where is the best place to purchase birth certificates for 1864? -----Original Message----- From: irelandgenweb-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:irelandgenweb-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Jean R. Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 8:00 PM To: IrelandGenWeb-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [Irish Genealogy] Smallpox, 1791 - Reverend Thomas POLLOCK,Kilwinning in Ayrshire, Scotland SNIPPET: Listers with backgrounds that lead back to Scotland might be interested in the following account by The Reverend Thomas POLLOCK, found in "Scotland, The Autobiography," Rosemary GORING (2008). POLLOCK was appalled at what he saw as primitive behaviour among his parishioners in Kilwinning in Ayrshire, who refused to protect their children from smallpox by inoculation ... Small Pox - This disease ... rages here, at times, with the utmost violence, and is often extremely fatal. In the summer and autumn of 1791, upwards of 90 children had the natural small pox, and more than one half of them died. The chin-cough and natural small pox not unfrequently prevail at the same time. When this happens, as was the case at the above period, the ravages commited by this last disease are truly dreadful The coincidence of these diseases might, in a great measure, be prevented by inoculation. But though in this, and in every other respect, inoculation is attended with the happiest consequences, it is only practised here in two or three families. >From ignorance, and the most superstitious prejudices, the parents, regardless, or insensible of consequences, instead of inoculating their children, crowd into those houses in which the disease is of the most malignant nature, and at a time when it is the most infectious. The very worst kind of this dangerous and loathsome disease is, in this manner, communicated and spread, and thousands of valuable lives are lost to the community. This impious presumption, these illiberal and groundless prejudices, are not peculiar to this parish; in every other country parish in Scotland, the great bulk of the people think and act pretty much in the same way. It is well known, at least to the clergy, that every argument in support of inoculation, however conclusive or self-evident, makes no impression upon their minds. To make a law, obliging all persons, without distinction, to inoculate their children, would be thought inconsistent with the liberty of British subjects, and even with the common principles of humanity. But as the prosperity, nay the very existence of every country, is inseparably connected with the number of its inhabitants, something certainly ought to be attempted, to render, if possible, inoculation in Scotland more general than it is at present. Check out the Ireland GenWeb website at: http://www.irelandgenweb.com/ It is a good place to get help with your family research. Help wanted: County Coordinators ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRELANDGENWEB-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.6.6/1625 - Release Date: 8/21/2008 6:04 AM