A Translation of Two Treatises written when theAuthor was at Petersburg, and published there, byCommand of her Imperial Majesty, in the RussianLanguage.
One, for the general Inoculation of the Poor in small Townsand Villages.
The other, for the general Inoculation of the Poor in London,and other large and populous Places.
To preserve the lives and healthof the inferior part of mankindhas been an objectcarefully attended to in all civilizedand well regulated states, not onlyfrom motives of compassion, butbecause it has been plainly demonstratedthat it is the interest of thewealthy in every nation to encouragepopulation, and provide for the wantsof the poor.
One would indeed, on the firstthought presume, that the unavoidablenecessities of the indigent wouldbe voluntarily relieved out of theabundance of their opulent neighbours;but the number of laws thathave been made for the provision ofthe poor, are proofs of the futilityof this expectation, and the necessityof compulsion.
Among the many objects thathave been provided for, it seemsmatter of astonishment that no onehas ever pointed out the Small Poxas a distemper, whose destructiveconsequences might be in great measureprevented by the interposition ofLegislature, and the assistance thatwould be certainly afforded fromprivate charity.
It is now above fifty years sinceInoculation was introduced into thiscountry, and like other new institutionswas then opposed; but atpresent, though it may be impossibleto define the numbers that are yearlyinoculated, it is certain that most ofthe wealthy approve and avail themselvesof the practice: yet we viewthe Bills of Mortality with unconcern,though they demonstrate thatthe number of deaths from this diseaseis considerably increased; andw