Inoculations

(First inoculation against smallpox)

                           Today not many people getsmall pox, but in the past it was extremely common. Many people caught itand manydied asa result.Those who lived to tell the tale bore "pock marks",unightly hoes in the skin where the small pox-scabs had been.

                            Smallpox or variol,is a very infectious and contagious disease that starts as a rash which develops into blisters. Within a few days the blisters fester and then start to crack and dry up.

                          In 1717 Lady Mary Wortley (1689  - 1762) noticed that people in Turkey,where her husband was an ambassador, sometimes used the fluid from smallpox blisters to protect people who had not been infected. Four years later she introduced the practice, known as variolation,into Britain where it was quickly accepted.Although the inoculation itself killed some people, the overall death rate was dramatically reduced.