Variolation (smallpox inoculation)
Variolización (inoculación de la viruela)
- Date
- 1721 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England (from Constantinople) / Boston
- Credited to
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (London, 1721); Timoni and Pylarini (Royal Society, 1714); Zabdiel Boylston and Cotton Mather (Boston, 1721); Ottoman, Chinese and Indian practice
- People
- 👤 Cotton Mather1663–1728👤 Mary Montagu1689–1762👤 Zabdiel Boylston1680–1766
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Inoculation of pus from a mild case of smallpox into an incision to induce an attenuated infection that confers immunity. The first immune prophylaxis practised in the West, tested on Newgate prisoners (1721) and statistically evaluated.
The practice is much older, of Asian and African origin; the novelty is its adoption and statistical evaluation in Europe.
What it led to
- Jenner's vaccine (1796) and the concept of immunisation
- Medical statistics and comparative trials (Jurin, 1723)
- Public health and state inoculation campaigns (Catherine II, 1768)
- Ethical debate on human experimentation
Built on
Made possible
- Espejo's Reflexiones on smallpox1785
- Smallpox vaccine1796
- Smallpox vaccine
- Quantitative epidemiology