Inoculation was introduced into London as an invention wholly foreign, and from its fuccefs upon the younger branches of the royal family, in 1722, became the fubject of public conversation, when, to the great furprife of the learned, feveral communications to the Royal Society proved that it was already a practice known in South Wales, where it had exifted under the denomination of buying the fmall-pox, as far back as tradition could be traced.--That this Cambrian mode of buying the small-pox was in effect the fame as the Byzantine inoculation, then just adopted in England, the letters of Dr. Williams, Mr. Owen, and Mr. Wright*, bear ample teftimony. The laft-mentioned gentleman writes to Mr. Bevan as follows: "I received yours the 9th inft. and, in answer to it, will readily give you all the fatisfaction "I can in relation to a very ancient custom in "this country, commonly called buying the small

pox; which, upon ftrict inquiry fince I had your letter, I find to be a common practice, and of a very long ftanding, being affured by perfons

of unquestionable veracity, and of advanced

age, that they have had the fmall-pox com"municated to themfelves in this way, when "about fixteen or feventeen years of age: they "then being very capable of diftinguishing that

* These letters may be feen in the Philofophical Tranfactions for the year 1722; and in Dr. Jurin's account of the fuccefs of Inoculation in 1723.

diftemper from any other, and that they have parted with the matter contained in the puf"tules to others, producing the fame effects.

"There are two large villages in this county,

near the harbour of Milford, more famous for "this custom than any other, namely, ST. "ISHMAEL's and MARLOES. The old inhabi"tants of these villages fay, that it has been a

65

common practice with them time out of mind; and "what was more remarkable, one W. Allen, of "St. Ishmael's, ninety years of age, who died "about fix months ago, declared to fome perfons "of good fenfe and integrity, that this practice was used all his time, and that he got the fmall-pox that way. Thefe, together with many other informations I have met with, "from all parts of the country, confirm me in "the belief of its being a very ancient practice

among the common people; and to prove that "this method is ftill continued among us, I will

give you the relation of an elderly woman, a "midwife (who accidently came into company "when your letter was reading,) whofe name is "Joan Jones, aged feventy years, of good credit, " and perfect memory. She folemnly declares, "that about fifty-four years ago, having the

fmall-pox, one Margaret Brown, then about "twelve or thirteen years of age, bought the fmall-pox of her; and fhe further fays, that "fhe has known this way of procuring the fmall

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pox practifed from time to time above fifty years; that it had been lately used in her neigh"bourhood; and the knows but of one dying of "the faid diftemper when communicated after "the method aforefaid, which accident happened within these two last years."

The manner of inoculating, or buying the fmallpox, here alluded to, was not always the fame, but was varied by different perfons. Dr. Williams fays, "They either rub the matter, taken "from the puftules when ripe, on several parts "of the skin of the arms, &c. or prick thofe parts "with pins, or the like, being firft infected with "the inoculating matter." Mr. Owen, and five of his school-fellows, fcraped the fkin with a knife "until the blood began to flow, before they

applied the variolous pus." Others produced the diftemper, "by holding a certain number " of dried puftules for a confiderable time in the palm of the hand."

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We are alfo informed, that the inhabitants of the Highlands of Scotland*, for many ages, have had recourse to a species of inoculation, performed by tying worsted threads, moiftened with variolous matter, round the wrifts of their children.

This vulgar or domeftic cuftom of inoculating the small-pox, likewife prevailed in many other parts of Europe, and in various countries of Afia and Africa; and, what is highly curious, in several of these distant nations, the practice was, as in

* See Monro on Inoculation in Scotland.

Wales,

For

Wales, termed BUYING THE SMALL-POX. it was fuperftitioufly imagined, that inoculation would not produce the proper effect unless the perfon, from whom the variolous matter was taken, received a piece of money, or fome other article in exchange for it, from those whom it was intended to infect.

At Naples, Monf. de la Condamine, in 1769, learned that inoculation had been fecretly used by the people there from time immemorial: and the celebrated P. Bofcowich affured him it was practifed in the fame manner at Pavia, where the nurses often inoculated, without the parents knowledge, the infants entrusted to their care. For this purpose they commonly rubbed the palm of the hand of the child with fluid variolous matter, recently taken from a puftule.

The practice of buying or inoculating the smallpox prevailed alfo in fome of the provinces of France, efpecially in Auvergne and in Perigord; and ftill more generally among the ignorant peafantry in many parts of Germany*, Denmark, and Sweden †.

In

*See Condamine, l. c. He alfo fays, Ce n'eft pas feulement dans le Duché de Cleves & dans le comté de Mœurs, où le Docteur Schwenke trouva cet ufage établi en 1713: il y a près d'un fiècle qu'on le connoiffoit en Dannemarck, puifque Bartolin en fait mention dans une lettre fur la tranfplantation des maladies, imprimée à Copenhague en 1637.

Le Docteur Carburi, premiere profeffeur de médicine en l'univerfité de Turin, natif de Céphalonie, m'a dit en 1756, que l'inoculation étoit en ufage dans cette Ifle avant l'an 1537.

† See Profeffor Murray's Hiftoria infitionis variolarum in

Suecia,

In the northern parts of Europe this practice feems to have been lefs complete than that adopted on the fouthern and eaftern coafts of the Mediterranean Sea. For in Barbary and in the Levant, though they placed implicit confidence in the efficacy of buying or purchafing the variolous puftules; yet their method of performing the operation was such as could not fail of producing the inoculated small-pox. The infectious matter was inferted at a small opening made in the fleshy part of the hand, between the thumb and fore-finger; and, according to Dr. Shaw, "the person who is to

undergo the operation, receives the infection "from fome friend or neighbour, who has a "favourable kind, and who is entreated to fell two or three of his puftules, for the fame num"ber of nuts, comfits, or fuch like trifles."

This account of inoculation differs not materially from that practifed in the kingdoms of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algier, as related by his excellency Caffim Aga, in 1728 †, when ambaffador to our court. He fays, "If any one has a mind to "have his children inoculated, he carries them

Suecia, p. 96. Schultz's Account of Inoculation, 65. • Ephem. Germ. An. 2. A. D. 1671. Obf. 165. Also An. 8. Anni 1677. Obf. 15. Werlhof, Difq. de variolis et anthracibus, p. 19.

* Vide Roeder. Diff. utrum naturalibus præflent variolæ artificiales, p. 34.

See Scheuchzer's Account of the Succefs of inoculating the Small-pox in Great Britain, for the years 1727 and 1728, p. 61.

VOL. IV.

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