tinct marks of the disease, though the mother had very few eruptions." I have fince feen inftances, in a general inoculation of a village near Hertford, in which two women with child were inoculated, and each had a plentiful eruption of fmall-pox: three or four years afterwards I inoculated the chil dren, and both had the difeafe with a tolerable number of puftules. I will just add, that although of many pregnant women that I have inoculated, not one mifcarried during the difcafe; yet I have known mifcarriages to happen in a fhort time after their recovery: I therefore think it unadvifeable to inoculate women in that state, unless the neceffity of the cafe requires it.

To the third chapter concerning infection, it feems not improper to add, that the method I now generally ufe in performing the inoculation, as believing it to be the beft, is fimply this: The point of a lancet flightly dipped in the recent variolous matter, which I prefer taking during the eruptive fever, is introduced obliquely between the cuticula and cutis, fo as to make the smallest puncture poffible, rarely producing a drop of blood. The finger is then gently preffed on the lancet while introduced, which being turned, is withdrawn.

The precaution of turning the lancet is, that the matter may be more certainly wiped off and inferted. This operation is free from pain.

This mode of practice I formerly did not entirely approve of, but from further experience, I find it the best, and it always fucceeds when properly conducted.

I formerly made it a point to inoculate with fluid matter, as has been described; but it being hardly poffible at all times to find patients in a proper state, and fome perfons objecting to this intercourfe, from an apprehenfion of danger, I have for a confiderable time found the following method equally fuccefsful. A lancet well infected, or matter placed, when in a fluid state, on a plate of glass or gold, and afterwards fuffered to dry, is held over the steam of boiling water, or a fmall quantity of water, barely fufficient for dilution, is added to it, and the matter, thus moistened or diluted, is used for the purpose of inoculation; as I know of no difference as to the fuccefs, where there is an opportunity of advising with a patient, I confent to the choice of either method.

In the next chapter, on the progrefs of infection, extensive experience has abundantly convinced me, that at the commencement of the eruptive state, when a high degree of fever, and other alarming symptoms threaten a large or unfavourable eruption, the, going out in the fresh cool air, and taking evacuants, are abfolutely ne ceffary, and productive of the happieft effects.

But the fame treatment is not required where the complaints are moderate, and the conftitution of the patient is delicate. I have therefore, in fuch cafes, relaxed confiderably in this particular, and it is now my practice with fuch patients, to difpenfe with thefe injunctions.

The eruption being completed, and the complaints much abated, or entirely removed, a strict ad. herence

herence to the very cold regimen is by no means requifite, but on fome occafions may be attended with danger. Where the eruption is abundant (which, whatever may be affected by fome practitioners, will fometimes happen, notwithftanding every precaution is ufed) I recommend confinement to the chamber, that the eafe of the patient, which is now become a neceffary object, may be fully con fulted. For though the puftules may be quite diftinct, and without any apparent danger, yet as each of thefe is like a little boil, all taken together muft neceffarily occafion much uneafinefs and pain, especially when the patient is in motion.

Under these circumftances, the room should be kept moderately cool, of fuch a temperature as to be agreeably warm to thofe who are fitting in it; for the fudden tranfition from a warm close room, to a cool airy one, may prove very dangerous to the patient, and is therefore not to be used, but with great difcretion, as will evidently appear from the following inftance.

I was defired to vifit a woman who had a good fort of natural fmall-pox, though very full. Through the exceffive officioufnefs of those about her, who had feen the good effects, in fome cafes, of expofing the fick to the cold air, fhe was, near the time of maturation, forced out of bed, dreffed, and removed into a cool room.— Here the fainted away, the puftules all funk, and the feemed expiring; but by being immediately put into bed, and taking fome cordial medicines, the puftules rofe again, and the foon be

came better. It must, however, be acknowledged, that her life was expofed to the most imminent danger. Extremes therefore fhould: be cautiously avoided.

I have also been called on to vifit other patients, ill of the natural fmall-pox, who from a prevailing idea that the cold regimen was proper in every stage of the difeafe, have evidently been expofed to danger, by having been injudicioufly carried out at the time the puftules were far advanced in maturation; and I have even known this improper treatment practifed in the middle of winter.

If the quantity of puftules be large; if the fever, after the eruption, remains in any confiderable degree, and the fkin feels ftretched and painful, but more especially if the throat be fore, fo as to render fwallowing very difficult (which in a few inftances has happened), in such cases I apply a blifter plaister upon the very place of the arm where the incifion was made. For in fuch cafes it frequently happens that the inoculated part is the principal feat of pain, occafioned by a clufter of confluent puftules formed about the incifion, which feems to point out the propriety of diminifhing the tenfion and inflammation of the part, and discharging the acrid variolous matter, as it were from the fountain, whence the whole mifchief had its fource. The blifter plaitter I use is about the fize of an English crown-piece, and confifts of

This is fpread pretty thick on a foft linen rag, whofe edges are covered with fome sticking plaifter, in order the better to fix the blifter plaister on the part.

Let it be gently preffed till it fticks a little, putting a fmall piece of lint between it and the inoculated puftule, and fuffer it to remain on about twelve hours. It will almoft infallibly produce both speedy and confiderable relief.

The blifter plaifter being removed, the part is to be dreffed with a little Unguent. Bafilic. flav. on a pledget of lint, and the whole covered with a little cerate epulotic of the fame difpenfatory, fpread on a foft linen cloth; and this cerate, I think, is always preferable to any other application that has been, or is now in common ufe for dreffing blifter plaifters.

I do not know that any perfon has ever practifed this method of applying blifter plaifters on the inoculated parts, except myfelf, and those who have received this information from me: but its effects are fo fpeedy and falutary, as to render it worthy of general ufe on fuch occafions. It likewife gives much less trouble than the application of large blifter plaifters, upon other parts of the body, which are not only more painful, but lefs efficacious. It is indeed attended with fo little uneafinefs, that even children feldom complain of it.

It may perhaps be imagined, that from this application the fore may afterwards become troublefome to the patient; but experience is against this fuppofition; for when I have inoculated in

both arms, and bliftered only one, the bliftered incifion has moft com. monly healed fooner than the other.

Under this head I have alfo to add, that in fome cases, particularly of young children, it happens that the inoculated part, even early in the difeafe, infames confiderably, fo as to occafion great reftleffefs and fever, although the puftules on other parts are very few, and of a good kind; in this ftate I apply a common cataplafm of bread and milk to the part, which, with certainty, gives relief.

Some refpectable practitioners having expreffed their fatisfaction with that part of the chapter of anomalous fymptoms, &c. where the eryfipelatous rafh that had fometimes been mistaken for a confluent fmall-pox, was fhewn to be inoffenfive; I am encouraged to mention another complaint that has feveral times diftreffed me greatly, and I make no doubt has alfo occurred to others in the courfe of their practice, with what I esteem to be the cause, and best manner of treating it.

Sometimes a patient who has paffed through the eruptive fe ver, in the ufual manner, with moderate fynptoms, and been relieved from every complaint by the eruption of a few puftules, has, after all apprehenfions of fu ture illness ceased, been unexpectedly attacked with a smart, and even alarming degree of fever, accompanied with great reftleffnefs, and very frequently in children with uncommon fits of crying. Not being able to account for this complaint from any circumstances belonging to this

difeafe,

disease, I for a time attributed it to fome unknown cause, independent of the fmall-pox; but obferving that feizures of the fame kind happened in feveral inftances, my attention was excited to invefti gate its true caufe, which I am now convinced originates from puftules fituated on the internal part of the mouth, or on the membranous parts of the nose or œfophagus. I have always treated this complaint fuccefsfully, by moderate cordials, fufficient to produce a flight perfpiration, by which means, the whole difturbance has generally been over in twenty-four hours, and no further inconvenience has been fuffered from it; this arifes from the abatement of the tenfion; for it is obferved, that the puftules on thofe parts, which are conflantly hot and moist, come to maturity much earlier than those on the skin.

In the last paragraph of the chapter, on the confequences of this method of inoculation, it is obferved, that "I firmly believe no one has ever had, or can have, the diftemper a fecond time, either in the natural way, or from inoculation." Although I am fupported in this opinion by the most eminent Englith phyficians, yet I have found many perfons in Ruffia, who affirm, they have had the small-pox twice, fome even thrice. This however does not induce me to change my opinion, as it is probable, nay, more than probable, that those who have been entrusted with the

care of perfons under eruptive diforders, have been themfelves deceived, as to the nature and quality of fuch eruptions.

It is not my intention to dispute this point at prefent; if however we fuppofe fome to have had the natural fmall-pox twice, this circumftance, inftead of making againft inoculation, is an argument in its favour, as I can with the utmost truth declare, that of the very great number of thote I have inoculated (feverai of whom have paffed through the disease in a very light manner), I never heard that a fingle perfon has had, or even been fufpected to have had, the fmall-pox a fecond time. The inoculated therefore feem to be more secure than those who have had the disease naturally. That inftances have happened, though not in my own practice, where inoculated perfons have afterwards taken the natural fmall-pox, I have heard, and believe; but so far as I have been able to difcover by my enquiries, it has conftantly happened that the operator has been deceived; indeed, there was much greater ambiguity and hazard of its failing in the former method, by large incifions and the ufe of plaifters, than in the profent practice, where the whole progress of infection is fo plain, that an experienced practitioner can hardly be miftaken. This, added to the certainty of infecting, are ftrong recommendations of the prefent practice.

Hiftory and Antiquities of the Fortreffes and Caftles in the Ifle of Wight. From Sir Richard Worfley's Hiftory of that Ifland.

OF

F the fortreffes on this ifland, the caftle of Carifbrooke claims the first notice; not only from its antiquity, but because all lands were held of the lord, as of the caftle of Carifbrooke, by the fervice of defending it against an enemy, whence it was called the Honour of Carisbrooke. It appears by Domefday-book to have been built by William FitzOfborne, Earl of Hereford, and the first lord of the island, foon after the Norman conqueft, and moft probably at the fame time that he founded the Priory. The land on which the caftle ftands was part of the Manor of Aving

ton.

This caftle stands on a fmall hill about a mile fouth-west of the town of Newport, and overlooking the village of Carifbrooke; the walls of the original fortrefs include about an acre and an half of ground, and are nearly in fi

gure a rectangular parallelogram, having the angles rounded*. The greatest length is from east to weft. The old caftle is furrounded by a more modern fortification, faced with ftone, of an irregular pentagonal form defended by five baftions; these out-works, which are in circuit about three quarters of a mile, and encompaffed by a deep ditch, circumfcribe in the whole about twenty acres; they were added in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and are faid to have been conftructed on the fame plan as those of Antwerp †. On a fmall projecting ftone, on the north-eaft corner, is carved the date one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight. The entrance is on the weft fide in the curtain, between two bastions, through a fmall stone gateway; on the arch of which is the date one thou fand five hundred and ninetyeight, with the initial letters E. R.

This gate leads to a fecond, of much greater antiquity, machi colated and flanked by two large round towers. It is fuppofed to