Chromolithograph after a painting by George Kirtland (c. 1802) The Wellcome Library, London Variolation on left, Vaccination on right

 

Variolation vs. Vaccination

There is no cure for smallpox.
The only way to fight it is to prevent it.

 

Variolation (pronounced vuh-RYE-oh-lay-shun) is inoculation against smallpox using live smallpox virus-variola major (from varius, Latin for "spotted")

· This is the procedure brought to the attention of Western science by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Zabdiel Boylston in 1721. They referred to it as "inoculation" or "engrafting."

· Previously, it had been practiced in China, Turkey, and West Africa.

· Throughout The Speckled Monster, I refer to variolation as "inoculation."