An Account of a Remarkable Instance of the Infection of the Small Pox. By Dr. Jurin, Soc. Reg. Secret

V. An Account of a remarkable Instance of the Infection of the Small Pox. By Dr. Jurin, Soc. Reg. Secret. A Young Gentleman ill of the Small Pox, of that sort which is call'd the cohærent, or the middle between the distinct and the confluent Kind, on Wednesday Oct. 3d 1722, being the sixth Day from the Eruption, grew delirious in the Night, and got out of bed in spite of the Opposition of two Nurses that attended him; and seizing one of his Nurses by the Neck with his bare Arms, he pressed her Forehead against his naked Breast, then cover'd with the Small Pox in the State of Maturation, and held her for some time in that Posture. She was heated by striving with him, and in struggling to get loose, she was sensible that she bruis'd and broke some of the Pustules with her Forehead. The Woman was about 40 Years of Age, of a clear, florid, sanguine Complexion; she told me she had had the small Pox, when she was about seven or eight Years of Age, and had been pretty full of them, but I saw no Marks upon her Face. On Friday Morning the Small Pox began to appear upon her Forehead, and increas'd by Degrees to between 50 and 60; she had likewise a small Number of Pustules upon the back part and sides of her Neck, where the Gentleman had grasp'd her with his naked Arms; but had none, as she told me, upon any other Part of her Body. The lower Part of her Face was perfectly clear, and those upon her Forehead were chiefly confin'd to the middle and most prominent Part of it, which had been press'd against the Gentleman's Breast. They rose gradually, and came to Maturity, in the same manner as the Small Pox of the milder cohaerent Kind use to do, with a great Inflammation and Swelling of her Forehead, and the adjoining Part of her Face, especially between the Eye-brows, where a small Cluster of the Pustules were seated, insomuch that on Tuesday the 9th of October, her right Eye was quite clos'd up, and the left almost in the same Condition; but all this Time she had no Fever, Sickness, or other Symptom of the Small Pox, beside this Eruption, and the Inflammation, and Pain that attended it. That Night she caus'd a Blister to be applied to her Neck, upon which she recover'd the Sight of her Eye the next Day, being the sixth from the Eruption, when the Pustules were turning, and beginning to scab. The Scabs agreed with those of the milder cohaerent Small Pox in their Appearance and Duration. I saw her hitherto every day, as likewise at several times after this, and particularly on Monday Oct. 22d, which was the eighteenth Day from the Eruption of the Pustules, when she had still some small Part of the Scabs remaining upon her Forehead. In this Instance it is worthy of Remark: 1st, That this Woman, tho' she had had the Small Pox before, was yet infected again by the immediate and close Application of the variolous Matter to her Skin, when her Body was heated with Exercise. Which seems to prove, that such an Application is more effectual to give the Infection than the bare morbid Effluvia, arising from the Body of the sick Person, and received into the sound one by Inspiration; for that she receiv'd no Infection by Inspiration is plain, from the appearing of the Small Pox upon those Parts only where there had been such an Applica- Application and Contact. From which it appears very probable, that a Person who has already had the Small Pox, as the Man inoculated by Mr. Tanner in St. Thomas's Hospital, may possibly receive it again in some flight Degree by Inoculation; that being still a more close and immediate application of the Variolous Matter to the Blood and Juices of the sound Person, than when it is applied only by Contact to the Skin whole and unwounded. 2dly, That the Infection communicated to this Woman not being universal, as appears from her having no Fever, or Sickness, or general Eruption of the Pustules all over her Body, but only on the Parts infected by immediate Contact, no Argument can be drawn from hence, for a Person's being liable to undergo the Small Pox a second time, so as to have the usual Symptoms of that Disease, and a general Eruption of the Pustules; but rather the contrary. 3dly, That the Time in which this Infection shew'd itself, by the appearance of the Pustules, is very different from that observed upon Inoculation; the first appearing in about a Day and an half; whereas in the latter Case, the Eruption generally shews itself on the tenth Day, or not above a Day sooner or later, as appears from the accurate and curious Observations of Dr. Nettleton. Which difference is what ought in reason to be expected, since in one Case the Infection went no further than the Parts affected by immediate Contact; whereas in the other it must be propagated thro' the Mass of Blood to all Parts of the Body.