strained in their diet, undisturbed in their joys; the people would be drawn in by an operation either chargeable nor confining; all would be glad to enjoy the benefits of inoculation without its risks, and to spread it new fashioned all over the continent:
That eloquence of heart, which never fails to please, and seldom to convince, gave our professor great advantages over his rivals. In defiance of vulgar opinion and physical authority, he attempted to change an operose process into a mere amusement. Dr. Tronchin had had his short, his brilliant day, and Dr. Hosty, instructed in London, inoculated with care, and slowly made some converts. Italian was more prevailing than either. Every body would be inoculated by Gatti; and while he himself declared that any nurse could do well as he, the public imagined nothing well done without him.
This uncommon success soon excited envy. Those, whose trade he obstructed, became enemies. Rumours were propagated, and scruples were infused. To some it was said that he gave not the small-pox; to others, that his patients would carry it every where. The churches and play-houses were now no longer safe, whispered the delicate Abbe; and the still more insinuating doctor, shrugging his shoulders at the toilet, exclaimed against public infatuation.
Perhaps this might have been avoided, if Dr. Gatti had been more reserved, and obser-
