The Sun.
London, England, 1807-10-03 00:00:00

It is not 'to ba Wonderedlst; that,,labouritiguritVa•
80 grievous a pestilenCe, tnankiticVsdhoold eagerly:
embrace• the opportunity of miqatiogits Cary by
Inoculation ; but, notwithstanding slit?' sarguine.
hope. 4 and -expetqations.which this practice excited,
and notwithstanding its apparent'good cafe 61 in ante-
iiorating what it could urn eradicate,:experience has:
prove+ that it has in reality rat her increased t ban
diminished the evil Although it is indisputably.
true, that the number of individuals_ whe'-fierish by
Small-pox, wan, a certain number infeaed, is less,
than before the adoptiOn of the remedy, yet it is also
true, that theaggregate vionter destroyed is greater,
since a greater number is infe6ted ; and, paradoxi,
cal as this may'at first sight appear, the reason is
simple anertalutal. While the Small-pox wit a more•
fatal in appearance, cainion was '-alive, and wheh-
ever the disorder appeared, it carried such terrors
with it, that communication was cut off as much at
was praeticable, and every house where its b.:tneft'il
effths were visible, was shunned as a pest-house..
,
Jr was natural to fly from a piagne' that 'carried Of
one-third or tare-fourth of those it attacked. Whee,
however, by the introdation of inecialation, and an
iMproved, Mode of treat rent, the diSease hAt4iened
to be fatal to one only in I SO, it gradually -became.
disree,arded ; the horror which before Attached to it-
vanislied-sinee the torteeredmeretence did not np-
patently ensuel and the spreading of the infeStioa,
was no longer attempied• 3o be prevented. I ,taly
Mary Wortley 'Montagu; in one of her lefters,-
remark's, " Every year thousands undergo this ope
. ration; and the French Ambassador says,' pleasant-•
.Iy, that they take the. Small-pox fiere.hy way of di-
• version, as they take the. waters in othereountries."
'Contagion, in consemienee; spread widely around,
And numbers, either vohmtarily or involuntarily;
underwent the disorder, and lost their five , who,'
but ,for the sitepostd efficacy -the react j -would
have continuall:y and sedulously avoided its -etlMs. 1
To 'this purpose. Dr. Carpe, of 'York, .sneakos
Thd very Means thiit SM.! the lives of many who
have this disease; it icrease .the number of those Who
receive it; .past it is now annually fatal to a-areater
number of persons than before the improvement in
Ape treatment of it ; tied theinelease of, deaths is.;
nut merely. in proportion to the inerewi=e' of popola-
• lion. Free admission to the ripn air, thoughlreess.;
. sary for the sick; 'exposes those who- haVe not had
-the disease, not 'nerdy to the Chane!e, hut almost to
tad.c.erttriety of taking the. intetitiiin. , Very few of
the inliabitanta of this Islatid'-noW..escapeAt
(4, .11-/ed.• ..tournal, 433.)
'Die fad is sunstainiated evidelifTs Dr. Lett- •
soar delivered. hi to Alie Committee Of the House of
Commons (Hepart, p. 85, 147.) a statement from
the yearly biker Mortality..by Which it -appears,.
that in,42years, oetween 16A0'ited 1722., the ate•
rage number of deaths, occasioned by the Small-pox,'
was,lo the Whole number whoatied, as 72 to 1000;
but that in 42 years after ineculdtion was in full Use,'
viz; from 1730 tn-17751, the proportion was no leis.,
than 89 in 'lOOO, being ern increase. of nearly pne—
fourth.-
' Dr. Blattc also mentioned '(R/art,- p. 12,). a 01.=
call inn of Dr. Heberden; making the numbers who
died. of it, in the last •thirty years of the late cen-
tury, 95 in 10.00 ; while in the brat thirty years the.
pr.,portiori was only 70 in 1000. Dr. Blanc adds,
that this is, perhaps, much more strongly eXempli-
fied in• the country than in' London.; for there were
certain districts into which the Small-pox, previously
to- the introdualion of inoculation; Was nnktioWn
for 20,-30, or '4O years; so that greatnumbers passed
through life without ever having it ; but now, from
the reasons enumerated, and from the extended
-communication between' the most distant parts of
the kingdom, an adult who has not undergene'flie
Sniall-pose is hardly to be found.
Dr. Blanc stated in evidence before • the Cores;
mittee (ibid.), that the deaths from small-poX were,
on an average, nearly oni-tenth of the -whole mor-
tality ; and that it appears by .the bills of iniittality.
about 2600 die annually of it in London. Bet :the
number must in.fad Medi greater, as these• bills
do not compreheod.the whole of .the metropolis.—
One parish, not included in them, viz. Mary-le-
bone, contains itself mist less-than 63000
Paneras, another parish, is tiro ittelnded, 'and
in these twOara the Small-pox and,Foendling Hos-
pitals; it is estimated, therefore,
_that .the whole
number not reckoned is 117,802. (fieport, p.
&c.)--eln addition to which may be mentioned that
6000 or 7000 persons are: annually interred in- she
burying-grounds,cif the dissenters; so,. that at least,
oue-seventh of the deaths. is excluded- front the bills.
(Ibid. Ring; p. 605.) ,The total number the,,
.United„Kingdom, according to Dr. lilane's calculas
tion, Would.belibout 34,260;. but he confesses that
he thinks this: is under the truth. It is supposed
that' the real number is nut less than 45,000.—(4
Medical Journal,
.p.:430.)
Dr. Cappe observes, (4 Medical Journal, p. 342.)
that the annual number of burials' •for ten. years,
ending in 1742, in . Pancras. and Mary. lei•hope,
were 1041. But :he Conceives, that great as the
number.of deaths has been itt London 7 it is much
exceeded in the country for,it appears that ' one-
fourth (or even one-third) of the deaths in ••London
is of 'Strangers, who do not settle in the, metropolis
till the.age of 18 or 20, and have,.therefore, proba-
bly gone through the Small-pox. :So-likewise many
Children, born in London, are inoculated in the
country: He alSo says„ it appears by the London
bills'of mortality, that for7s years, ~ending io the
year 17.77, more than 2000 leave, been. swept off by
ale Small-pox annually., The total arnonnt in that
_period. was 151070.—(4 Medical .Journal,, p.. 432.)
Supposine—the population within the. Bills to be
,140(10,000 the proportion of derithi Item Small-pox
Js one out of every 600 inhabitantsi and, as he con-.
c4isaa, not. tetra through the whole,island. The in-
- habitants, of .-Manchester, .Liverpool, and Chester,
were enumerated, in the year 1773, at 78,271,
~.and
-the annual-deaths 'from Small-pax, on- an. average,
.381; so, hat person died of it every yearentfpf
.It-appears that when !the-number, of .births, in
Isanden.was, on an average, about 16,291,the nuns-
-her _of titose,who.died a the Small-pox, was about
test L4,' aelhat. there were: tuio deaths by thisditsease
' atone;Lfor4very *hirteenlirths. In Liverpool: the

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