Page:A Recommendation of Inoculation - John Morgan.djvu/19

 it. Formerly there were some, otherwise, sensible people, so alarmed about the consequence of the operation, as to think "the small-pox by inoculation as dangerous, as when taken the natural way; and that it was contrary to morality and religion to practise it." The former of these objections to it, I hope, I have fully anticipated, and shewn them to be destitute of truth; and in answer to the latter, I shall just observe, that in the middle colonies of America, particularly in Pensylvania, the Jerseys and New-York, where the disease has long been endemial, from the universal practice of inoculation, it has become in a manner harmless, and there are few people to have the disease but infants and strangers. There, instead of considering it as a crime to inoculate, people would accuse themselves of being accessary to the death of such as fell a sacrifice to the natural small-pox, if, by their neglect the operation had been omitted. They take care to have all under their charge inoculated, when at the most suitable age for taking the disease, esteeming themselves responsible to their children and families, whose preservation they are bound to consult; and to the community of which they are members.

It may be there are some humane persons who have no objection against inoculation themselves, who, nevertheless, think "the apprehension of those, who have never had the disease is a sufficient reason for disallowing the practice of it in others." If this be admitted as satisfactory