Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/139

Rh how to manage for the Patient’s Security: And is not the Case the same, if a Physician should carry his willing Friend, or Relation, to catch the Infection from one that has a mild distinct Sort, may he not prepare him by purging, bleeding or vomiting, or how he thinks fit; and does he not know what Disease he must expect, when, the Patient shall begin to complain? Here all Things are on an equal Foot; but the Method I propose has in other Respects many Advantages over that of Inoculation; for it is not only a more decent and elegant Manner of conveying the Contagion from one to another, but it does never delude you by bringing forth an imaginary mock Small-Pox, confiding in Itch-like Appearances, and various Flushings of the Face and Skin, after which the Sufferer, notwithstanding the Operator’s Promise, is still obnoxious to the real Kind; this low and defective Imitation of the Small Pox is an extraordinary Production, not of Nature, but of Art, reserved for the Honour of the Inoculator. Nor is this Way liable to another Objection that I have brought against, this Operation, which is, that the gross and purulent Matter, that is inoculated, may contain in it the Seeds of various other Distempers, for they, being of a minute Size, and small beyond Conception, thousands of them may lodge together with the Principles of the Small Pox; and fore