A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 2 (of 2) by Charles Creighton

_Remarks on Dr Lettsom’s letter to Barker and Stacpoole._ 1779. [951] Lettsom, _Obs. on Baron Dimsdale’s Remarks, &c._ 1779; and other pamphlets on both sides. [952] Clark, _Report of the Newcastle Dispensary_. 1789. [953] Currie to Haygarth, 28 Nov. 1791, in _Sketch of a Plan, etc._, pp. 451, 207. [954] J. C. Jenner, “An Account of a General Inoculation at Painswick.” _Lond. Med. Journ._ VII. 163-8. [955] _Gent. Magaz._ April, 1788, reported by the Hon. and Rev. Mr Stuart, who was a grandson of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. [956] Monro, _Account of Inoculation in Scotland_, 1765; in his _Works_. Edin. 1781, p. 693. [957] _Statistical Account of Scotland._ 1791-99, III. 376. [958] _Ibid._ IV. 130. It was about the year 1782 that the College of Physicians of Edinburgh appointed a committee to inquire into the mode of conducting the gratis inoculations of the poor, which had been tried at Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, &c. in 1781-82. Haygarth, u. s. 1784, p. 207. [959] _Ibid._ III. 582. [960] _Ibid._ XX. 502-7. [961] _Ibid._ XX. 348. Account by Rev. Abercromby Gordon, who gives in a note (p. 349) the following instance of professional zeal: “A surgeon in the north, presuming that self-interest has a stronger hold on man than superstition, has lately opened a policy of insurance for the smallpox! If a subscriber gives him two guineas for inoculating his child, the surgeon in the event of the child’s death pays ten guineas to the parent; for every guinea subscribed, four guineas, for half a guinea, two guineas, and for a crown one guinea.” [962] James Lucas, _Lond. Med. Journ._ X. 269. [963] Currie to Haygarth, 28 Nov. 1791, in the latter’s _Sketch of a Plan, &c._ p. 453. [964] _A Conscious View of Circumstances and Proceedings respecting Vaccine Inoculation._ Bath, 1800. The author was probably James Nooth, senior surgeon to the Bath Hospital, who removed to London and practised in Queen Anne Street, holding the appointment of surgeon to the Duke of Kent. He wrote on cancer of the breast. [965] _Tracts on Inoculation._ London, 1781. [966] R. Pulteney, M.D., in a letter of 21 June, 1766, to Dr G. Baker, given in his _Inquiry into the Merits of a Method of Inoculating the Smallpox_. Lond. 1766. [967] Pulteney, “Births, Deaths and Marriages of Blandford Forum, 1733-1772.” _Phil. Trans._ LXVIII. 615. [968] Pulteney to Baker, App. to _Inquiry into the method of Inoculating_. 1766; Hutchins, _Dorsetshire_, I. 217. [969] On 23 July, 1785, the apothecary makes a note in his book: “Some inspectors are not sufficiently careful to send information to the Hospital when children have had the smallpox.” MS. Records. [970] _Experiments, &c._ 1768. [971] Sir W. Watson, M.D., F.R.S., “On the Putrid Measles of London, 1763 and 1768.” _Med. Obs. and Inquiries_, IV. 153. [972] Charles Kite, surgeon, Gravesend, “An Account of some anomalous Appearances consequent to Inoculation of Smallpox.” _Memoirs Med. Soc. Lond._ IV. (1794), p. 114. [973] Fosbroke, _Lond. Med. Repository_. June, 1819, p. 466. [974] Jenner to James Moore, in Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, II. 401: “Is not that a precious anecdote for your new work?” See also _Court and Private Life of Queen Charlotte_ (Journals of Mrs Papendiek). Lond. 1887, I. 41, 70, 270. [975] In Baron, u. s. [976] _A Conscious View, &c._ u. s. [977] Earle, in Jenner’s _Further Observations_. 1799. [978] T. Adams to Richard Pew, M.D., of Sherborne. _Lond. Med. and Phys. Journ._ April, 1829. [979] John Forbes, M.D., “Some Account of the Smallpox lately prevalent in Chichester and its vicinity.” _Lond. Med. Reposit._ Sept. 1822, p. 218. [980] _Discourse on Inoculation._ Eng. Transl. 1755. [981] _A Series of Experiments, &c._ 1768. [982] John Haygarth, M.B., _Inquiry how to prevent the Smallpox_. Chester, 1784, p. 154. [983] _History of Inoculation in Britain._ Vol. I. London, 1796, p. 33. [984] _History of Edinburgh._ Edin. 1779, p. 260. [985] W. Hillary, _Rational and mechanical Essay on the Smallpox_. Lond. 1735. [986] J. Barker, _The Nature of Inoculation explained and its Merits stated_. London, 1769, p. 33. He taught that a depraved habit, by ill diet, &c., “serves for a nidus wherein the variolous matter rests.” If the variolous matter to be expelled is small, “by reason of natural health, temperance, or the power of preparation,” the disease is of the distinct kind; when large, of the confluent. “And wise indeed must he be who can find out any laws respecting the reception and expulsion of diseases superior on the whole to those which are original.” p. 9. [987] “I have taken an account in this town [Halifax], and some parts of the country, and have procured the same from several other towns hereabouts, where the smallpox has been epidemical this last year, with as much exactness as was possible.” _Phil. Trans._ XXXII. 211. [988] “A small neighbouring market town.” [989] “More than usually mortal.” [990] “A small market town in Lancashire, including two neighbouring villages.” [991] Account taken “by a person of credit” and sent to Dr Whitaker. Jurin says, more generally: “Taken in several places by a careful enquiry from house to house.” _Account, &c._ 1724, p. 7. [992] “At Uxbridge and in the neighbourhood, the smallpox having been exceedingly fatal all thereabouts.” [993] _Mr Maitland’s Account of Inoculating the Smallpox vindicated._ 2nd ed. Lond. 1722. [994] _Phil. Trans._ XXXIII. 379. “A short account of the Anomalous Epidemic Smallpox beginning at Plymouth in August, 1724, and continuing to the month of June, 1725, By the learned and ingenious Dr Huxham, physician at Plymouth.” [995] The totals are given in Jurin’s _Account_ for 1725. The ages are in the original communication of the Rev. Mr Wasse, among the MS. papers which Jurin had deposited with the Royal Society. [996] The most singular thing in the Aynho experience is that there should have been no cases in infants under two years. It was observed, however, some two generations after this, that smallpox attacked children at the earliest ages in the great towns (Haygarth, _Sketch of a Plan, &c._, 1793, p. 31), and even in the worst conditions of infancy it has attacked relatively few in the first three months of life. Again, it is nearly as remarkable that there should have been only three cases at Aynho in the third year of life and only four in the fourth. However, the fewness of cases in the five first years of life must be taken as exceptional, even for a village epidemic. If Nettleton, who made the first of these censuses of smallpox epidemics and suggested to Jurin that they should be carried out elsewhere, had given the ages, he would certainly have included some in infancy, for he mentions, in the course of his inoculation experiences, particular cases at nine months, eighteen months, etc. [997] Frewen, _Phil. Trans._ XXXVII. 108. [998] See above, pp. 485-6 and 490-1. [999] Deering, _Nottingham vetus et nova_. 1751, pp. 78, 82. He says, in an essay on smallpox (_Improved Method of treating Smallpox._ Nottingham, 1737) that he treated fifty-one cases in the epidemic of 1736, of which only three proved fatal. [1000] _Gent. Magaz._ 1741, p. 704. [1001] Alex. Monro, primus, in his Report to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris on Inoculation in Scotland, 1765. Reprinted in his _Works_. Edin. 1781, p. 485. He does not give ages, but an inspection of the burial registers is said to show that they were nearly all under five. [1002] _Gent. Magaz._ 1742, p. 704. Blomefield gives 1710 and 1731 as great smallpox years in Norwich. [1003] _Ibid._ 1747, p. 623. The population of Northampton in 1746 was