When seasons, however, are marked with any peculiar epidemics, of such a kind especially as may render a mild disease more untractable, it may perhaps be most prudent not to inoculate while such diseases are prevalent. An eminent physician of my acquaintance in London, at that time in considerable business, informed me that in the year 1756 the small-pox were very rife, in the summer of that year especially. That in most of them the throat was so much affected, that about the seventh day from the eruption, when they ought to have taken liquors in abundance, they could not swallow a drop. The ptyalism was in the mean time copious; and the kind being for the most part confluent, they died on the tenth or eleventh day; and those who sunk under this distemper (who were by much the majority) all suffered from this cause. This instance is only given to shew the necessity of regarding the general state of epidemics when we go into this operation; and to excite those who are friends to this most beneficial discovery, to use every means in their power to provide against a single instance of ill success. Of the PREPARATION. In directing the preparatory regimen, I principally aim at these points: to reduce the patient, if in high health, to a low and more secure state; to strengthen the constitution, if too low; to correct what appears vitiated, and to clear the stomach and bowels, as much as may be, from all crudities and their effects. With this view, I order such of my patients as constitute the first class, and who are by much the majority, to live in the following manner: to abstain from all animal food, including broths, also butter and cheese, and from all fermented liquors, excepting small beer which is allowed sparingly, and from all spices, and whatever possesses a manifest heating quality. The diet is to consist of pudding, gruel, sago, milk, rice-milk, fruit-pies, greens, roots, and vegetables of all the kinds in season, prepared or raw. Eggs, though not to be eaten alone, are allowed in puddings, and butter in pie-crust; the patients are to be careful that they do not eat such a quantity as to overload their stomachs, even of this kind of food. Tea, coffee, or chocolate are permitted for breakfast, to those who choose or are accustomed to them. In this manner they are to proceed about nine or ten days before the operation; during which period, at nearly equal distances, they are directed to take three doses of the following powder, either made into pills, or mixed with a little syrup or jelly, at bed-time; and a dose of Glauber’s salt, dissolved in thin water-gruel, each succeeding morning.