Another Cruelty, of which we hope to see no repeated Instance, is that of abandoning those miserable Patients to themselves, without the least Resource or Assistance: a most detestable Custom even in those Times, when there was not the least Hope of saving them; and still more criminal in our Days, when they may be recovered effectually. I do again affirm, that it is not very often these afflicted Patients are disposed to bite; and that even when they are, they are afraid of doing it; and request the Bystanders to keep out of their Reach: So that no Danger is incurred; or where there is any, it may easily be avoided by a few Precautions.
Chapter XIII.
Of the Small-Pocks.
Sect. 202.
he Small-Pocks is the most frequent, the most extensive of all Diseases; since out of a hundred Persons there are not more than [49] four or five exempted from it. It is equally true however, that if it attacks almost every Person, it attacks them but once, so that having escaped through it, they are always secure from [50] it. It must be acknowleged, at the same Time, to be one of the most destructive Diseases; for if in some Years or Seasons, it proves to be of a very mild and gentle Sort, in others it is almost as fatal as the Plague: it being demonstrated, by calculating the Consequences of its most raging, and its gentlest Prevalence, that it kills one seventh of the Number it attacks.
§ 203. People generally take the Small-Pocks in their Infancy, or in their Childhood. It is very seldom known to attack only one Person in one Place: its Invasions being very generally epidemical, and seizing a large Proportion of those who have not suffered it. It commonly ceases at the End of some Weeks, or of some Months, and rarely ever appears again in the same Place, until four, five or six Years after.
§ 204. This Malady often gives some Intimation of its Approach, three or four Days before the Appearance of the Fever, by a little Dejection; less Vivacity and Gaiety than usual; a great Propensity to sweat; less Appetite; a slight Alteration of the Countenance, and a kind of pale livid Colour about the Eyes: Notwithstanding which, in Children of a lax and phlegmatic Constitution, I have known a moderate Agitation of their Blood, (before their Shivering approached) give them a [51] Vivacity, Gaiety, and a rosy Improvement of their Complexion, beyond what Nature had given them.
Certain short Vicissitudes of Heat or Coldness succeed the former introductory Appearances, and at length a considerable Shivering, of the Duration of one, two, three or four Hours: This is succeeded by violent Heat, accompanied with Pains of the Head, Loins, Vomiting, or at least with a frequent Propensity to vomit.