e made rapid progress notwithstanding the
opposition of the medical profession, and the ignorance and credulity
of the public. The clergy vituperated her for the impiety of seeking to
control the designs of Providence. Preaching in 1722, the Rev. Edward
Massey, for example, affirmed that Job's distemper was confluent
small-pox, and that he had been inoculated by the Devil. Lady Montagu,
however, gained many supporters among the higher classes. In 1721 Mead
was requested by the Prince of Wales to superintend the inoculation of
some condemned criminals, the Prince intending afterward to continue
the practice in his own family; the experiment was entirely successful,
and the individuals on whom it was made afterward received their
liberty (Adams).

According to Rohe, inoculation was introduced into this country in 1721
by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of Boston, who had his attention directed to
the practice by Cotton Mather, the eminent divine. During 1721 and
1722 286 persons were inoculated by Boylston and others in
Massachusetts, and six died. These fatal results rendered the practice
unpopular, and at one time the inoculation hospital in Boston was
closed by order of the Legislature. Toward the end of the century an
inoculating hospital was again opened in that city.

Early in the eighteenth century inoculation was extensively practiced
by Dr. Adam Thomson of Maryland, who was instrumental in spreading a
knowledge of the practice throughout the Middle States.

Despite inoculation, as we have already seen, during the eighteenth
century the mortality from small-pox increased. The disadvantage of
inoculation was that the person inoculated was affected with a mild
form of small-pox, which however, was contagious, and led to a virulent
form in uninoculated persons. As universal inoculation was manifestly
impracticable, any half-way measure was decidedly disadvantageous, and
it was not until vaccination from cow-pox was instituted that the first
decided check on the ravages of small-pox was made.

Vaccination was almost solely due to the persistent efforts of Dr.
Edward Jenner, a pupil of the celebrated John Hunter, born May 17, 1749.

In his comments on the life of Edward Jenner, Adams, in "The Healing
Art," has graphically described his first efforts to institute
vaccination, as follows: "To the ravages of small-pox, and the
possibility of finding some preventive Jenner had long given his
attention. It is likely enough tha