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A propos of
distempers, I am going to tell you a thing, that will make you wish
yourself here. The small-pox, so fatal, and so general amongst us,
is here entirely harmless, by the invention of engrafting, which
is the term they give it. There is a set of old women, who make
it their business to perform the operation, every autumn, in the
month of September, when the great heat is abated. People send to
one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the
small-pox; they make parties for this purpose, and when they are
met (commonly fifteen or sixteen together) the old woman comes with
a nut-shell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox, and
asks what vein you please to have opened. She immediately rips open
that you offer to her, with a large needle (which gives you no more
pain than a common scratch) and puts into the vein as much matter
as can lie upon the head of her needle , and after that, binds up
the little wound with a hollow bit of shell, and in this manner
opens four or five veins. The Grecians have commonly the superstition
of opening one in the middle of the forehead, one in each arm, and
one on the breast, to mark the sign of the Cross; but this has a
very ill effect, all these wounds leaving little scars, and is not
done by those that are not superstitious, who chuse to have them
in the legs, or that part of the arm that is concealed. The children
or young patients play together all the rest of the day, and are
in perfect health to the eighth. Then the fever begins to seize
them, and they keep their beds two days, very seldom three. They
have very rarely above twenty or thirty in their faces, which never
mark, and in eight days time they are as well as before their illness.
Where they are wounded, there remains running sores during the distemper,
which I don't doubt is a great relief to it. Every year, thousands
undergo this operation, and the French Ambassador says pleasantly,
that they take the small-pox here by way of diversion, as they take
the waters in other countries. There is no example of any one that
has died in it, and you may believe I am well satisfied of the safety
of this experiment, since I intend to try it on my dear little son.
I am patriot enough to take the pains to bring this useful invention
into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some
of our doctors very particularly about it, if I knew any one of
them that I thought had virtue enough to destroy such a considerable
branch of their revenue, for the good of mankind. But that distemper
is too beneficial to them, not to expose to all their resentment,
the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it. Perhaps
if I live to return, I may, however, have courage to war with them.
Upon this occasion, admire the heroism in the heart of
Your friend,
etc. etc.
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