pox, and several were in the utmost danger of their lives.
In the course of the two last years, upwards of 9000 persons have been inoculated in Essex, without the loss of a single life, or the appearance of any accident.
I have made choice of these two facts, because they lay before us at one view a great number of inoculations. They are recent[1]; and happened in a state where all disputes about the utility of the method itself are at an end and consequently where truth has nothing more to fear from party-spirit[2].
Were we to pass a judgment from these two facts, on the supposition that in both cases the method was the same, and the difference in the success the mere effect of chance, we should be apt to conclude, that what has been said for and against inoculation is equally true. It is a
- ↑ These facts have been related in the English news-papers and a more distinct account of the Essex inoculations will be found in a pamphlet intitled, Inoculation made easy, &c. The notice of the Blandford miscarriages is to be seen in Dr. Baker's excellent Inquiry into the merits of inoculating the small-pox, which is now practised in several counties of England.
- ↑ The translator would by no means for the exact truth of these facts. A foreigner is not obliged to know the motives which in this country too often affect human testimony.
