the desire of preventing the diffusion of febrile infection.

We may however confidently congratulate our countrymen on an evident and important diminution in the prevalence of contagious fever, having been produced in the metropolis, during the last six years; and tho it would be injustice not to consider the Fever Institution, as having been instrumental in producing those beneficial effects, yet there are other favourable causes, which call for our serious and grateful consideration. The removal of the infected patient in the first stage of the disorder, the purifying of his habitation, and his restoration to health and to the comforts of an healthy dwelling, must have produced considerable effects among the poor: and the cleansing systematically and effectually some of the most infected parts of the metropolis, from whence the House of Recovery had previously experienced a regular influx of fever patients, a measure which was adopted and executed six years ago, may be reasonably supposed to

VOL. V.

Q

have potently operated in securing the metropolis from febrile contagion.

Besides this, the instruction which the poor have received by benefits thus conferred on them, the printed directions that have been generally circulated as to the treatment of fever patients, and also as to the separation of them from other families, and from the other branches of their own family, and the

cleansing and purifying of their dwellings, furniture and clothes, where the contagion of fever may have existed,-these, and the charitable co-operation of benevolent individuals in various parts of the metropolis, must all have contributed to the diminution of febrile infection.

There are however, I repeat, other causes, upon which the serious mind will meditate with devotion and gratitude;-a succession of healthy and kindly seasons, and of rich and abundant harvests,--and THE FAVOUR OF HEAVEN, mercifully bestowed on a nation, unworthy indeed of the blessings it enjoys,

yet, I trust, daily improving in religious and moral feelings and habits. Cold, indeed, and insensible must those creatures be, who are not moved and affected by the contemplation of these awful events,-from which, while the fairest parts of Europe have been desolated and laid waste, our own happy Island has been hitherto miraculously preserved.

15th October, 1807.

No. CXXXVIII.

Extract from an Account of Vaccine Inocula→ tion in the neighbourhood of Buckingham, By the Rev. J. T. A. REED.

In March 1800, having previously informed myself of the safety and efficacy of the cowpock, I began to inoculate my two parishes, Leckhamstead and Akeley, near Buckingham. I was induced to do this at that particular time, because the Grand Junction Canal was in its progress to my immediate neighbourhood; which, like every other great work employing vast bodies of men from distant quarters, would probably introduce the smallpox. It was my wish, that the labourers of these parishes should have the benefit of the high wages given on such occasions, without being exposed to the danger of that dreadful pestilence.

Having been in the habit of administering

medicines to the poor, my offer to inoculate them was very generally accepted; and especially, as most of these people are employed in milking. The common answer of such persons to my proposals was, "we all "know that nobody ever died of the Cowpock, and we all know that nobody ever "had the Small-pox after it; but what an "odd thing it is, that any body should think "of inoculating with it."

I had no intention of proceeding in this practice beyond my own parishes; but I was soon applied to by a Clergyman, to whom I have been more than twenty years, Curate, to inoculate at Green's Norton, near Towcester, the Small-pox having broke out in two families. I readily consented, on condition that he would prepare the minds of the people, to whom I was but little known. In this he met with opposition; and in the result, about 500 persons were inoculated with the Small-pox, and 28 by me, with the Cow-pock.