With regard to ophthalmies from this kind of practice, I have never had an example of one truly deserving that name; the coats of the eye have been a little inflamed in a very few, but they soon became clear, without any means used for that purpose. And I know but two cases where I thought the inflammation great enough to require bleeding, and not one where a blister was necessary. So that these complaints, heretofore so frequent and grievous, seem by this new method to be much reduced: a circumstance which, if it does not amount to a proof, admits at least of a fair conjecture, that the state of health is better here, than where those remains of putridity are so evidently existing in the habit. Discoveries in physic, as in every other science, are in their infancy liable to censure and opposition; and as the present system of inoculation is of so extraordinary a kind, it would not be strange if a greater portion of both than usual should fall to its share. Accordingly, since no charge of fatality during the disease, nor instances of bad effects soon after the recovery, can be produced, recourse has been had to other measures to calumniate and discredit the practice. It would be tedious to enter into a detail of the many false and ridiculous reports that have been spread against it. In general, the constitution is said to be injured, and the dreadful effects are to appear at some distant period; but at what time, or what kind of disease, nobody pretends to determine. To these general accusations it cannot be expected I should give other than a general answer; which is, that from the strictest observation and inquiry I have been able to make, those who have been inoculated in this way, have continued to enjoy as good a state of health as their neighbours; nay, many of them have thought their constitutions better after the process than before. But it seems as if these opposers expected that inoculation should not only free the inoculated from the small-pox, and any early bad effects, but must preserve them too from all other disorders through the rest of their lives. To such I can say nothing; but if others, who are more reasonable, require further satisfaction as to the consequences of this method, I must desire them to make inquiry of those who have been inoculated under my direction. Another charge against this method of inoculation is, that some have had the distemper afterwards in the natural way. What I have said under the head of anomalous small-pox, will I believe sufficiently account for the appearances which have occasioned these false reports; and if that does not satisfy, I can only add this positive declaration, that nothing of the kind has ever happened to any patient inoculated by me; and I firmly believe, no one has ever had, or can have, the distemper a second time, either in the natural way or from inoculation. The EFFECTS of this TREATMENT applied to the natural SMALL-POX.