Early in the last century
Boyer presented inoculation as a preventive of smallpox in
France, and thoughtful physicians in England, inspired by Lady
Montagu and Maitland, followed his example. Ultra-conservatives
in medicine took fright at once on both sides of the Channel, and
theology was soon finding profound reasons against the new
practice. The French theologians of the Sorbonne solemnly
condemned it; the English theologians were most loudly
represented by the Rev. Edward Massey, who in 1772 preached and
published a sermon entitled _The Dangerous and Sinful Practice of
Inoculation_. In this he declared that Job's distemper was
probably confluent smallpox; that he had been inoculated
doubtless by the devil; that diseases are sent by Providence for
the punishment of sin; and that the proposed attempt to prevent
them is "a diabolical operation." Not less vigorous was the
sermon of the Rev. Mr. Delafaye, entitled _Inoculation an
Indefensible Practice_. This struggle went on for thirty years.
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