Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/552

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. DEC. 3, 1904.


sang it in Dublin. The words are evidently altered from Burns's poem " Here 's a health to them that's awa'," to suit English ears. I subjoin the later poem :

HURRAH ! FOR THE BONNETS or BLUE. Here 's a health to them that 's awa', Here 's a health to them that 's awa' ; And wha winna M'ish good luck to our cause, May never good luck be their fa'. It 's good to be merry and wise, It 's good to be honest and true, It's good to support Caledonia's cause, And bide by the bonnets of blue. Hurrah for the bonnets of blue ! Hurrah for the bonnets of blue ! It 's good to support Caledonia's cause, And bide by the bonnets of blue.

Here 's a health to them that 's awa',

Here 's a health to them that 's awa' :

Here's a health to Charlie, the chief of the clan,

Although that his band be sma'.

Here 's freedom to those that can read,

Here 's freedom to those that can write,

There 's none ever fear'd that the truth should be

heard

But they whom the truth would indict. Hurrah, &c.

The buff and the blue mentioned in Burns's poem were the colours of the Whig party in those days. S. J. ALDRICH.

I heard the song frequently about the year 1830. I cannot write music, but I can sing the tune after a fashion. There was a fellow song, with words :

March, march, Sandy Mac-something, The blue bonnets are over the Border.

H. H. D.

VACCINATION AND INOCULATION (10 th S. ii. 27, 132, 216, 313, 394). That smallpox inocu- lation is now a penal offence neither extin- guishes Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's claim to gratitude for its introduction nor throws discredit on the medical profession of the time for advocating its adoption. Inoculation was admittedly better than allowing small- pox to ravage unchecked, though happily we know a more excellent way. I therefore can see nothing remarkable or inappropriate in the inscription quoted at the last reference. W. R. B. PRIDEAUX.

Royal College of Physicians.

MR. HENRY SMYTH, who quotes the inscrip- tion in Lichfield Cathedral commemorating the introduction of inoculation in the eighteenth century into England by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, seems to see a want of congruity between this inscription and the fact that inoculation has been for some years prohibited by law. As this confusion of ideas is not an uncommon one, and as it is frequently suggested by opponents of vacci-


nation as an argument (quantum valeat} against vaccination, perhaps you will allow me to endeavour to remove MR. SMYTH'S- misconception.

That inoculation, as practised by Suttoa and some other professional inoculators, was- a great improvement on the state of things- prior to the introduction of the practice by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, cannot be- doubted by any one who will take the trouble to examine the evidence on the subject which is to be found in the 1 Final 1 .Report of the Royal Commission on Vaccina- tion. So far as the individual who came under its influence was concerned, its effect was wholly beneficial. It gave him an almost lifelong protection against smallpox at the cost of an illness which was rarely fatal and was often trivial in its character, and there can be little doubt that had vaccination not been introduced by Jenner or by some one else with an equally ingenious mind, we should still be inoculating at the present day ; but we should do so under totally different conditions from those under which it was practised in the eighteenth century and for some time even in the nineteenth. The patients to be inoculated would be removed to an isolation hospital for the purpose, where they could undergo the ordeal under conditions which would prevent the infection from being distributed broad- cast throughout society, as it was before vaccination was established by law. Thus, although inoculation was wholly beneficial to the individual, it was gravely prejudicial to the community, and that is why, when the State undertook to provide gratuitous vacci- nation for the public, as it did by the first Vaccination Act in 1840, inoculation was prohibited under a penalty. But this is no- reason why the benevolence of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in introducing inoculation should not have been recognized by Mrs. Inge in 1789, or why the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield should feel any compunction about allowing the memorial to remain in 1904. FRANCIS T. BOND, M.D.,

Hon. Sec. Jenner Society.

Gloucester.

PENNY WARES WANTED (10 th S. ii. 369, 415). Penny roll. An example of the use of this word before 1848 occurs in Dr. Benjamin Franklin's letter ' On the Price of Corn, and Management of the Poor.' It is said to have been written to the Morning Chronicle in 1766 above the signature of Arator ; but this statement I have no means of verifying. The example is taken from vol. ii. p. 22 of 'Essays