Abstract
Sir Hans Sloane's account of inoculation as a means to protect against smallpox followed several earlier articles published in Philosophical Transactions on this procedure. Inoculation (also called ‘variolation’) involved the introduction of small amounts of infectious material from smallpox vesicles into the skin of healthy subjects, with the goal of inducing mild symptoms that would result in protection against the more severe naturally acquired disease. It began to be practised in England in 1721 thanks to the efforts of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who influenced Sloane to promote its use, including the inoculation of the royal family's children. When Edward Jenner's inoculation with the cow pox (‘vaccination’) followed 75 years later as a safer yet equally effective procedure, the scene was set for the eventual control of smallpox epidemics culminating in the worldwide eradication of smallpox in 1977, officially proclaimed by WHO in 1980. Here, we discuss the significance of variolation and vaccination with respect to scientific, public health and ethical controversies concerning these ‘weapons of mass protection’. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
Highlights
Immunization against infectious diseases has protected more children and adults from untimely deaths than any other form of treatment, and smallpox was the first illness to be prevented in this way
It began to be practised in England in 1721 thanks to the efforts of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who influenced Sloane to promote its use, including the inoculation of the royal family’s children
When Edward Jenner’s inoculation with the cow pox (‘vaccination’) followed 75 years later as a safer yet effective procedure, the scene was set for the eventual control of smallpox epidemics culminating in the worldwide eradication of smallpox in 1977, officially proclaimed by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980
Summary
Immunization against infectious diseases has protected more children and adults from untimely deaths than any other form of treatment, and smallpox was the first illness to be prevented in this way. When Sir Hans Sloane gave his account of inoculation in 1736 [1], the concepts of contagion and immunity to re-infection were already well understood, it would take another 150 years before the germ theory of infectious disease led to the identification of specific pathogens by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. Reports in the Philosophical Transactions played a leading role in establishing the efficacy and relative safety of inoculation against smallpox
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