The history of the inoculation of the small-pox in Great Britain; comprehending a review of all the publications on the subject: with an experimental inquiry into the relative advantages of every measure which has been deemed necessary in the process of inoculation / By William Woodville ... In two volumes.

Woodville, William, 1752-1805.

Date:: 1796

Credit: The history of the inoculation of the small-pox in Great Britain; comprehending a review of all the publications on the subject: with an experimental inquiry into the relative advantages of every measure which has been deemed necessary in the process of inoculation / By William Woodville ... In two volumes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$ftate of the air, climate, &c. is highly vifi- onary and chimerical.° It has not been difcovered that any thing but variolous matter, under fome modification or other, has the power of generating the Small-pox ; nor does it appear how any com- bination of other contagions, or the concur- rence of any circumftances whatever within the fcope of human knowledge, can give rife to a new and determinate difeafe, uniform in y 4 + Te impute the origin of the venereal diftemper to fuch like fources, would now be deemed utterly abfurd ; yet a little reflection muft fhow, that itis not lefs fo in regard to the Small-pox. It has been conjectured, that the Small-pox might have been derived from fome difeafe of brute animals: and if it be true, that the mange affefting dogs can communicate a fpecies of itch to man; or that a perfon having received a certain diforder from handling the teats of cows, is thereby rendered infenfible to variolous infection ever after- wards, as fome have afferted, then indeed this conjecture is not improbable. But in the various attempts which I have made . to communicate the Small-pox to different animals, as dogs, rabbits, poultry, &c. both by the ordinary way of inoculation, and by injecting variolous matter into the veins, no difeafe was produced. : A 2 its \$

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