of the month of
February 1798, which were occasionally washed by the servant men of
the farm, Thomas Virgoe, William Wherret, and William Haynes, who in
consequence became affected with sores in their hands, followed by
inflamed lymphatic glands in the arms and axillae, shiverings
succeeded by heat, lassitude and general pains in the limbs. A single
paroxysm terminated the disease; for within twenty-four hours they
were free from general indisposition, nothing remaining but the sores
on their hands. Haynes and Virgoe, who had gone through the Small-pox
from inoculation, described their feelings as very similar to those
which affected them on sickening with that malady. Wherret never had
had the Small-pox. Haynes was daily employed as one of the milkers at
the farm, and the disease began to shew itself among the cows about
ten days after he first assisted in washing the mare's heels. Their
nipples became sore in the usual way, with blueish pustules; but as
remedies were early applied they did not ulcerate to any extent.
[Footnote 1: From the sore on the hand of Sarah Nelmes.--See the
preceding case and the plate.]
_CASE XVIII._
JOHN BAKER, a child of five years old, was inoculated March 16, 1798,
with matter taken from a pustule on the hand of Thomas Virgoe, one of
the servants who had been infected from the mare's heels. He became
ill on the 6th day with symptoms similar to those excited by Cow-pox
matter. On the 8th day he was free from indisposition.
There was some variation in the appearance of the pustule on the arm.
Although it somewhat resembled a Small-pox pustule, yet its
similitude was not so conspicuous as when excited by matter from the
nipple of the cow, or when the matter has passed from thence through
the medium of the human subject.--(See Plate, No. 2.)
[Illustration]
This experiment was made to ascertain the progress and subsequent
effects of the disease when thus propagated. We have seen that the
virus from the horse, when it proves infectious to the human subject
is not to be relied upon as rendering the system secure from
variolous infection, but that the matter produced by it upon the
nipple of the cow is perfectly so. Whether its passing from the horse
through the human constitution, as in the present instance, will
produce a similar effect, remains to be decided. This would now have
been effected, but the boy was rendered unfit for inoculation from
having felt the effects of
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