Another thoughtless, but most useful race of men, are well entitled to our best endeavours for the preservation of their healths and lives: I mean, sailors and sea-faring men, of our own and other countries; it is well known that our shores, on both sides of the river, are continually crouded with these, during their stay in this country.
Many of them have not had the Small Pox, and their mode of living is the reverse of due preparation; if Inoculation should be practised in the houses of the poor, it cannot be doubted that many of these would catch this distemper?
Is it possible to reflect without horror on the situation of such of those unhappy fellows, who should fall ill of the Small Pox in the miserable lodgings they usually inhabit, perhaps without a friend to take the least care of them? or of the still more calamitous state of others, who being infected on shore should fall sick at sea, where neither medicine nor proper attendance can be had, and carry likewise with them in their unwashed cloaths, the fatal distemper into distant climates?
I have been informed, that a child who had received the infection was taken on board an East Indiaman many years ago. The disease was violent; the linen, &c. were put into a box, and carried to the Cape of Good Hope: it was sent on shore; the Small Pox immediately broke out in the place, and carried off vast numbers of the inhabitants.
In the foregoing pages, some of the objections to partial Inoculations of the poor in this city have been stated; but the possibility of extending the practice to any good purpose, even if those objections were removed, has not been taken notice of: to elucidate this point, which is certainly a material one, the following remarks are submitted to consideration.
The number of those who died of the Small Pox in each of the last four years, on an average is 2544. To suppose that one dies out of every six who have the natural distemper, will be allowed a moderate estimate: it follows then, that the number of those who have passed through the disease in each of the last four years will be 15,264. It will be impossible to determine how many may remain uninfected; but if we suppose that every year one out of eight who have not had the disease is seized with it, the remaining number who have not had the Small Pox will be 122,112; and it must be taken into account, that the annual recruits by births will probably be about 20,000, besides others that are continually arriving out of the country to seek employment.
To form a scheme, however beneficial to a few, that would probably spread the disease, and involve so great a number of others in a danger that they would otherwise be much less exposed to, is an object of great moment; and most certainly the Legislature ought first to be consulted.
Great liberty may be taken in our free state; but we ought not to endanger the public safety, because no legal provision is made against it.