Page:New observations on inoculation - Angelo Gatti.djvu/69

Rh Let this method, I say, and mine be tried upon two different patients, and I will warrant the success of this double experiment to be such, that the latter will be thought preferable, even to the natural small-pox; and we shall shudder to think how much the ills that nature sends us may be aggravated by mismanagement, a worse evil than those which it pretends to cure.

Although the observance of the above rules may alone suffice to render the inoculated small-pox always mild and absolutely safe, yet I will not omit mentioning two helps, which art might afford to concur to the same end.

The first is the use of antispasmodics, the efficacy of which has been experienced by the ablest practitioners, and I may say by myself. I have constantly found their effect to be easy, without any bad consequence. I observed that they might safely be given in larger doses in this distemper than in any other, or even in health; and their effect afforded me a farther demonstration, that the nerves are of all the organs the most affected in the small-pox. But these remedies must only be used in the first period, and not after the eruption.

The second expedient is new, and I only propose it as a hint deserving of farther experiments. Rh