Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Apr 19;370(1666):20140378.
doi: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0378.

The prevention and eradication of smallpox: a commentary on Sloane (1755) 'An account of inoculation'

Robin A Weiss  1 , José Esparza  2
Affiliations
Review

The prevention and eradication of smallpox: a commentary on Sloane (1755) 'An account of inoculation'

Robin A Weiss et al. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. .

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.

Keywords: inoculation; smallpox; vaccination; variolation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Sir Hans Sloane. Portrait by Godfrey Kneller, 1716. Copyright © The Royal Society.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in Turkish costume. Copyright © National Portrait Gallery, London.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
(a) Child with smallpox; (b) Variola virus particles. (Images from the CDC Public Health Image Library).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Table in Benjamin Waterhouse's 1809 tract on protection against smallpox in Milton, MA [42].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sloane H, Birch T. 1755. An account of inoculation by Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. Given to Mr. Ranby, to be published Anno 1736. Communicated by Thomas Birch, D. D. Secret. R. S. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 49, 516–520. ( 10.1098/rstl.1755.0073) - DOI
    1. John Brooks J. 1954. Sir Hans Sloane, the great collector and his circle, p. 234 London, UK: The Batchworth Press.
    1. Cooke AM. 1984. Sir Hans Sloane and the Philosophical Transactions. J. R. Coll. Physicians Lond. 18, 170–171. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Grundy I. (ed.). 1997. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: selected letters. London, UK: Penguin Classics.
    1. Newman H. 1722. The way of proceeding in the small pox inoculated in New England. Communicated by Henry Newman, Esq; Of the Middle Temple. Phil. Trans 32, 33–35. ( 10.1098/rstl.1722.0007) - DOI

LinkOut - more resources