When Cotton Mather Fought the Smallpox

In the spring of 1721, Boston became alarmed at the news of smallpox in their town. In April a Negro from a Caribbean ship brought the disease to Boston, and was immediately quarantined. In the coming months more than half the community's ten thousand residents, approximately eight hundred, fell ill. When the town of Boston realized that smallpox had appeared again, the people became terror-stricken. In Boston, survival or death it was thought depended on one's …

…smallpox acquired by inoculation was apparently often less severe and mortality lessened, than when acquired "in the common way." Even Douglas finally acknowledged the good of inoculation, which eventually led the way to Jenner's discovery of vaccination. Of course, inoculation did not "prevent" the disease; it just transmitted the virus in a weakened form. In the end, the most serious drawbacks of inoculation were its unexpected behavior and clear dangerousness; yet, inoculation died out slowly.