of the
Medical Staff at Sierra Leone, to procure me what information he could
on the subject of vaccination and small-pox, in Africa, he most
obligingly forwarded me the following document, which, for the sake of
perspicuity, is put in the form of question and answer.

_Replies to Dr. George Gregory's Queries on Vaccination and
Small-pox, Sierra Leone, 24th September, 1827_.

1st. Is vaccination generally practised among the infant negro
population?

2nd. Whence do they derive their stock of lymph?

3rd. What is the degree of confidence placed in it?

Vaccination is not at all practised among the negro population, by
native vaccinators; it is, however, practised among certain branches
of the negro population by European surgeons; the negro population
of Sierra Leone consists of Nova Scotian, and Maroon settlers,
liberated Africans, and several of the aboriginal African tribes,
namely, Timmanees, Mandingoes, Soosoos, Boollams, Sherbros, &c. &c.
&c. The three first mentioned of these branches of the negro
population, having greater intercourse with Europeans, are better
acquainted with European customs, and have, of course, imbibed more
of European notions and prejudices, on such subjects as the one now
under consideration, than the aboriginal inhabitants of this part of
Africa; vaccination, therefore, is, and has been, practised among
them to a considerable extent, the stock of lymph being derived
from, and kept up by, frequent renewals from England. That their
confidence in it, as a measure preventive of small-pox, is great, I
judge from the anxiety which they shew, and the eagerness which they
manifest to have their children vaccinated when the small-pox is
raging around them; while, under ordinary circumstances, and when
their fears have been lulled by the absence of this fatal epidemic,
an absence which they well know is probably but temporary, they
exhibit such an unaccountable apathy regarding vaccination, that a
stranger might well suppose they had no faith in it as a
prophylactic measure; notwithstanding this, I believe they have
great confidence in it, although, from circumstances to which I
shall presently allude, that confidence has declined considerably.

4th. How soon does the arcola arrive at its greatest height in those
countries?

The arcola surrounding the vaccine vesicle is, I think, at its
greatest height about the eleventh