An Account of Inoculation by Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. Given to Mr. Ranby, to be Published, Anno 1736. Communicated by Thomas Birch, D. D. Secret. R. S.

and the striæ, which commence the inside, pass over the ridge, and are continued to the edges. I am indebted to the same place for the XIIth Fig. The cup-like cavity in this is pretty deep, and radiated with deep strigæ: and the sides are marked with very distinct ridges running lengthways, tho' sometimes interrupted by circular furrows. LXXI. An Account of Inoculation by Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. given to Mr. Ranby, to be published, Anno 1736. Communicated by Thomas Birch, D.D. Secret. R.S. Read Feb. 19, 1756. Had heard by several reports from China and Guinea, but especially from Turkey, of the inoculation (as it is called) of the small-pox; and took an opportunity, when the late Dr. William Sherrard was consul of the English Nation at Smyrna, to desire the favour of him, it being an operation never practised in these parts, nor by some physicians thought practicable, to inform me of the truth and success of it. In answer to which he told me, that the consul from Venice residing there, a physician, Dr. Pylarini, had taken particular notice of that practice, and had promised to satisfy me about it; which he did by a letter, which was printed in the Philosoph. Transact. in 1716, and I believe at Venice. This notice lay asleep till the hon. Mr. Wortely Montague, who being ambassador from England at the the port, and the lady Mary had inoculated their son at Constantinople, and wrote about this practice, and the advantages of it, to the court and their acquaintance here, and afterwards brought into England their inoculated son, in perfect health. The princess Anne, now princess royal of Orange, falling ill of the small-pox in such a dangerous way that I very much feared her life, the late queen Caroline, when princess of Wales, to secure her other children, and for the common good, begged the lives of six condemned criminals, who had not had the small-pox, in order to try the experiment of inoculation upon them. But Mr. Maitland, who had inoculated at Constantinople, declining for some reasons to perform the operation, lest it should be lost, I wrote to Dr. Terry at Endfield, who had practised physic in Turkey, to know his opinion and observations about it; who returned me this answer, that he had seen the practice there by the Greeks encouraged by their patriarchs; and that not one in eight hundred had died of that operation. Upon my speaking to Mr. Maitland, he undertook the operation, which succeeded in all but one, who had the matter of the small-pox put up her nose, which produced no distemper, but gave great uneasiness to the poor woman. After their recovery, in order to obviate the objection made by the enemies of this practice, that the distemper produced by it was only the chicken-pox, swine-pox, or petite verole volagere, which did not secure persons against having the true small-pox, Dr. Steigentahl, physician to the late king, and I joined our purses to pay one of those, who had it by inoculation in Newgate, who was sent to Hertford, where the disease in the natural way was epidemical and very mortal, and where this person nursed and lay in bed with one, who had it, without receiving any new infection. To make a further tryal, the late queen Caroline procured half a dozen of the charity-children belonging to St. James's parish, who were inoculated, and all of them, except one (who had had the smallpox before, tho' she pretended not, for the sake of the reward) went thro' it with the symptoms of a favourable kind of that distemper. Upon these tryals, and several other in private families, the late queen, then princess of Wales, (who with the king always took most extraordinary, exemplary, prudent and wise care of the health and education of their children) sent for me to ask my opinion of the inoculation of the princesses. I told her royal highness, that by what appeared in the several essays, it seemed to be a method to secure people from the great dangers attending that distemper in the natural way. That the preparations by diet, and necessary precautions taken, made that practice very desirable; but that not being certain of the consequences, which might happen, I would not persuade nor advise the making trials upon patients of such importance to the public. The princess then asked me, if I would dissuade her from it: to which I made answer, that I would not, in a matter so likely to be of such advantage. Her reply was, that she was then resolved it should be done, and ordered me to go to the late king George the first, who had commanded me to wait on him upon that occasion. I told his majesty my opinion, that it was impossible to be certain but that raising such a commotion in the blood, there might happen dangerous accidents not foreseen: To which he replied, that such might and had happened to persons, who had lost their lives by bleeding in a pleurify, and taking physic in any distemper, let never so much care be taken. I told his majesty I thought this to be the same case, and the matter was concluded upon, and succeeded as usual, without any danger during the operation, or the least ill symptom or disorder since. I have been consulted with upon the like occasion by many, and have been of opinion, that since it is reckoned, that scarce one in a thousand misses having it some time in their life, the sooner it is given them the better, notwithstanding the heat of summer, or cold of winter; the danger being greater from falling into the distemper naturally, than from the heat or cold of either. What I have observed, which I think material, is not to inoculate such, as have any breakings out on their faces, soon after the measles, or any other occasion, whereby the small-pox were likely to be invited, and come in the face in greater number, and so make the distemper more dangerous. Bleeding in plethora's, or gentle clearing of the stomach and intestines, are necessary; and abstinence from anything heating, about a week before: and nothing else needful by way of preparation; and very little physic during the course of it, unless accidents happen. The operation is performed by making a very slight shallow incision in the skin of the arms about an inch long; but great care should be had in making the incision, not to go thro' the skin; for in that case I have seen it attended with very troublesome consequences afterwards. After the incisions are made, a doffil dipped in the ripe matter of a favourable kind of small-pox, produced naturally, or by inoculation, is put into the wound, covered by a diapalma plaister for twenty-four hours, and then removed, &c. I have known in scarcity of good matter in London, that it has been brought from Seven-oaks in Kent, and applied with good success. Of above two hundred, that I have advised before the operation, and looked after during it and its consequences, but one has miscarried, a son of the duke of Bridgewater, (in whose family this distemper had been fatal) where the eruption of the small-pox was desperate, notwithstanding it was perfectly safe in his sister, who had undergone the same preparations, and was inoculated the same day, and with the same matter used for her brother. Upon the whole it is wonderful, that this operation, which seems so plainly for the public good, should, through dread of other distempers being inculcated with it, and other unreasonable prejudices, be stopped from procuring it. One thing I have observed, that though the persons inoculated were advanced in years, it was equally successful as in younger persons.