Some pretend, that the Circaſſians borrow'd this Cuſtom anciently from the Arabians; but we ſhall leave the clearing up of this Point of Hiſtory to ſome learned Benedictine, who will not fail to compile a great many Folio's on this Subject, with the ſeveral Proofs or Authorities. All I have to ſay upon it, is, that in the beginning of the Reign of King George the Firſt, the Lady Wortley Mountague, a Woman of as fine a Genius, and endu'd with as great a Strength of Mind, as any of her Sex in the Britiſh Kingdoms, being with her Huſband who was Ambaſſador at the Port, made no ſcruple to communicate the Small-Pox to an Infant of which ſhe was deliver'd in Conſtantinople. The Chaplain repreſented to his Lady, but to no purpoſe, that this was an unchriſtian Operation, and therefore that it cou'd ſucceed with none but Infidels. However, it had the moſt happy Effect upon the Son of the Lady Wortley Mountague, who, at her Return to England, communicated the Experiment to the Princeſs of Wales,
