LX. As far as the nature of the case will permit us (for all things
are not capable of being mathematically or decisively demonstrated),
we should endeavour to discover the truth, by imitating the diligence
and attention which many English physicians exercised, in examining
into the eligibility of the precautionary remedy called inoculation,
practised by the Turks, to elude the fatal effects of the small-pox. This
is a subject, that has been much talked on in other kingdoms for some
years; although in Spain we have hardly heard it mentioned. The event
of communicating the infection in this way, most generally is, that the
person inoculated has the distemper very lightly, and is hardly ever
obliged through the whole course of the disease, to keep his bed.
LXI. The account of this precautionary method, was brought to England by
one Maitland, who was surgeon to Mr. Wortley Mountague, his Britannic
majesty’s ambassador at the Porte, and was from thence communicated to
the other nations of Europe. Maitland had observed, that this practice
was almost universal in all the cities of the Levant, and that it was
attended with wonderful success. He communicated these remarks to Mr.
and Mrs. Mountague, and they had fortitude enough, upon the faith of
what he had told them, to make the experiment upon a son they had with
them of six years old, which being attended with success, they repeated
it upon another of their children when they returned to England. Many
were animated with these examples and these accounts; and the practice
of inoculation, began to be much approved, and much adopted in England,
notwithstanding it was greatly opposed, and objected to by some people
there, and by many in other countries; and especially by the physicians
of Paris, who exclaimed strongly against it.
LXII. But as this contest was such a one, as ought not to be determined
by speculative reasoning, an appeal was made to experience, which appeal,
was prosecuted in such a manner by those who were advocates for the
practice, as seemed to exclude all doubt and perplexity. Physicians
who resided in different parts of the kingdom, were requested to give
accounts of the success of their practice by this method, and to transmit
them to London, which when received, were printed and published. By these
accounts, two facts were established; the first was, that inoculation
freed the patient from the danger of a second infection; and the second
was, that those to whom the small-pox was communicated in this way, very
rarely died; and although it is true that some few of them miscarried,
they were mostly such, as were afflicted with some other disorder at the
time of their inoculation, of which they would have died, if they had
not had the small-pox; but these altogether, did not amount to but very
little more than a tenth part of those, who perished by catching it in
the natural way; for by the best calculation they could make, one out of
eight died of the last, and not above one in eighty of the first.
LXIII. This is the account I have read of this matter in the Memoirs of
Trevoux; to which some may object, that it is possible the relations of
the cases, were not published so faithfully as they were received. To
this I answer, that it is probable great pains were taken in making the
enquiries, and great fidelity observed in publishing the accounts, as the
Memoirs of Trevoux tell us, that upon the strength of their authority,
some of the royal family of England were inoculated.
LXIV. And let it not be insisted in opposition to this, that if the fact
had been so well established, it could have admitted of no contradiction.
They know little of the human passions, who think this remark a solid
one. Those who contradict, either through blind prepossession, or from
motives of emulation, interest, or envy, seldom submit, or will own
themselves convinced by proofs that are self-evident; nor is there
any species of evidence, that can bar every door, at which a false
subterfuge may steal in, nor against the intrusion of a thousand
sophistical objections, introduced by those, who are under the dominion
of the beforenamed passions. I speak feelingly of this matter, having had
woeful experience of the truth of what I assert, since I first began to
write for the public.
LXV. In reality, some of the objections that were made to inoculation,
were the most ridiculous in the world. Some rigid Presbyterians, made the
cause of religion interested in the question, and asserted, that that
practice, was an affront to the sovereignty, and an opposition to the
decrees of God; and one of them declared in his preaching, that it was a
diabolical invention, for the devil by inoculation had communicated the
small-pox to Job, which was the distemper that so sorely afflicted that
holy Patriarch. Into what absurdities, does a violent ardour hurry a man
in a controversy! Of all sensible human beings, there are none so nearly
allied to mad men, as passionate disputants.
LXVI. Towards the conclusion of this virulent contest, a very curious
circumstance came to light, which was, that this precautionary method
which had made so much noise, and which had generally been supposed to
have been brought from Turkey, had for ages before, been in use in the
island of Great Britain itself; for that it had been practised from time
immemorial, in the southern parts of the principality of Wales, where
they communicated the infection in two ways either by rubbing some of the
variolous matter hard on the skin of the person to whom the distemper was
to be given, or else by dipping a needle into that matter, and pricking
his skin with it; and as they gave the person from whom the matter was
taken a small sum of money, this was called buying the small pox; and
they produce very authentic testimonies, that scarce any one of those who
came by the distemper in this manner died, and that there was no instance
of a person who had acquired the disease in this way, ever having had it
a second time.