INOCULATION, or Budding, in Gardening. See Horticulture. Inoculation, in a physical sense, is used to indicate the [7:12:283]transplantation of distempers from one subject to another, particularly for the engraftment of the small-pox; a practice which, though of ancient use in eastern countries, is but of modern date amongst us, at least under the direction of art. See Surgery and Vaccination.

The time and place in which the method of inoculating for the small-pox was first used, are equally unknown. Accident probably gave rise to it. Pylarini says, that amongst the Turks it was not attended to, excepting amongst the meaner sort. Dr Russell informs us^[1. Philosophical Transactions, vol. lviii. p. 142. ] that no mention is made of it by any of the ancient Arabian medical writers who are known in Europe; and the native physicians of Arabia assert, that nothing is to be found regarding it in any of those of a more modern date. He further says, that he engaged some of his learned Turkish friends to make inquiry concerning this matter; but they did not discover any thing on the subject of inoculation in the writings of their physicians, historians, or poets. Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, all the accounts we have of inoculating the small-pox are merely traditional. The silence on this subject observed amongst writers in the countries where the practice obtained, Dr Russell supposes, with great probability, to be owing to the circumstance that the physicians there never countenanced or engaged in it. It is also remarkable, that before Pylarini’s letter to the Royal Society in 1701, and for several years afterwards, this practice is not noticed by any of the most inquisitive travellers. On this Dr Russell very justly observes, that customs the most common in distant countries are often the least apt to attract the observation of travellers, who, engaged in other pursuits, are indebted to accident for the knowledge of such things as the natives seldom talk of, from a belief that they are known to all the world.

The first accounts we have concerning inoculation, are from two Italian physicians, Pylarini and Timoni, whose letters on the subject maybe consulted in the Philosophical Transactions abridged (vol. v. p. 370). The first is dated in 1701, the second in 1713. But whether our inquiries extend to countries abroad, or are confined to our own, inoculation, in one mode or other, has been practised from time immemorial; in Great Britain and its adjacent isles we have well authenticated accounts, extending farther backwards than any we have received from the continent. Dr Williams of Haverfordwest, who wrote upon inoculation in 1725, proves that it had been practised in Wales, though in a somewhat different form, time out of mind. Mr Wright, a surgeon in that principality, says, that buying the smallpox is both a common practice, and of long standing, in that neighbourhood. He mentions, that in Pembrokeshire there are two large villages near the harbour of Milford, more famous for this custom than any other, namely, St Ishmael’s and Marloes. The old inhabitants of these villages say, that it has been a common practice; and that one William Allen of St Ishmael’s, who was ninety years of age in 1722, declared to some persons of good sense and integrity, that this practice was used all his time, and that he well remembered his mother telling him that it was a common practice all her time, and that she got the smallpox by inoculation.

Dr Alexander Monro senior informs us, that in the Highlands of Scotland and some of the adjacent isles, the custom through ages had been, to put their children to bed with those who laboured under a favourable small-pox, and to tie worsted threads about their children’s wrists, after having drawn them through variolous pustules.

According to the result of Dr Russell’s inquiries, the Arabians asserted that the inoculation of the small-pox was the common custom of their ancestors, and that they had no doubt of its being as ancient as the disease itself. It is remarkable, that buying the small-pox is the name universally applied in all countries to the method of procuring the disease. It is true that there are other terms; but in Wales and in Arabia, as well as in many other countries, this is the usual appellation. From the identity of the name, and the little diversity observable in the manner of performing the operation, it is probable that the practice of inoculation in these countries was originally derived from the same source. It is also in all probability of great antiquity.

In the year 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, wife of the English ambassador at Constantinople, had her son inoculated there at the age of six years; he had but few pustules, and soon recovered. In April 1721, inoculation was successfully tried upon seven condemned criminals in London, by permission of his Majesty. In 1722, Lady Mary Wortley Montague had a daughter six years old inoculated in this island; soon after which, the children of the royal family who had not had the small-pox were inoculated with success; then followed some of the nobility, and the practice soon became general. And here we date the commencement of inoculation under the direction of art.