In the course of a late inoculation I observed an appearance
which it may be proper here to relate. The punctured part on a
boy's arm (who was inoculated with fresh limpid virus) on the
sixth day, instead of shewing a beginning vesicle, which is usual
in the cow-pox at that period, was encrusted over with a rugged,
amber-coloured scab. The scab continued to spread and increase in
thickness for some days, when, at its edges, a vesicated ring
appeared, and the disease went through its ordinary course, the
boy having had soreness in the axilla and some slight
indisposition. With the fluid matter taken from his arm five
persons were inoculated. In one it took no effect. In another it
produced a perfect pustule without any deviation from the common
appearance; but in the other three the progress of the
inflammation was exactly similar to the instance which afforded
the virus for their inoculation; there was a creeping scab of a
loose texture, and subsequently the formation of limpid fluid at
its edges. As these people were all employed in laborious
exercises, it is possible that these anomalous appearances might
owe their origin to the friction of the clothes on the newly
inflamed part of the arm. I have not yet had an opportunity of
exposing them to the smallpox.
In the early part of this inquiry I felt far more anxious
respecting the inflammation of the inoculated arm than at
present; yet that this affection will go on to a greater extent
than could be wished is a circumstance sometimes to be expected.
As this can be checked, or even entirely subdued, by very simple
means, I see no reason why the patient should feel an uneasy hour
because an application may not be absolutely necessary. About the
tenth or eleventh day, if the pustule has proceeded regularly,
the appearance of the arm will almost to a certainty indicate
whether this is to be expected or not. Should it happen, nothing
more need be done than to apply a single drop of the aqua
lythargyri acetati [Footnote: Extract of Saturn.] upon the
pustule, and, having suffered it to remain two or three minutes,
to cover the efflorescence surrounding the pustule with a piece
of linen dipped in the aqua lythargyri compos. [Footnote: Goulard
water. For further information on this subject see the first
Treatise on the Var. Vac., Dr. Marshall's letters, etc.] The
former may be repeated twice or thrice during the day, the latter
as often as it may feel agreeable to the patient.
When the scab is prematurely rubbed off (a circumstance not
unfrequent among children and working people), the application of
a little aqua lythargyri acet. to the part immediately coagulates
the surface, which supplies its place, and prevents a sore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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