Variolation is the deliberate inoculation of a healthy person with matter taken from a smallpox sore or scab, producing a milder, controlled infection that confers immunity. China has the earliest well-documented practice, using nasal insufflation of powdered scabs; the sinologist Joseph Needham dated the first Chinese variolation to between 1567 and 1572. The Ottoman Empire also practiced variolation widely; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador in Constantinople, witnessed it there, had her own children inoculated in 1718 and 1721, and promoted the practice in England after 1721, helping establish it in Britain. Variolation killed an estimated 1 to 2 percent of recipients, against roughly 30 percent mortality from naturally acquired smallpox, but it could still transmit the disease to others. Edward Jenner's 1796 cowpox-based vaccine was safer than variolation and eventually replaced it entirely; the Royal College of Physicians had sanctioned variolation in 1754, four decades before Jenner's alternative made it obsolete.
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearJoseph Needham dates the first well-documented Chinese variolation to 1567-1572; some 18th-century colonial-era accounts claimed a much older Indian origin, but a 2012 scholarly review concluded that claim was likely later propaganda encouraging acceptance of Jenner's vaccine and rejected it as an ancient practice. Which culture first practiced variolation, and how much earlier than the 16th century, remains genuinely unsettled. Classification
StatusDiscontinued or Obsolete 1 Connections
Associated With
Jenner did not develop variolation; his safer 1796 cowpox vaccine replaced it.
Source Wikipedia: Variolation
Onesimus, Healers Onesimus, an enslaved man in colonial Boston, described the African and Ottoman practice of inoculation against smallpox to Cotton Mather around 1706, which Mather and Zabdiel Boylston then used to introduce variolation to the city during the 1721 epidemic.
Long-Form Articles
Treats
Preventive: deliberate mild infection conferring immunity, not a treatment for an existing case.
Source Wikipedia: Variolation
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variolation, lead sectionQuote, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variolation, lead section
nal infection compared to 30% who contracted smallpox naturally. Variolation is no longer used today. It was replaced by the smallpox vaccine, a safer alternative. This in turn led to the development of the many vaccines now available against other diseases.
2. Wikipedia: Variolation
WikipediaAncient Origins; Spread to Britain; Timeline; Relationship to Vaccination
enthusiastically recounted the process
lead
Variolation was the method of inoculation first used to immunize individuals against smallpox (Variola) with material taken from a patient or a recently variolated individual, in the hope that a mild, but protective, infection would result.
Origins
The Chinese practiced the oldest documented use of variolation, dating back to the 16th century, and according to some sources the 11th century.
- Associated With: Edward Jenner
- Treats: Smallpox
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
What was variolation?
Deliberate inoculation with smallpox material to cause a mild, protective infection, replaced by the smallpox vaccine.
Variolation was the method of inoculation first used to immunize individuals against smallpox with material taken from a patient or a recently variolated individual, in the hope that a mild, but protective, infection would result. The procedure was most commonly carried out by inserting or rubbing powdered smallpox scabs or fluid from pustules into superficial scratches made in the skin. Variolation is no longer used today. It was replaced by the smallpox vaccine, a safer alternative.
How risky was variolation compared with catching smallpox?
Only 1 to 2 percent of those variolated died, against about 30 percent of natural smallpox cases.
Only 1 to 2 percent of those variolated died from the intentional infection compared to 30 percent who contracted smallpox naturally. In Boston, surgeon Zabdiel Boylston, with the support of Cotton Mather, successfully variolated 300 patients, with only six of them dying. By contrast, 1,000 of the 6,000 people who acquired smallpox naturally died during the same period.
Where did variolation begin and how did it spread?
Used in China, India, Africa and the Middle East before reaching England and North America in the 1720s.
The method was first used in China, India, parts of Africa and the Middle East before it was introduced into England and North America in the 1720s in the face of some opposition. The Chinese practiced the oldest documented use of variolation, dating back to the 16th century, and according to some sources the 11th century, using nasal insufflation of powdered smallpox scabs. Documentation of variolation in the Americas may be traced back to 1706 in Boston, where minister Cotton Mather learned of the technique from Onesimus. In 1775, George Washington ordered that the Continental Army be variolated.
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