singly at the upper end of a long table, at which
about twelve of the nobility were guests. The entertainment consisted
of a variety of excellent dishes, served up after the French manner,
and was concluded by a dessert of the finest fruits and sweetmeats,
such as I little expected to find in that northern climate. Most of
these luxuries were, however, the produce of the empress's own
dominions. Pineapples, indeed, are chiefly imported from England,
though those of the growth of Russia, of which we had one that day,
are of good flavor but generally small. Water-melons and grapes are
brought from Astrachan; great plenty of melons from Moscow; and apples
and pears from the Ukraine.

"But what most enlivened the whole entertainment, was the unaffected
ease and affability of the empress herself. Each of her guests had a
share of her attention and politeness. The conversation was kept up
with freedom and cheerfulness to be expected rather from persons of
the same rank, than from subjects admitted to the honor of their
sovereign's company."

The empress after conversing with Dr. Dimsdale, decided to introduce
the practice of small-pox inoculation[20] into Russia, and heroically
resolved that the experiment should first be tried upon herself. Dr.
Dimsdale, oppressed by the immense responsibility thus thrown upon
him, for though the disease, thus introduced, was generally mild, in
not a few cases it proved fatal, requested the assistance of the court
physicians.

[Footnote 20: Vaccination, or inoculation with the cow-pox, was not
introduced to Europe until many years after this. The celebrated
treatise of Jenner, entitled _An inquiry into the causes and effects
of Variolae Vaccinae_, was published in 1798.]

"It is not necessary," the empress replied; "you come well
recommended. The conversation I have had increases my confidence in
you. It is impossible that my physicians should have much skill in
this operation. My life is my own, and with the utmost cheerfulness I
entrust myself to your care. I wish to be inoculated as soon as you
judge it convenient, and desire to have it kept a secret."

The anxious physician begged that the experiment might first be tried
by inoculating some of her own sex and age, and, as near as possible,
of her own constitutional habits. The empress replied,

"The practice is not novel, and no doubt remains of its general
success. It is, therefore, not necessary that there should be any
delay