Wortley Montagu popularised the Turkish practice of ‘variolation’, kickstarting the global battle against smallpox.
Articles on Variolation
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When Bostonians in 1721 faced a deadly smallpox outbreak, a new procedure called inoculation was found to help fend off the disease. Not everyone was won over, and newspapers fed the controversy.
The smallpox virus appears to have been with humanity for millennia before a global vaccination drive wiped it out. Current genome research suggests how smallpox spread and where it came from.
Edward Jenner deliberately infected a young boy with cowpox and then smallpox. But his method wasn’t as mad as is often made out.
Top contributors
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Emeritus Professor, Brunel University of London
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Chancellor and Professor of English, Indiana University Kokomo
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Dean of School of Sciences, Professor of Microbiology, Indiana University Kokomo
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Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, and Professor of Neurology, University of Liverpool
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Professor Emerita of Biology, Indiana University