On the eve of smallpox vaccination: variolation in the eighteenth century and some examples in Slovenian territory

Abstract

In some parts of the world, variolation constituted a tested and tried folk method for preventing smallpox infection that passed from one generation to another; however, in the eighteenth-century Europe, it turned into a complicated and costly medical procedure accessible only to the nobility and the wealthy strata of society. Although variolation was also administered in Slovenian territory by the physicians and surgeons Anton Muznik, Anton Makovic, and Vincenc Kern, the procedure did not truly take hold among the Carniolan population, most of which did not even knew it by the name. Nevertheless, it was also here that variolation paved the way towards establishing Jenner’s vaccination, especially because physicians that administered it were quick to recognize the benefits of a simpler and safer vaccination procedure and abandoned variolation by the end of the eighteenth century.