How did smallpox vaccination first come about?
People usually give the credit to Dr. Edward Jenner of England. It is true that in the year 1796 he gave the sort of smallpox vaccination we get today. And it was the first of its kind, but the idea was not brand new. Many people had been thinking about it and even giving anti smallpox inoculations for at least a century before Dr. Jenner gave his first hot in the arm. No one knows who first though of the idea, but the people of Turkey were using rather crude inoculations against smallpox early in the 1700s. We know about this from the writings of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who was the wife of the British ambassador to Turkey. Like everyone else, Lady Mary lived in horror of smallpox. When she learned that the people of Turkey did something to protect themselves from the dreaded scourge, she made careful observations and wrote detailed letters home to England. This was around 1718 and many people, including some influential doctors, began following Lady Mary’s advice. Throughout histor
