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Lord Amherst, Commander of the British troops in North America during the French and Indian War
"You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means
of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to
extirpate this execrable race. I should be very glad your scheme for
hunting them down by dogs could take effect, but England is at too great
a distance to think of that at present." Letter from Amherst to
Swiss mercenary Henry Bouquet, 1763.
While Amherst, the heroic individual for whom Amherst College and the town of Amherst, Massachusetts are named, was unable to procure sufficient dogs to hunt native Americans, he was able to successfully organize the distribution of smallpox infected blankets among them in an early example of germ warfare.
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