We are indebted to Mr. Sutton for the mode of communicating it by a slight puncture with the point of a lancet, or needle, dipt in fresh matter. As it is difficult sometimes to procure matter in a fresh state, I have been led to use it with equal success by preserving it on lint in a box, and moistening it with cold water just before I used it. Matter may be kept in this way for a month, without losing its infectious quality, provided it be not exposed to heat or moisture. The former destroys its power of infecting as certainly as the salt of tartar destroys the acidity of vinegar. Moisture, by remaining long upon the matter, probably destroys its virulence, by subjecting it to fermentation. The longer matter has been kept in a general way, the longer the distance will be between the time of communicating the disease, and the eruptive fever. It will be proper always to yield to the prejudices of our patients in favour of matter taken from persons who have but few pustules. But I am persuaded from repeated observations, that the disease is no ways influenced by this circumstance. I am satisfied likewise that there is no difference between the effects of the matter, whether it be taken in its watery and purulent state. The puncture should not be larger than is sufficient to draw one drop of blood, but it should always be made by a _sharp_ lancet, for the sudden inflammation and suppuration, excited by a dull lancet, sometimes throw off the matter, so as to prevent its infecting the body[59]. No plaster or bandage should be applied over the puncture. It should be made in the left arm of all subjects. The objections to inoculating in the leg are too obvious to be mentioned. I have heard of the disease being communicated by rubbing the dry skin with the matter. My own observations upon this subject, give me reason to suspect the facts that are contained in books relative to this mode of infecting the body. I have bound large pieces of lint dipt in fresh matter for twenty-four hours upon the arm, without producing the disease. A practitioner of physic in New-Jersey informed me, that he once gave a considerable quantity of fresh variolous matter in a dose of physic, without infecting his patient. I suspect the matter that produces the disease is of the same nature with certain poisons, which require to be brought in contact with a wound or sore in the body, before they produce their effects. I deliver this opinion with diffidence. The subject stands in need of more experiments and investigation. [59] I am disposed to believe that the external applications which are used by the Indians for the cure of the bite of poisonous snakes act only by exciting inflammation and suppuration, which discharge the poison from the wound before it is absorbed. All their external remedies are of a _stimulating_ nature.