Page:New observations on inoculation - Angelo Gatti.djvu/79

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CONCLUSION.
65

Inoculation never will become universal, unless it has that simplicity, that ease, and above all, that safety, which it can acquire by no method than ours; Methinks the advocates for the practice should have been aware that, till it is quite safe, it can never become general; and all computations to shew that a lesser risk ought to be incurred rather than a greater, will be found of little weight with the multitude. Mankind will always be more affected by a present danger, though exceedingly small, than by a much greater one, if remote, and in some degree uncertain.

But if inoculation can be brought to be absolutely safe, and the disorder to be constantly mild, and only an indisposition, the practice will be cleared of all the imputations it has lain under, and must become universal.

As truth finally triumphs over error, I am in hopes that the method, which I have been re commending, will one day be the general and settled one; and it will then be matter of wonder how it came to be so long unknown, or neglected, when known.

The time will come when health will not be impaired, under pretence of preparing one that is already well; when sores will no longer be made at the place of insertion, to give a vent to the variolous matter; and when the disorder will not be made worse by the usual helps in-

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tended