Smallpox inoculation in Bengal (tika)
Inoculación de la viruela en Bengala (tika)
- Date
- before 1767 · confidence low
- Place
- Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India
- Credited to
- Itinerant Brahmin inoculators
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Inoculators made a small incision and inserted matter from smallpox pustules from the previous year, followed by a regimen of cold water and diet, to induce a mild form that granted immunity. The physician J. Z. Holwell described it to the Royal College of Physicians in London in 1767.
The antiquity of the practice is disputed: some authors consider it very old and others believe it was introduced in the 18th century. It reached England via Constantinople (1721), not from India.
What it led to
- popular immunisation in eastern India
- European debate on variolation