INOCULATION, in a physical sense, is used for the transplantation of disempers from one subject to another, particularly for the engraftment of the smallpox; which, though of ancient use in the eastern countries, is but a modern practice among us, at least under the direction of art.
It is well observed by the baron Dimdale, that accident hath furnished the art of medicine with many valuable hints, and some of its greatest improvements have been received from the hands of ignorance and barbarism. This truth is remarkably exemplified in the practice of inoculation of the smallpox: but to the honour of the British physicians, they measured not the value of this practice by the meanness of its origin, but by its real importance and utility; they patronised a barbarous discovery with no less zeal and affection than if it had been their own. Indeed the whole nation might be said to have adopted the practice; for the greatest encouraged it by becoming examples, and the wisest were determined by the general event of the method.
The time and place in which the art of inoculating for the smallpox was first formed, are equally unknown. Accident probably gave rise to it. Pylarini says, that among the Turks it was not attended to except amongst the meaner sort. Dr Russel informs us in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. lviii. p. 142. that no mention is made of it by any of the ancient Arabian medical writers that are known in Europe; and the physicians who are natives in and about Arabia assert, that nothing is to be found regarding it in any of those of a more modern date. He farther says, that he engaged some of his learned Turkish friends to make inquiry; but they did not discover any thing on this subject of inoculation either in the writings of physicians, historians, or poets. Until the beginning of the 18th century, all the accounts we have of inoculating the smallpox are merely traditional. The silence on this subject, observed amongst writers in the countries where the practice obtained, Dr Russel supposes, with great probability, to be owing to the physicians there never countenancing or engaging in it. It is also remarkable, that before Pylarini's letter to the Royal Society in 1701, nor yet for several years after, this practice is not noticed by any of the most inquisitive travellers. On this Dr Russel very justly observes, that customs, the most common in distant countries, are often the least apt to attract the observation of travellers, who, engaged in other pursuits, must be indebted to accident for the knowledge of such things as the natives seldom talk of, upon the belief that they are known to all the world.
The first accounts we have in the learned world concerning inoculation, are from two Italian physicians, viz. Pylarini and Timoni, whose letters on the subject may be seen in the Phil. Trans. abridged, vol. v. p. 370, &c. The first is dated A. D. 1701; the next is dated A. D. 1713. Whether our inquiries are extended abroad or confined to our own country, inoculation hath been practised under one mode or other time immemorial; in Great Britain and its adjacent isles we have well authenticated accounts, extending farther backward than any from the continent. Dr Williams of Haverfordwest, who wrote upon inoculation in 1725, proves, that it had been practised in Wales, though in a form somewhat different, time out of mind. Mr Wright, a surgeon
surgeon in the same place, says, that buying the smallpox is both a common practice, and of long standing in that neighbourhood. He says, that in Pembrokeshire there are two large villages near the harbour of Milford, more famous for this custom than any other, viz. St. Ithmael's and Marloes. The old inhabitants of these villages say, that it hath been a common practice; and that one William Allen of St. Ithmael's, who in 1722 was 90 years of age, declared to some persons of good sense and integrity, that this practice was used all his time; that he well remembered his mother telling him, that it was a common practice all her time, and that she got the smallpox that way; so that at least we go back 160 years or more.
In the Highlands of Scotland and some of the adjacent isles, Dr. Alexander Monro senior informs us, that the custom through ages past hath been, to put their children to bed with those who laboured under a favourable smallpox, and to tie worsted threads about their children's wrists, after having drawn them through various pustules.
According to the result of Dr. Russell's inquiries, the Arabians assert, that the inoculation of the smallpox has been the common custom of their ancestors, and that they have no doubt of its being as ancient as the disease itself. It is remarkable, that buying the smallpox is the name universally applied in all countries to the method of procuring the disease: it is true that there are other terms; but in Wales and Arabia, as well as many other countries, this is the usual appellation. From the sameness of the name, and the little diversity observable in the manner of performing the operation, it is probable that the practice of inoculation in these countries was originally derived from the same source. From its extensive spread, it is probably of great antiquity too.
In the year 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, wife of the English ambassador at Constantinople, had her son inoculated there at the age of six years; he had but few pustules, and soon recovered. In April 1721, inoculation was successfully tried on seven condemned criminals in London, by permission of his majesty. In 1722, Lady Mary Wortley Montague had a daughter of six years old inoculated in this island; soon after which, the children of the royal family that had not had the smallpox were inoculated with success; then followed some of the nobility, and the practice soon prevailed. And here we date the commencement of inoculation under the direction of art.
From the example of the royal family in England, the practice was adopted in Germany, particularly in Hanover, and its adjacent countries.
After Mr. Maitland had succeeded with those he had inoculated in and about London, he introduced the practice into Scotland in the year 1726.
Sweden soon followed the example of the British. Russia lately engaged one of our principal promoters and improvers of this art. And now there are not many countries that do not more or less practise it.