Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/128

100 Persons, who otherwise might never have had the Small-Pox, or that may hereafter die of this Distemper, tho' they had been inoculated, the Proportion of each Side may be brought nearer to an Equality; and then what Advantage can accrue to the People from this novel Practice? And if this be so, what wise and considerate Person would venture upon Inoculation, when there is an equal Chance for his Life, if he lets it alone?

But I have two Things more to offer, that may discourage this Operation in the Judgment of impartial and reflecting Persons, the first is this; It is confidently affirmed, that Inoculation always calls forth a mild and favourable Sort, and by this Means prevents the Patient's falling into the Confluent Kind, which is always dangerous, and often mortal. Let us search into the Reason and Nature of Things, that we may learn how this Event can be accomplished. It is evident that if the operative inoculated Matter makes that a mild and safe Small-Pox, that otherwise might have been of a dangerous Sort; this must be effected by Angling out and separating the gentle and inoffensive Particles from the more noxious and malignant, with which they were combined and complicated, and to employ only the first in the Formation of the Disease; for if at the Time of Inoculation, no such putred Parts did adhere to the mild and friendly Matter, then the Small-Pox, which Way ever it had been produced, whether by