Dr. Ruston. Certainly not.
Couns. for the Pris. Who were the inventors of this practice?
Dr. Ruston. I cannot answer positively to that question. The great Boerhaave, in his Aphorisms, recommended the experiment of uniting mercury with antimony as an antidote to the variolous virus; but I believe some American physicians were the first who used mercury in preparing for inoculation.
Couns. for the Pris. And with what success?
Dr. Ruston. With very great. Out of the first three thousand inoculated, only five died; and these were all children, who could not be prevailed on to take the medicine.
Couns. for the Pris. I beg, gentlemen of the jury, you will remember this circumstance—All that took the mercurial medicines recovered. Pray, Dr. Ruston, was this new method of preparation long confined to any particular physician, or part of America?
Dr. Ruston. No: the fame of its extraordinary success soon produced a number of inoculators on the new plan; so that in a short time it spread from one end of the continent to the other.
Couns. for the Pris. Did these several inoculators all give precisely the same medicines?
Dr. Ruston. Not precisely.
Couns. for the Pris. In what respect do they differ?