We have seen under what safeguards inoculation was practised in Boston, and now we shall turn to Geneva and discover how all the American precautions were set at naught in that city with apparent impunity. The details are from a letter of the Council of Geneva, dated 24th December, 1791, addressed to Dr. Haygarth in answer to his inquiries and suggestions. Des Gouttes, secretary to the Geneva Syndic, wrote--
I.--The Republic of Geneva contains about 35,000 inhabitants, of whom 26,000 dwell in the city, and 9,000 in the adjacent country.
II.--The city is of small extent, and ill adapted to so large a population; and its extension is not easy on account of the fortifications wherewith it is surrounded. There are little more than 1200 houses in the city, which are built in many storeys of many apartments like the ancient part of Edinburgh, each house sheltering on an average twenty-one inhabitants.
III.--A great part of the population consists of strangers, not only because most of our servants and labourers are natives of other countries, but because Geneva being a frontier city, girt about by Savoy, Switzerland, and France, and situated on the highways of intercourse between these states, travellers are always coming and going.
IV.--Notwithstanding this continual resort of strangers within our walls, an epidemic of smallpox is of almost regular occurrence every five years; and between the epidemics it frequently happens that we have no natural smallpox whatever, either in the city or its vicinity.
V.--Inoculation began to be practised here in 1751, since which date we have inoculated a very large number of children annually, and with such marked success that the deaths have but slightly exceeded 1 in 300. Although we have often had to inoculate with pus brought from a distance at times when there was no smallpox to be found in the city, and although children so inoculated have gone freely into the streets, walks, and other public places, before, during, and after the eruption, we have never observed that they were sources of contagion, nor that they produced any intermediate epidemic, nor that they accelerated the return of the periodical epidemic.
VI.--Lastly, our citizens enjoy a republican constitution which requires us to pay most scrupulous regard to the liberty of every individual. No coercive measures to hinder the introduction or communication of smallpox are here practicable; and we believe we ought to limit our action to advice, and to simple precautions of police, which must not, nor even seem to be, oppressive to the citizens.