g beyond all the rest in audacity, had the
impudence to offer stock for sale in an enterprise "which shall be
revealed hereafter." He found the public so gullible and so greedy
that he sold 2000 pounds worth of the new stock in the course of a
single morning. He then prudently disappeard with the cash, and the
unfortunate investors found that where he went with their money was
not among the things to "be revealed hereafter."

The narrow passage leading to the London stock exchange was crowded
all day long with struggling fortune hunters, both men and women.
Suddenly, when the excitement was at its height, the bubble burst, as
Law's scheme in France had a little earlier.

Great numbers of people were hopelessly ruined, and the cry for
vengeance was as loud as the bids for stock had once been. One
prominent government official who had helped to blow the bubble was
sent to the Tower. Another committed suicide rather than face a
parliamentary committee of investigation, one of whose members had
suggested that it would be an excellent plan to sew the South Sea
directors up in sacks and throw them into the Thames.

537. How a Terrible Disease was conquered, 1721, 1796.

But among the new things which the people were to try in that century
was one which led to most beneficient results. For many generations
the great scourge of Europe was the smallpox. Often the disease was
as violent as the plague (S474), and carried off nearly as many
victims. Medical art, seemed powerless to deal with it, and even in
years of ordinary health in England about one person out of ten died
of this loathsome pestilence. In the early part of George I's reign,
Lady Mary Montagu, then traveling to Turkey, wrote that the Turks were
in the habit of inoculating their children for the disease, which
rendered it much milder and less fatal, and that she was about to try
the experiment on her own son.

Later, Lady Montagu returned to England, and through her influence and
example the practice was introduced there, 1721. It was tried first
on five criminals in Newgate who had been sentenced to the gallows,
but were promised their freedom if they would consent to the
operation. As it proved a complete success, the Princess of Wales,
with the King's consent, caused it to be tried on her daughter, with
equally good results.

The medical profession, however, generally refused to sanction the
practice, and the clergy in many cases preached against