The Present Method of Inoculating for the Small-Pox: To which are added, some experiments, instituted with a view to discover the effects of a similar treatment in the natural small-poxDimsdale, Thomas
History
The Present Method of Inoculating for the Small-Pox: To which are added, some experiments, instituted with a view to discover the effects of a similar treatment in the natural small-pox
Dimsdale, Thomas
Smallpox -- Vaccination -- Early works to 1800
I neither enjoin this, nor maintain that it is necessary; but have
not been able to observe that any inconvenience has arisen from it.
And, how strange soever it may appear, it is true, that those who
are most adventurous, seem to be in better spirits, and more free
from complaints, than others who are inclined to keep within-doors.
And indeed, such of my patients as have received the benefit of this
treatment themselves, seldom permit those who are in the hardest
part of the distemper, the eruptive, to keep much in the house; but
encourage them to bear a little hardship, by recounting to them the
benefit they have reaped from the method they are recommending.
Those who have the disease in the slightest manner first described,
viz. without any appearance of eruption but on the inoculated part, are
soon allowed to go about their usual affairs; and many instances have
happened of very industrious poor men, who have instantly returned to
their daily labour, with a caution not to intermix with those who have
not had the distemper, for fear of spreading it; and with directions
to take two or three times of the purge already directed, or as many
doses of Glauber’s salts. Those who have it in a greater degree, are
confined somewhat longer; and a very mild laxative is now-and-then
exhibited, if there is the least disposition to costiveness; as the
progress to maturation appears rather to be advanced than retarded by
the operation.
When the maturation is completed, and it is evident we have nothing
further to fear from the distemper, I allow my patients gradually
to change their course of diet, from the perfectly cooling kind, to
one a little more generous; recommending strictly to all a return to
their ordinary animal diet with much caution and restraint upon their
appetites, both in respect to food and fermented liquors.
It is not often that we are under a necessity of making any application
to the part where the operation was performed; it most commonly heals
up, and is covered with a scab, about the time when, in a natural way,
all the pocks would have been dried up: but there are some cases
wherein the incisions continue to discharge a purulent matter longer;
in these instances it is sufficient to cover the place with the white
cerate, or any other mild emplastic substance, which may at once
prevent the linen from adhering to the sore, and defend it from the
air. And as in these cases the part remains unhealed from some peculiar
cause in the habit, it will be necessary to give gentle purgatives, and
proper alteratives, as particular exigencies may require.
OF ANOMALOUS SYMPTOMS AND APPEARANCES.
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