Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 146

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189

USA > Ohio > Hancock County > Findlay > Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens > Part 146

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One of these letters was sent to Dr. Boylston and is printed " in a memorial of him by the Reverend Peter T. of Brattle Street Church. It reads as follows:

June 24, 1.

Sir,

You are many ways endeared unto me, but by nothing E than the very much good which a gracious God employs Fx honours you to do to a miserable world.

I design it, as a testimony of my respect and esteen. now lay before you, the most that I know (and all that was published in the world) concerning a matter, which I bare an occasion of its being pretty much talked about. If upon a deliberation, you should think it advisiable to be proceeded : may save many lives that we set a great value on. But, !: not approved of, still you have the pleasure of knowing en what is done in other places.

ra; ou

The gentlemen, my two authors, are not yet informe among the [illegible] 'tis no rare thing for a whole compresi a dozen together to go to a person sick of the small pr! prick his pustules, and inoculate the humour, even no more the back of an hand, and go home and be a little ill, and br fever, and be safe all the rest of their days. Of this I ba- my neighbourhood a competent number of living witnesse.

But see, think, judge; do as the Lord our healer shall & you, and pardon this freedom of, Sir,

Your hearty friend and Servant Co. Mate

Dr. Boylston.

This letter must have had a very decisive effect : Boylston's conduct. He was aware that in virtue of his x. tion his household was especially exposed to contagion. I :: gent, experienced, skilful, encouraged and supported if influential citizen of the town, with the undaunted ce accredited to him by Dr. Douglass, he undertook the es. ment of inoculation on the 26th of June, 1721. He co.l. inoculate himself, apparently for the reason that he ha: - fered from smallpox in 1702, but he was so convinced (. merits of the operation that he inoculated his son Ty" six years of age, and two of his negro slaves, Jack, thir years old, and Jackey, two and one half years old. Af: " to Hutchinson,25 "Inoculation was introduced upon :.

" Massachusetts Magazine, 1789, I, 778.

25 History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1767, II .:

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v masivul uasaru, w the lives of those who promoted it, he rage of the people." Against Dr. Boylston " the vul- re enraged to that degree that his family was hardly his house and he often met with affronts and insults in eets. .... Many sober, pious people were struck with and were of opinion that if any of his patients should ought to be treated as a murderer." I find no confirma- the statement of Thacher " that parties with halters ned to hang him to the nearest tree and that he was to remain secreted for fourteen days in his house in : known only to his wife and that a handgrenade was into a room occupied by his wife and children. He tly states that his wife was out of Boston at the time of it inoculations and makes no mention of any specific offered him either by halters or grenades. As Thacher ledges his obligation to Ward Nicholas Boylston, a ephew of the inoculator, for information and as the vas a youth of seventeen at the time of Dr. Boylston's it is possible he may have obtained from him an account onal experiences which were not recorded at the time. on Mather's diary, however, gives a contemporaneous 'nt of the behavior of the people.

16: G. D. At this time I enjoy an unspeakable Consola- have instructed one Physician in the New Method used Africans and Asiaticks, to prevent and abate the Dangers Small-Pox, and infallibly to save the Lives of those that wisely managed upon them. The Destroyer, being en- t the proposal of any Thing, that may rescue the Lives of r People from him, has taken a strange Possession of ple on this Occasion. They rave, rail, they blaspheme; Ik not only like Ideots but also like Franticks, And not : Physician who began the Experiment but I also am an f their Fury; their furious Obloquies and Invectives. 8: G. D. The cursed Clamour of a People strangely and possessed by the Devil, will probably prevent my saving ; of my Two Children, from the Small-pox in the way of intation.

utcry against the inoculations was such that Dr. Boyls- the need of a public statement which should justify luct, and he makes the following announcement" in se of three weeks after his first experiment :

patiently born with abundance of Clamour and Ralary, ning a new Practice here, (for the Good of the Publick) mes well Recommended from Gentlemen of Figure & and which well agrees to Reason, when try'd & duly 1, viz., Artificially giving the Small-Pocks, by Inocula- One of my Children, and Two of my Slaves. in order to the hazard of Life, which is often indanger'd and lost Distemper in the Common way of Infection: . .. . until Day, my little Son's Fever with the rage of the People, y affrighted me, but I no sooner us'd means, but the ated and the Small-Pocks came out. . . . . And in eks more, I hope to give you some further proof. And ting was new & for fear of erring in doing, I left it Nature, which needed no help in my Negro Man, who

Symptoms abating, caus'd me to hope for the same in the others.

Although twice called to account by those in authority for continuing the practice, he inoculated his son John, thirteen years of age, on the 17th of July, and four days later had seven inoculated patients under his care whom he invited his fellow-physicians to inspect. But one of them, Dr. White, accepted the invitation. It was now that the abusive letter already referred to and signed by W. Philanthropos appeared in the News-Letter as a criticism of Dr. Boylston's communi- cation. It credited Cotton Mather with " a Pious & Charitable design of doing good " but had only contempt for Dr. Boylston. Within a few days a reply appeared " signed by the so-called inoculation-ministers. It reads as follows :

To the Author of the Boston News-Letter.

Sir

It was a grief to us the Subscribers, among Others of your Friends in the Town to see Dr. Boylston treated so unhand- somely in the Letter directed to you last Week, and published in your Paper. He is a Son of the Town whom Heaven (we all know) has adorn'd with Some very peculiar Gifts for the Service of his Country, and hath signally own'd in the successes which he has had.

If Dr. Boylston was too suddenly giving into a new Practice and (as many apprehend) dangerous Experiment, being too confident of the Innocence and Safety of the Method, and of the Benefit which the Publick might reap thereby; Altho' in that Case we are highly obliged to any Learned and Judicious Person who kindly informs us of the hazard and warns against the practice; yet what need is there of injurious Reflections, and any mean detracting from the known worth of the Doctor! Especially how unworthy and unjust (not to say worse) is it to attempt to turn that to his reproach, which has been and is a singular honour to him, and felicity to his Country? We mean those words in the Letter-A Certain Cutter for the Stone -Yes, Thanks be to God we have such a One among us, and that so many poor Miserables have already found the benefit of his gentle and dextrous Hand. We that have stood by and seen his tenderness, courage and skill in that hazardous Operation cannot enough value the Man and give praise to God. And we could easily speak of other Cases of equal hazard wherein the Dr. has serv'd with such Successes as must render him Inesti- mable to them that have been snatch'd from the Jaws of Death by his happy hand.

The Town knows and so does the Country how long and what Success Dr. Boylston has practis'd both in Physick and Surgery; and tho' he has not had the honour and advantage of an Aca- demical Education, and consequently not the Letters of some Physicians in the Town, yet he ought by no means to be call'd Illiterate, ignorant, &c. Would the Town bear that Dr. Cutler or Dr. Davis should be so treated? No more can it endure to see Boylston thus spit at. Nor has it been without considerable Study, expence in travel, a good Genius, diligent Application and much Observation, that he has attained unto that Knowledge and successful practice, which he has to give thanks to GoD for; and wherein we pray GOD that he may improve and grow with all humility.

The meanwhile we heartily wish that Men would treat one another with decency and charity, meekness and humility as becomes fallible creatures, and good Friends to one another and their Country.

As to the Case of Conscience referr'd to the Divines, we shall

, 187.

e, July 10-17, 1721, No. 85.

* Gazette, July 27-31, 1721, No. 88.

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JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL BULLETIN.

only say-What Heathens must they be, to whom this can be a question.

"Whether the trusting more the extra groundless Machina- tions of Men, than our Preserver in the ordinary course of Nature, may be consistent with that Devotion and Subjection we owe to the All-wise Providence of God Almighty."

Who knows not the profanity and impiety of trusting in Men or Means more than in Gon? be it the best learn'd men or the most proper Means? But we will suppose what in fact is true among us at this Day, that Men of Piety and Learning after much Serious tho't have come into an Opinion of the Safety of the saulted method of Inoculating the small pox; and being perswaded it may be a means of preserving a Multitude of lives, they accept it with all thankfulness and joy as the gracious Dis- covery of a Kind Providence to Mankind for that end :- And then we ask, Cannot they give into the method or practice without having their devotion and subjection to the Al-wise Providence of GOD Almighty call'd in question? Must they needs trust more in Men than in their Great Preserver in the use of this means than of any other? What wild kind of Supposition is this? and the Argument falls with the Hypothesis in our Schools.

In a word, Do we not in the use of all means depend on GOD's blessing! and live by that alone? And can't a devout heart de- pend on GoD in the use of this means, with much Gratitude, being in the full esteem of it? For, what hand or art of Man is there in this Operation more than in bleeding, blistering and a Score more things in Medical use? which are all consistent with a humble Trust in our Great preserver, and a due Subjection to His All-wise Providence

Increase Mather. Cotton Mather. Benjamin Colman. Thomas Prince. John Webb. William Cooper.

The above communication somewhat modified to meet with the approval of the other signers was written by the Reverend Benjamin Colman, whose original manuscript has been given to the Boston Medical Library by Dr. F. C. Shattuck. Its his- torical importance is such that Mr. Colman's letter is printed as originally written, at the close of this article.

Dr. Boylston was now a third time called to task " and a meeting of the authorities and the selectmen of Boston was held " July 21, 1721, " In Relation to the operation called Inoculation lately practiced in this Town by Dr. Boylston of this Place."

The sensational feature of this meeting was the testimony of Dr. Dalhonde who asserted that four out of thirteen soldiers inoculated at Cremona had died, Six recovered with "abun- dance of Trouble and Care " and three were unaffected. On opening one of the fatal cases the "Diaphragm was found livid, the Glans of the Pancrease tumify'd and the Caul gan- green'd." He stated that he had treated in Flanders a patient

with smallpox who claimed to have previously been ini. five or six times, and whom he believed was incurahly i after his recovery. Of two Muscovite soldiers inocular- Spain one recovered and the other at the end of six i- " was seiz'd with a Frenzy, swelled all over his Body, his Lungs were found ulcerated, from whence they cop-" that it was the Effect of that Corruption which hart ;: fected the Limphæ did throw itself upon that Vital Panr. occasion'd his sudden Death."

At the same meeting the Practitioners of Physick and gery presented the following series of resolutions which ; based apparently on the testimony of Dalhonde, and demned the practice :

It appears by numerous Instances, That it has prort: Death of Many Persons soon after the Operation, and br. Distempers upon many others which have in the End ;- deadly to 'em.

That the natural tendency of infusing such malignant F .: the Mass of Blood, is to corrupt and putrity it, and if there not a sufficient Discharge of that Malignity by the Place de cision, or elsewhere, it lays a Foundation for many dang: Diseases.

That the Operation tends to spread and continue the Inter in a Place longer than it might otherwise be.

That the continuing of the Operation among us is like: prove of most dangerous Consequence.

According to Dr. Douglass " the Selectmen accepted view and forbade further inoculation, but Dr. Borlst :: sisted " in Contempt of the Magistrates and in Contrib to the Practitioners." Dr. Dalhonde's letter was palast and aroused anew the fears and wrath of the people, [ .. " whom were in a state of terror lest the disease should . tended through the community by inoculation. Acondi Cotton Mather," " A Satanic fury raged, the town Ki: possessed with the Devil " and the writer was vilelr .. " for nothing but instructing our base Physicians bor : many precious Lives." The Reverend Peter Thachers:" " It is not many weeks since the author of this actacr: informed by one of his [Dr. Boylston] childrens (=" whom are still living) of the expression of pious calmo- trust in God, which he was wont to drop when his trembled at his leaving his house, for fear that he sx. sacrificed to popular fury, and never visit it again." : fortnight no further inoculations were made, and the: were resumed to be continued in increasing number: : end of the epidemic.

Cotton Mather writes:"

G. D .- Full of Distress about Sammy. He begs to bare b Saved, by Receiving the Small-Por, in the way of Inici- whereof our Neighbourhood has had no less than Ten able Experiments; and if he should after all dy by masia in the Common way, how can I answer it? On the other 3 our People, who have Satan remarkably filling their Hez

" An Historical Account of the Small-Por Inoculated in New England, Upon all Sorts of Persons, Whites Blacks and of all Ages and Constitutions. With Some account of the Nature of the Infection in the NATURAL and INOCULATED Way, and their different effect on HUMAN BODIES. With some Short Direction to the Unexperienced in this Method of Practice. Humbly dedi- cated to her Royal Highness the Princess of WALES by Zabdiel BOYLSTON, Physician. London, MDCCXXVI, 61.

Appendix to the Historical Account.

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31 The Abuses and Scandals, etc., 9. 32 MS. Diary, July 27, 1721. " Loc. cit.

34 MS. Diary, Aug. 1.

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if he should happen to miscarry under it, my Condition be insupportable.

Grandfather advises, That I keep the whole Proceeding e, and that I bring the Lad into this Method of Safety. ust 15. G. D. My dear Sammy, is now under the Opera- f receiving the Small-Por in the way of Transplantation. uccess of the Experiment among my Neighbours, as well as 1 in the World, and the urgent calls of his Grandfather for re made me think, that I could not answer it unto God, if I ted it. At this critical Time, how much is all Piety to be 1 upon the Child!

it may be hoped, with the more of Efficacy, because his t Companion (and his Chamber-fellow at the Colledge) dies ay, of the Small-pox taken in the common Way.

opponents of inoculation now found a newspaper de- to their interests. This was the New England Courant, hed and sold by James Franklin, which first appeared on 7th of August, 1721. The News-Letter of Aug. 21-28, No. 917, contains a communication to its author signed Your Friends and Well Wishes to Our Country and all Men." In it the Courant is characterized as

rious, Scandalous, full freighted with Nonsense, Unman- ess, Railery, Prophaneness, Immorality, Arrogancy, Cal- s, Lyes, Contradictions and what not, all tending to Quarrels ivisions and to Debauch and Corrupt the Minds and Man- f New England. And what likewise troubles us is, That it Currant among the People, that the Practitioners of ik in Boston, who exert themselves in discovering the Evil culation and its Tendencies (several of whom we know to ntlemen by Birth, Learning, Education, Probity and good rs that abhors any ill Action) are said, esteem'd and d to be the Authors of that Flagicious and wicked paper.

les Franklin, the editor and printer, soon came to grief, er, through his published criticisms of the government as imprisoned. Zabdiel Boylston certified " to his illness in the jail and Benjamin Franklin, nominally, con- the publication of the paper.

pite the opposition of Dr. Douglass and most, if not all, practitioners and of the town authorities, inoculation ntinued. Dr. Boylston was supported in his action by ading clergymen of the town who wrote articles and lets, "tracts " in its favor. Some of them saw his ts and advised their parishioners to undergo the opera- id were themselves inoculated. Six of his own children, ther and his sister-in-law were thus treated.

General Assembly now transferred its place of meeting George Tavern at the outskirts of the town near Rox- und, August 26, 1721, stationed guards at the doorway 'ent the entrance of any but authorized persons from ected region."

rding to Cotton Mather:" "The Town has become an Hell upon Earth, a City full of Lies, and Murders, asphemies, as far as Wishes and Speeches can render it an seems to take a strange Possession of it in the epi-

vince Laws, 1722, X, 174. rince Laws, 1721, X, 105. Diary, Aug. 24.

way of saving the Lives of People from the Dangers of the Small-Pox."

As the epidemic increased in severity so did the number of those inoculated. The better educated and more intelligent were in favor of the method, but the people at large were in violent opposition and objected to the advice of the ministers. In the Gazette of October 23-30, 1721, No. 101, there appeared what may be regarded as a report of progress by one, evidently Dr. Boylston, familiar with the conditions.

I. The Operation within these four Months past has been under- gone by more than Three score Persons, Among which there have been Old & Young; Strong and Weak; Male and Female; White & Black; Many serious and vertuous People; some the Children of Eminent Persons among us. II. . . . . Only One Gentlewoman so circumstanced died; But her nearest Friends and all that knew her Case, do firmly believe the Transplantation was not the least occasion of it. Of the rest, the following Account. III. Of all the Number that have passed under the Operation, there has Not so much as One miscarried. It has done well in all: and even beyond Expectation in the most of them. IV. Some few have had a considerable Number of Pustules . But the most by far, have endured in a manner nothing. Their Pustules, have been very few. From the time of the Incision to the time of their Decumbiture, (six or seven days) they have gone about their Business as at other times. After they began, and when they felt the Eruption coming on, they Satt up, and Read and Walk'd; and would have yet more expos'd themselves, if the Physician had not confined them. And they got abroad again sooner than what is ordinary for the Infected in the Common Way . ... VII. The Patients return to their perfect Health im- mediately; and suppose themselves rather better than they were before the Operation . . . . VIII. Some of them have had noth- ing but a Cabbage-Leaf from first to last applied unto them. IX. Some, of whom the People have confidently affirmed That they died under the Inoculation, have sent their dying Charges unto their Friends, To hasten into it. These friends have done it; and so found their Account in it, and seen such Easy Circumstances, that the surviving Relatives of the Deceased are drowned in Tears, to think how the Lives of Theirs have been thrown away.

Nevertheless, the leaders in the opposition to inoculation continued to seek by legislation what the terrorizing of the mob could not effect. Apparently there was doubt whether protective measures against smallpox could be carried so far as to exclude inoculation. According to an Act in the time of William III the selectmen were empowered to remove patients with smallpox and place them in a special house. This had been established at Spectacle Island. Consequently, a town meeting was held November 4, 1721, and it was

Voted " that whosoever shal come into this Town of Boston from any other Town Presumpteously, to bring the Smal Pox on him or her selfe, or be Inoculated, Shal be forthwith Sent to the Hospital or pest house, unles they See cause to depart to their own home, or if any Person be found in Town under that opera- tion, which may be an Occasion of Continuing a malignant Infec- tion, and Increasing it, among us, that they be Remoued Im- mediately Least by alowing this practis the Town be made an Hospital for that which may prove worse than the Smal pox, which has already put So many into Mourning, And that the Justices and Select men be desired to put the Method abouesaid in practis, without Delay as the Law Directs.

28 Town Records, 1721, 159.

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JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL BULLETIN.

The Selectmen took early action, as it is recorded " Novem- ber 13, 1721, that

being Credably Informed that divers Persons belongin to other Towns are already come into this Town, and haue taken the Infection of the Smal pox, in the way of Inocculation, but that as yet the Infection has not Operated upon them yet Expect that in a few dayes it will, and that Divers others belonging to Other Towns, Intend to Come to this Town for the Purpose aforesaid, and that they know how to come in and where, and what Houses to use in Spite of the Town. And the Remoueing the Said Per- sons by Law being Impracticable but by Warrant from Some of his Majesties Justies of the Peace.

The Said Select men Therefore doe hereby give notice to the Justices of this Town of the afore said Practice and pray that they will Isue forth their Warrants to search for such persons as have or are to come for such purposes and remove them to their respective houses or to the province hospital.

Cotton-Mather, however, though noting in his diary, Novem- ber 3, 1721, the " Malicious and Murderous Manner " of the treatment received by him and despite, November 9, 1721, " the Sottish Errors, and cursed Clamours, that fill the Town and Country, raging against the astonishing Success of the Small-Pox Inoculated; " takes into his house his nephew, Mr. Walter, of Roxbury, for the purpose of being inoculated. While the latter was lying sick in his room, November 14. 1721, a lighted grenade intended for his host was thrown through the window, but the fuse became detached and burned itself out. On a paper attached to the fuse, according to the advertisement of Cotton Mather in the News-Letter, November 13-20, 1721, No. 929, were the words : " COTTON MATHER, I was once one of your Meeting; But the Cursed Lye you told of You know who; made me leave You, You Dog, And Damn You, I will Enoculate you with this, with a Pox to You."

In Cotton Mather's diary " it is stated that " the Granado was charged, the upper part with dried Powder, the lower Part with a Mixture of Oil of Turpentine and Powder and what else I know not," and the sentence referring to the lie is not included. Hutchinson " who saw the grenade states that it did not contain powder but was filled with brimstone and bitumen. Although most writers in referring to this incident assume that the violence was due to Cotton Mather's efforts in favor of inoculation, the phrasing of the note in the " adver- tisement" suggests that the grievance was more specific and personal. Cotton Mather, however, writes: " " The Opposition to it has been carried on with senseless Ignorance and raging Wickedness. But the growing Triumphs of Truth over it throw a possessed people into a Fury, which will probably cost me my Life. I have Proofs, that there are people who Approve and Applaud the Action of Tuesday Morning: and who give out Words, that tho' the First Blow miscarried, there will quickly come Another that Shall doe the Business more effectu- ally." He considers " himself as " Being in daily Hazard of

3º Selectmen's Minutes, 1721, 90.

" MS. Diary, 14 Nov., 1721.

" Op. cit., II, 249.

"2 MS . . . v, 19 Nov., 1721.

! Nov., 1721.

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Death from a Bloody People." It is possible that this is of the grenade is the source of the previously mentioned ment that one was thrown into Dr. Boylston's house.

The report of progress above mentioned was followed : course of a month by the communication of the Record Benjamin Colman " to the same effect. He visited tes and saw that

they found ease and sweetness and lay praising Gop on their or rather sat up in their Chairs doing so. Their friends smiling about them. Their tongues were filled with her. and ours with Thanksgiving on their account when we vez see 'em . . . . We saw scores thus recover, even as man went into the happy practice . . . . They were as discowa religious a number of People, and Persons of as good senet understanding, and of as much caution and fear as their ! bors, who made these Experiments; and they did it with : ness and humility, patience and silence, and many prayers c much provocation from too many . . ...

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Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 146

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1189

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189