J. Z. Holwell

“ The Eastern Practitioners, with great modesty, arraign the European practice of Phlebotomy and Cathartics in any stage of the disease, but more particularly when designed to prevent, or mitigate the second fever; alledging, that the first weakens the natural powers, and that the latter counteracts the regular course of nature, which in this disease invariably tends to throw out the offending cause upon the skin ”

“ On these periodical returns (to four of which I have been a witness) the disease proves universally of the most malignant confluent kind, from which few either of the natives or Europeans escaped, that took the distemper in the natural way, commonly dying on the first, second, or third day of the eruption; and yet, Inoculation in the East, has natural fears and superstitious prejudices to encounter, as well as in the West. The usual resource of the Europeans is to fly from the settlements, and retire into the country before the return of the Small Pox season. ”

“ It is no uncommon thing to inoculate with matter four or five years old, but they generally prefer that of a year old, conceiving that the fermentation which constitutes its superiority over fresh matter, is yearly lessened, and consequently the essential spirit of action weakened, after the first year.
The next article of the Eastern practice, which offers in the course of our discussion, is their sluicing their patients over head and ears, morning and evening, with cold water, until the fever comes on ”

“ In some, this fever is attended with a full, equal, undisturbed pulse, but obviously greatly oppressed; in others, with a low and depressed one, but equal and undisturbed also, and yet both required the same treatment. New comers in the profession, have been often fatally misled by the full pulse, which they thought indicated the loss of blood; they followed the suggestion, the pulse suddenly fell, and when that happens from this cause, the art of man can never raise it again, the patient dies on the fifth or seventh day ”

“ The inhabitants of Bengall, knowing the usual time when the Inoculating Bramins annually return, observe strictly the regimen enjoined, whether they determine to be inoculated or not; this preparation consists only in abstaining for a month from fish, milk, and ghee, (a kind of butter made generally of buffalo's milk;) the prohibition of fish respects only the native 15Portuguese and Mahomedans, who abound in every Province of the Empire. ”

“ The remarkable superior efficacy of this Eastern method of cold bathing, can only be accounted for, from the shock being infinitely greater, and of longer continuance, than that received by immersion; which is a fact indisputable, as will be acknowledged by every one who goes through a course of both methods; the severity of the one being nothing comparable to the other: this I assert from my own personal feelings ”

“ A day or two before the seizure, the patient finds his appetite fall off, feels an unaccountable lassitude, and failure in the natural moisture of the mouth, is low spirited without any apparent cause, and cannot sleep as usual; but having no acute complaint whatsoever, nor preternatural heat, that should indicate a fever, he attributes the whole to the heat of the season, is satisfied with fasting and confinement to his house, or goes abroad amongst his friends to "shake it off," as the common phrase is ”

“ If the foregoing Essay on the Eastern mode of treating the Small Pox, throws 40any new and beneficial lights upon this cruel and destructive disease, or leads to support and confirm the present successful and happy method of Inoculation, in such wise as to introduce, into regular and universal practice, the cool regimen and free admission of Air, (the contrary having proved the bane of millions,) I shall, in either case, think the small time and trouble bestowed in putting these facts together most amply recompensed. ”

“ It is no uncommon thing for them to ask the Parents how many Pocks they chuse their Children should have: Vanity, we should think, urged a question on a matter seemingly so uncertain in the issue; but true it is, that they hardly ever exceed, or are deficient, in the number required. ”

“ They are ordered to open all the pustules with a fine sharp pointed thorn, as soon as they begin to change their colour, and whilst the matter continues in a fluid state. Confinement to the house is absolutely forbid, and the inoculated are ordered to be exposed to every air that blows; and the 19utmost indulgence they are allowed when the fever comes on, is to be laid on a mat at the door; but, in fact, the eruptive fever is generally so inconsiderable and trifling, as very seldom to require this indulgence. ”

“ When the Bramins begin to Inoculate, they pass from house to house and operate at the door, refusing to inoculate any who have not, on a strict scrutiny, duly observed the preparatory course enjoined them. ”

“ Such is the genuine putrid nervous fever of Bengall, which never gave way properly to any treatment but that of blisters applied 14universally, supported by the strongest alexipharmics: sometimes I have seen the crisis (by unskilful management) spun out to the twenty-first day, but it has been ever imperfect, and the patient is harrassed with intermittents or diarrhœas, and commonly dies in the beginning of the cold season ”

“ That they adhere more closely, and in greater numbers, to glutinous, fat, and oily substances, by which they are in a manner taken prisoners; that fish, milk, and ghee, have these qualities in a more eminent and dangerous degree, and attach the animalculæ, and convey them in greater quantities into the blood ”

“ We yearly see, in a greater or lesser degree, the baneful effects of these insects in blights, although at their first seizure of a plant they are invisible, even with the assistance of the best glasses ”

“ Helena, man or woman, that was seized with this distemper in the natural way (when resident in Bengall,) who escaped with life; altho' it is a known fact the disease never yet got footing upon that Island. Clearly to account for this, is not an easy matter; I will venture, however, a few conjectures on the occasion. These people rarely migrate from the Island before they arrive at years of maturity ”

“ But to form a judgment of the propriety of this Eastern practice with more precision, it will be best to analyze it, from the period of the enjoined preparation, to the end of the process; as thereby an opportunity presents itself of displaying the principles on which the Bramins act, and by which 22they justify their singular method of practice. ”

“ They inoculate indifferently on any part, but if left to their choice, they prefer the outside of the arm, mid-way between the wrist and the elbow, for the males; and the same between the elbow and the shoulder for the females. ”

“ That these animalculæ touch and adhere to every thing, in greater or lesser proportions, according to the nature of the surfaces which they encounter; that they 26pass and repass in and out of the bodies of all animals in the act of respiration, without injury to themselves, or the bodies they pass through ”