Viewing page 220 of 504

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

29)
Of Inoculation for the Small-pox.
From the Gents Mag. for March 1766. page 116.

[[right margin]] A Sympathetic Ink. for secret writing. [[/margin]]

Mr. Urban,

[[left margin]] a mistake in the signs of infection. [[/margin]]

In your Mag. for [[underline]] November [[/underline]] last (see p. 495.) you gave an account of Dr. [[underline]] Gatti's [[/underline]] mistaking the redness of inflammation, and pimples, round the orifice made in the Dutchess of Bouflers arm for Inoculation, as a sure sign that the infection had taken place.
What follows may possibly show how that mistake happened, and prevent the like again. 
My being minute will, I hope, be excused; it is to make every thing plain.
Without mentioning the various methods used formerly, and in different places, to communicate the infection, I shall only say I have seen two.
[[left margin]] 1st way of inoculating. [[/margin]]
For the one - form little balls of cotton or caddis, (charpie or scraped linnen) the bigness of a good pin's head is sufficient, soak these in variolous matter; and keep it in a box for use.
Then with the shoulder or edge of a launcet, make such a slight incision through the cuticle as just to bring blood, (yet most do not fetch blood) a drop is sufficient; the scratch may be from a quarter to half an inch long, if longer there is no harm.
Rub the caddis button carefully, a little time, on this hair stroke; and, laying a plaister over it, leave it on four or five days.
[[left margin]] the case if it does not succeed. & when it does. [[/margin]]
If it do not hold, the skin will then be as whole as if it had not been touched, but if it succeed, there will be a faint reddish line; which on a near inspection will be found open. This inflamation increases daily till the turn of the pox, &c.
[[right margin]] Phænomenon of liquor rising in Capillary Tubes. [[/margin]]
[[left margin]] Confirmed. [[/margin]]
I have inoculated about two hundred, mostly ^ [[insertion]] in [[insertion]] this way, and always found the above appearance.
[[left margin]] 2d Way of Inoculat[in]g. [[/margin]]
In the other way - they make a deep and wide [[strikethrough]] incision [[/strikethrough]] orifice, with the point of a lancet -- into which they thrust a dossil of soaked caddis, and leave it in, with a plaister over it, as above.
[[left margin]] Objections to it [[/margin]]
A little reflection must make one sensible that this is really an issue (fontanel) and that the dossil serves as a pea to enflame and keep it open; and effectually puts it out of one's power to know whether it has succeeded or not, till the event informs him.
[[left margin]] Pimples round the orifice. [[/margin]]
What adds to the uncertainty is, that as pimples frequently rise round infected wounds, so do they also sometimes round 
Continued on p. 31.

Transcription Notes:
I tried to treat the marginal notes somewhat like section headings, as it seemed that was the intent. Not sure if that is the most sensible way to do that, particularly for the notes in the right hand margin. -we are trying to consistently use [[left margin]] and [[right margin]] as appropriate, and to place the notes where they are found in the original, after discussion with SI employees. I edited the tags in this page mainly by moving the left/right first and by putting spaces before/after them to allow for searchability of the text. -MegShu Also wasn't sure about rendering the first "s" in a pair; I finally decided it was a handwriting convention rather than a spelling variation, so chose to use "s" instead of trying to approximate what the character looked like by using "f."