Page:New observations on inoculation - Angelo Gatti.djvu/106

92 diseases put together, we find that about eighty are destroyed by the small-pox; a twelfth part and half of the whole number of deaths. Sometimes the proportion is higher, as in the last year 1767: it then amounted to a tenth part, and about one third. In the year 1752, which is the highest comparative number I find, it amounted to a fifth, and somewhat more than a half. Whatever art can do, therefore, to avert this destruction, to prevent a cruel death to many, and deformity to more, is of high importance. This, I flatter myself, inoculation, when practised more generally than even in England at present, particularly in the country, under proper political, as well as medical regulations, will in a great measure do; and of this the most essential parts seem to be, the insertion of ichorous variolous matter by small puncture; a well regulated vegetable diet before, and during the whole process of inoculation; and the avoiding of heated rooms and heated