_Dr. Dimsdale._ It seems to be of no consequence, whether infecting matter be taken from the natural, or inoculated small-pox. I have used both, and never have been able to discover the least difference, either in point of certainty of infection, the progress, or the event; and, therefore, I take the infection from either, as opportunity offers, or at the option of my patients or their friends. _Couns. for the Pris._ Did you ever inoculate with the lymph taken before the crisis of the distemper? _Dr. Dimsdale._ I have taken a little clear fluid from the elevated pellicle on the incised part, even so early as the fourth day after the operation; and have at other times used matter fully digested after the crisis, with equal success. I chuse, however, in general, to take matter for infection during the fever of eruption, as I suppose it at that time to have it’s utmost activity. _Couns. for the Pris._ What medicines do you prescribe after communicating the infection? _Dr. Dimsdale._ On the second day, in the evening, I usually give a pill, composed of calomel and compound powder of crabs claws, each three grains, with one-tenth of a grain of emetic tartar. This I also repeat on the first appearance of the eruptive symptoms, in case they seem to indicate any uncommon degree of vehemence; and the next morning I order a dose of purging physic. _Couns. for the Pris._ Do you confine your patients to their beds during the eruptive fever? _Dr. Dimsdale._ By no means: on the contrary, as soon as the symptoms of the eruptive fever come on, they are directed, when the purging medicines have operated, to keep abroad in the open air, be it ever so cold, as much as they can bear, and to drink cold water, if thirsty; always taking care not to stand still, but to walk about moderately while abroad. _Couns. for the Pris._ Is this your constant practice? _Dr. Dimsdale._ It’s effects are so salutary, and so constantly confirmed by experience, and an easy progress through every stage of the disease depends so much upon it, that I admit of no exception. _Couns. for the Pris._ Now, Doctor Dimsdale, give me leave to ask you, whether you are possessed of any medicine by which you can repel a number of pustules, when they appear too numerous, leaving only such a quantity as the patient shall desire? _Dr. Dimsdale._ I am, indeed, possessed of no such medicine. Sometimes the whole surface of the skin is covered with a rash, intimately mixed with the variolous eruption. This rash has been often mistaken for the confluence it so much resembles, and has afforded occasion for some practitioners, either ignorantly or disingenuously, to pretend, that after a very copious eruption of the confluent pox, they can, by a specific medicine, discharge the major part of the pustules, leaving only as many distinct ones as may satisfy the patient that he has the disease.