Page:An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ - 1798.djvu/87

 Its rise in this country may not have been of very remote date, as the practice of milking cows might formerly have been in the hands of women only; which I believe its the case now in some other dairy countries, and, consequently that the cows might not in former times have been exposed to the contagious matter brought by the men servants from the heels of horses. Indeed a knowledge of the source of the infection is new in the minds of most of the farmers in this neighbourhood, but it has at length produced good consequences; and it seems probable from the precautions they are now disposed to adopt, that the appearance