CASE V.--Mrs. H---, a respectable gentlewoman of this town, had
the cow-pox when very young. She received the infection in rather
an uncommon manner: it was given by means of her handling some of
the same utensils [Footnote: When the cow-pox has prevailed in
the dairy, it has often been communicated to those who have not
milked the cows, by the handle of the milk pail.] which were in
use among the servants of the family, who had the disease from
milking infected cows. Her hands had many of the cow-pox sores
upon them, and they were communicated to her nose, which became
inflamed and very much swollen. Soon after this event Mrs. H----
was exposed to the contagion of the smallpox, where it was
scarcely possible for her to have escaped, had she been
susceptible of it, as she regularly attended a relative who had
the disease in so violent a degree that it proved fatal to him.
In the year 1778 the smallpox prevailed very much at Berkeley,
and Mrs. H----, not feeling perfectly satisfied respecting her
safety (no indisposition having followed her exposure to the
smallpox), I inoculated her with active variolous matter. The
same appearance followed as in the preceding cases--an
efflorescence on the arm without any effect on the constitution.
CASE VI.--It is a fact so well known among our dairy farmers that
those who have had the smallpox either escape the cow-pox or are
disposed to have it slightly, that as soon as the complaint shews
itself among the cattle, assistants are procured, if possible,
who are thus rendered less susceptible of it, otherwise the
business of the farm could scarcely go forward.
In the month of May, 1796, the cow-pox broke out at Mr. Baker's,
a farmer who lives near this place. The disease was communicated
by means of a cow which was purchased in an infected state at a
neighbouring fair, and not one of the farmer's cows (consisting
of thirty) which were at that time milked escaped the contagion.
The family consisted of a man servant, two dairymaids, and a
servant boy, who, with the farmer himself, were twice a day
employed in milking the cattle. The whole of this family, except
Sarah Wynne, one of the dairymaids, had gone through the
smallpox. The consequence was that the farmer and the servant boy
escaped the infection of the cow-pox entirely, and the servant
man and one of the maid servants had each of them nothing more
then a sore on one of their fingers, which produced no disorder
in the system. But the other dairymaid, Sarah Wynne, who never
had the smallpox, did not escape in so easy a manner. She caught
the complaint from the cows, and was affected with the symptoms
described on page 154 in so violent a degree that she was
confined to her bed, and rendered incapable for several days of
pursuing her ordinary vocations in the farm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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