Variolation vs. Vaccination
Inoculation vs. Vaccination
"When the practice of deliberately introducing material from smallpox patients into the skin of susceptible subjects was introduced into Great Britain early in the 18th century it was called "inoculating the smallpox" or "inoculation". With Jenner's replacement of material from smallpox patients with fluid from cowpox lesions in 1798, from cows or humans, it became necessary to distinguish inoculating the cowpox from inoculating the smallpox. At first the term "vaccine inoculation" was used; later, Jenner's practice came to be called "vaccination" and the inoculation of material from smallpox patients was called "variolation". In this book we have used the terms inoculation and variolation as synonyms, reserving "vaccination" for procedures involving cowpox or vaccinia virus. Variolation was always carried out with material from the pustules or scabs of patients. After animal vaccines were introduced during the latter part of the 19th century, vaccination was usually carried out with vaccine "lymph" from cows. However, before that time the virus was maintained by arm-to-arm vaccination of children, and was sometimes shipped over long distances as "vaccine scabs", as well as being dried on threads or ivory points."
- Dr. Frank Fenner et al; Smallpox and its Eradication
- Dr. Frank Fenner et al; Smallpox and its Eradication
Director Robert Hicks explains how variolation works.
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Dr. Robert Hicks discusses the results of variolation.
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Picture of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
"In 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the British ambassador, learned about variolation in Constantinople. In 1721, at the urging of Montagu and the Princess of Wales, several prisoners and abandoned children were inoculated by having smallpox inserted under the skin. Several months later, the children and prisoners were deliberately exposed to smallpox. When none contracted the disease, the procedure was deemed safe and members of the royal family were inoculated. The prcedure then became fashionable in Europe."
- U.S. National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
“Every year, thousands undergo this operation, and the French ambassador says pleasantly that they take the smallpox here by way of diversion as they do the waters in other countries.”
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1774.
- U.S. National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
“Every year, thousands undergo this operation, and the French ambassador says pleasantly that they take the smallpox here by way of diversion as they do the waters in other countries.”
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1774.