Page:The New Method of Inoculating for the Small-Pox - Benjamin Rush.djvu/19

 A slight inflammation appears about it, and a pock rises up in the centre. But this remark is liable to some objections. I have seen four instances in which the fever came on at the expected time, and the disorder went through all its stages with the greatest regularity, and yet there was no sign of an inflammation or pock near the spot where the puncture was made: even the puncture itself became invisible. On the other hand, we sometimes see an inflammation and pock on the arm appear on the eighth and ninth days without any fever accompanying them. Some physicians pretend that this inflammation and solitary pock are sufficient to constitute the disease; but repeated experience has taught me to be very cautious in relying upon these equivocal marks. It is true, I have sometimes seen patients secured against the small-pox both in the natural way and by inoculation where these marks have appeared; but I have as often seen such patients seized afterwards with the small-pox in the natural way, to the great distress of families and mortification of physicians. Upon this account I make it a constant practice to advise a second or third inoculation where a fever and eruption have been wanting. As the absence of these symptoms is probably occasioned by the weakness or age of the variolous matter, or the too high state of preparation of the