occurrence which happened in Sussex, a few years since, and which, though a little from the purpose of the present paper, we shall be excused for relating. A party of children just let loose from school,' were playing about the fields, and one of them suggested the game of inoculation. Accordingly, a thorn was taken from the hedge, and carried to one of the neighbouring children, who was under inoculation for small-pox. With this thorn, the little self-constituted inoculator punctured one of the child's pustules, carried the infected instrument to his playmates, pierced all their arms in succession, and every recipient went through the disease in a mild and favourable manner.

The practice of inoculation thus having become so general, and having proved so successful in America, a new sensation came now to be excited in Britain, and in the year 1746, the small-pox hospital was erected in St. Pancras.

In 1754, the question of inoculation was taken up by the London College of Physicians; and this learned body stated, by the medium of one of their annual orators, that experience had refuted the arguments which had been urged against this practice, which was now held in greater esteem, and was more

extensively employed by the English than ever; and the College considered it highly beneficial to mankind; atque humano generi valde salutarem esse se existimare.' oculation even now, however, made but comparatively tardy progress, being confined mainly to the families of the nobility and gentry, until the celebrated inoculator Sutton began to operate a most extensive influence upon its success and advancement.

The circumstances (says Mr. Moore) which attended the progress of inoculation through Great Britain are not flattering to the philosophical character of the nation.' 'Twas first rumoured as a practice followed by some poor old Turkish and Arabian women. A lady of quality then introduced it into the Royal Family, and among the higher circles of England, and now it will be shewn that it finally acquired popularity by the artifices of an empiric. For Daniel Sutton, with his secret nostrums, propagated inoculation more in half a dozen years, than both the faculty of medicine and surgery, with the aid of the Church, and the example of the Court, had been able to do in half a century.-It appears however that the Suttons, father and son, although they most materially improved the practice, in fact invented nothing. Sydenham had discovered the great utility of cold air in small-pox, and of allowing his patients to drink cold water, but he did not venture to deviate so much from ordinary rules as to prescribe purgatives. He on the contrary was profuse in exhibiting opiates."" Subsequent physicians had ascertained that great benefit arose from opening medicines, and particularly from mercurial purges; but in conformity with old theories they at the same time confined their patients to bed, covered them warmly, and promoted prespiration. But Daniel Sutton had the sagacity to extract what was beneficial in both these plans, and to reject what was injurious, for he exposed his patients to the air, directed for them cooling drinks and diet, and prescribed purging and refrigerating medicines, by which combination the treatment was rendered consistent. This system seems not to have been the result of deep study, for Sutton was no great reader, and his plan was repugnant to received theories. But every English medical man knew Sydenham's practice, and Lady Mary Wortley Montague had written that the Turkish children were suffered to play about in the open air during the variolous eruption. Almost every modern essay at that time likewise recommended purgatives, and Sutton only made choice of the prescription which was still in vogue."

Inoculation thus improved, now made rapid and triumphant progress. But Sutton's plan of permitting the inoculated to run about indiscriminately, conld not fail to sow the seeds of the disease more profusely, and to multiply to a considerable number the chances of small-pox infection among those who from apprehension, prejudice, or principle, still held out against the artificial mode of its reception. The increased provalence and the extraordinary success of inoculation, as now practised, soon excited the attention of the Continent, and the practice at length,

having encountered and pretty nearly vanquished every discription of opponents, became almost universal.

Spain, however, which is so much behind the rest of Europe in all mental acquirements, benefited on this occaaion by its sluggishness. One surgeon introduced the practice into the town of Jadrique in Andalusia, where it was continued during forty two years without extending beyond that district. In the year 1772, Dr. Don Miguel Guzman made the exertion of coming to London, to collect some information on the subject: When he returned to Madrid he was encouraged by the Court, and practised upon a few of the nobility. Some inoculations were also effected in a few trading cities which had communication with England. But these efforts were of short duration, and from the distinguished inaction of the Spaniards, inoculation was soon relinquished; and no other country has suffered so little from small-pox."

The fact indeed is indisputable, that the mortality from small pox progressively increased with the improvement and progress of inoculation. During the last thirty years of the last century, in spite of the meliorated treatment both of the natural and artificially-acquired distemper, deaths from this source had augmented by ten to one; and the result of careful calculations on this head instituted by Sir Gilbert Blane and Dr. Lettsome made the average numbers annually falling victims to small-pox in the British Islands, to be between 35 and 36,000

But this immense and increasing consumption of human lives (says Mr. Moore) was not the sole evil produced by this distemper; for a considerable portion of the survivors were pitted and disfigured; some lost one of their eyes, a few became totally blind, and others had their constitution impaired, and predisposed to a variety of complaints, which were productive of future distress and sometimes of death. These additional calamities cannot be reduced to cal culation, but as the mortality from small-pox was continually on the increase, these concomitant evils must have been so likewise.

Such, then, was the state of things, when the proposed substitute for small-pox preferred its claims to professional and popular notice. And what are these claims? Such, if they can be substantiated, as bid defiance, in the way of comparison, to every other project and scheme that has ever been invented or proposed for the physical improvement of society. Vaccination does no less than promise the overthrow and final extinction of the greatest evil that ever afflicted the human race; and we are pow candidly called upon to inquire, whether these magnificent promises are likely to be eventually fulfilled. In canvassing the pretensions of vaccination, as a substitute for small-pox inocu tion, it will be right, in the first place, briefly to trace its origin, and describe its early progress. Scarcely is it necessary to mention the name of Jenner, as the individual with whom der cidedly originated the first fair avowal of the proposed scheme