ence did not disprove that assertion, and convince practitioners in general that no care, no skill, ever did, or ever can, tame that dreadful hydra-the smallpox !

He tells us, "We all know from experience that disease properly treated leaves nothing after it injurious to the constitution." That we do not all know it is certain if Dr. Moseley has been so happy as to discover the secret, I hope his humanity will prompt him to disclose it.

It is well known that the small-pox, whether natural or infititious, is one of the most common causes of scrofula; and my experience leads me to believe, that the absurd custom of giving cathartics after this and other eruptive disorders, by debilitating the habit, augments their tendency to produce that horrid disease.

Dr. Moseley tells us, "he wishes not to discourage inquiry," and admits that " the object well deserves it;" yet, with some degree of inconsistence he adds, that he wishes to guard parents against suffering their children becoming victims to experiment." My wishes are not less ardent than his: he wishes to prevent children from becoming victims to experiment; I wish to prevent them from becoming victims to the small-pox.

Dr. Moseley intended his eccentric remarks, which are introduced rather mal-a-propos in a treatise on sugar, as an antidote for what he calls the cow-mania. He himself seems to labour under the cow-phobia.— He asks, if any person can say, "what may be the

conse

consequences of introducing a bestial humour into the human frame, after a long lapse of years?" I beg leave to ask, in my turn, if any person can say, what may be the consequences, after a long lapse of years, of introducing into the human frame cow's milk, beefsteaks, or a mutton-chop?

I hope medical men will in future be cautious how they prejudice the public mind against a fair trial of a practice, warranted by observation, and recommended by a physician of distinguished abilities, and not spread a serious alarm, where even the vulgar and illiterate, who are generally most averse to all innovations, and of course to all improvement in the prac tice of physic, have not hitherto hinted a suspicion.

Dr. Moseley argues as if the cow-pox were a new disease in the human species; a supposition which it is unnecessary to refute. One of the advantages proposed by Dr. Jenner and Dr. Pearson, from the establishment of the new practice, is, that although the disorder in question is so common, and has long been well known in many parts of the kingdom, it never has been suspected to leave behind it any other disease.

In this memoir Mr. Ring endeavoured to remove those vain alarms which had been excited by the reports of Dr. Woodville and Dr. Pearson, and which had deterred the majority of medical men from adopting the practice. His efforts were not unsuc cessful.

He was the first who represented vaccine inoculation in the favourable light in which it had been represented by Dr. Jenner. He stated, that those who

1802-3

D

were

were inoculated with pure vaccine matter scarcely laboured under the least indisposition, except what arose from the inflamation of the arm.

Having obtained some of the cow-pock matter, so successfully used by Dr. Jenner in his own practice, he inoculated all whom he could prevail on to submit to the operation gratuitously; and invited medical practitioners in general to accept, in a state of purity, what even in an impure state they could not otherwise procure in London, without purchasing it at a high price.

He has since inoculated a far greater number than any other practitioner in London, except Mr. Wachsel, of the Small-pox Hospital, and by disseminating vaccine virus throughout Great Britain and all parts of the world, free of expence, he has had some share in establishing vaccination; and in removing the principal obstacles to the propagation of the practice.

First he supplied gentlemen who belonged to public institutions; particularly the physician of the väcine pock institution. Justly dreading the consequences that would ensue, if contaminated matter should be disseminated at the new place of sale for cowpock matter, he expressed his apprehensions to Dr. Pearson; who availed himself of the offer of genuine matter, and accepted a liberal supply.

He also supplied Dr. Marshall and Dr. Walker with the vaccine virus with which they inoculcated in the Mediterranean; and Mr. Rush, at the request of Dr. Marshall. Mr. Rush, although one of the

surgeons