page_title: Variolation
section_title: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
hierarchical_section_title: Variolation / Spread into Western Europe / Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife to the ambassador of the Ottoman Empire and forerunner of the variolation movement in England. Français&#160;: Mary Wortley Montagu Première Anglaise à avoir fait inoculer la variole à ses enfants selon la technique ottomane
context_page_description: Variolation or inoculation was the method first used to immunize an individual 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/rubbing powdered smallpox scabs or fluid from pustules into superficial scratches made in the skin. The patient would develop pustules identical to those caused by naturally occurring smallpox, usually producing a less severe disease than naturally acquired smallpox. Eventually, after about two to four weeks, these symptoms would subside, indicating successful recovery and immunity. The method was first used in China and the Middle East before it was introduced into England and North America in the 1720s in the face of some opposition. The method is no longer used today. It was replaced by smallpox vaccine, a safer alternative. This in turn led to the development of the many vaccines now available against other diseases.
context_section_description: No stranger to smallpox, Lady Mary had lost her brother to the devastating disease. Soon afterwards, she also contracted smallpox. Although she survived, she was left with severe facial scarring. While in Turkey she came across the process of variolation as it was introduced and published in Istanbul by two doctors, Emmanuel Timoni and Iacob Pylarino. She first mentioned variolation in the famous letter to her friend, Sarah Chiswell, in April 1717. in which she enthusiastically recounted the process, which in Istanbul was most commonly administered by experienced elderly women. In 1718, she had the procedure conducted on her five-year-old son, Edward Montagu. The procedure was supervised by the embassy doctor Charles Maitland. On her return to England, she had her four-year-old daughter variolated in the presence of physicians of the Royal Court in 1721. Both variolations proved successful. Later on that year Maitland conducted an experimental variolation of six prisoners in Newgate Prison in London. In the experiment, six condemned prisoners were variolated and later exposed to smallpox with the promise of freedom if they survived. The experiment was a success, and soon variolation was drawing attention from the royal family, who helped promote the procedure throughout England. However, variolation caused the death of Prince Octavius of Great Britain, eighth son and thirteenth child of King George III in 1783.
  Despite opposition, variolation established itself as a mainstream medical treatment in England. Part of its success was founded on statistical observation, which confirmed that variolation was a safer alternative to contracting smallpox naturally, strengthened by the assumption that it protected against the disease for life. The major faults of variolation lay in its simplicity. Doctors sought to monopolize the simple treatment by convincing the public that the procedure could only be done by a trained professional. The procedure was now preceded by a severe bloodletting, in which the patient was bled, often to faintness, in order to 'purify' the blood and prevent fever. Doctors also began to favour deep incisions, which also discouraged amateurs.
caption: Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
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