NATURAL HISTORY.

lFaVourabIe opinion of an operation which they lee (o often performed with fuceefs, they have got the bet- ter of other fcrnples, and join in the practice with their neighbours.

l have leveral times converted on this {abject with the mufti here, as alfo with (one of the rabbis; but the thtology of both was too abltrule for me: their arguments, f0 far as I was able to comprehend them, feemed to be no lels cogent againlt all chirurgical operations, which were attended with any de- gree of danger to life, than againll inoculation.

In the different countries above- mentioned, inoculation is perform- ed nearly in the fame manner. The Arabs afiirmed, that the punc- ttures might be made indiiierently in any fiefhy part: thole I have had occalion to examine, have all (a very few excepted) had the marl: between the thumb and the fore~ finger.

Some of the Georgians had been inoculated in the fame part, but molt ofthem on the fore-arm. Of the Armenians Tome had been ino- culated in both thighs; but the greatelt part (like the Arabs) bore the marks upon the hand. Some of the Georgian women remembered, that rags of a red colour where chu- fen in preference for the binding up the arm, acircumllance o: which I have been able to dil-cover no trace among the Arabs.

Buying the (mall-pox is likewile the name univerlally applied to the method of procuring the difealie. There are, it is true, other terms made ufe of, both in the Arabic and Turkilh languages; and at this place it is principally known to the Chrillians by the name of ino- culation.

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From the famenefs of the name, as well as from the little diverfity obfervable in the manner of per- forming the operation, it is pro- bable the practice of inoculation in t-hele countries was originally de- rived lrom the Lime lource: and tra: it is or conliderable antiquity, can hardly b; doubted, if we confi- der the large extent of country over which it is round to ha-efpread, and the cbllacles it mull lime met with in a progrelis through various nations, of which lome are fepa- rated by polity as well as rtligion, while others, peculiarly tenacious of their own cutloms, are little difpoll ed to admit thofe of llrangers.

That no mention is made ofino- culation by Rhazes, Avicenna, or any other 0F the ancient Arabian medical writers known in Europe, is, I believe, in general fuppofed; and I am allitred by the native phylicians here, that nothing is to be found regarding it, in any ofa more modern date. Some learned Turkilh friends" here, lL-me time ago, were prevailed on, at my re- quelt, t0 make etiquiry, but have not hitherto been able to ditcover any thing concerning inoculation; although they learched not only the medical writers, but all}: the hilloriatis, and totne of the poets.

It appears from accounts cumntu- nicated t0 the Royal Society, in the year 1723. by Doctor Whiliattis and h/lr. Wright, that inoculation had been known in certain pats of Wales lo far back as the lalt cen- tury; and it is remarkable, that it there bore the fame name, by which it is molt generally known to the Arabs. I think it has alfo been dif- covered to be an ancient practice among the vulgar in different parts

of the continent. G 3 If