Letter 3311

Boylston arrived in New England after ‘a long & Expensive voyage’. He thanks Sloane for his many favours and promises to send any curiosities he finds in New England. Boylston has enclosed a stone ‘out of a Gelding […] of about 17 years old’. It was removed just after he had left for London. The ‘Gelding’, or horse, was in pain for two weeks before it died. He was active, ‘fatt & lively’ before his illness. The first sign of sickness was a painful fit, ‘which lasted 2 or three days’. This pain subsided and he returned to riding and other activities, but ‘a week or ten days’ later the pain returned and he died shortly thereafter. It is thought that the stone removed from him was unrelated to the cause of death. The stone was found in his stomach. ‘When first taken out it weighed five pounds about Eight ounces, it now weighs but five pounds six ounces & seven drachms, and measures round one way, seventeen inches & 3 q’rs’. Many people have come to see the large stone, but Boylston thinks it would be best to give it to Sloane. He has not encountered any controversy for his publication on smallpox. The bearer is his nephew, Edward Boylston, who would appreciate a recommendation. Zabdiel Boylston (1679-1766) was a physician famous for his inoculation of roughly 250 people during the smallpox epidemic of Boston in 1721. His method of inoculation was controversial because it was based on African practices. In 1724 Boylston traveled to London where he published the ‘Historical Account of the Small-Pox Inoculated in New England’. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1726 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabdiel_Boylston).