Variolation

As is true throughout history and even in the modern day, people always idealize possible treatments and resort to misguided possibilities. From Europeans believing the Black Plague to be caused by miasmas to Donald Trump recommending the injection of disinfectant into the bloodstream to fight Coronavirus, people often jump to conclusions without proper guidance out of desperation. In the 1700's, the European reaction to the smallpox epidemic saw a similar pattern of behavior. Although many strides in the field of medicine were made, people hurried to conclusions about possible treatments and placed large groups in danger. One such treatment was variolation.

Although variolation was, in many ways, a significant stride towards modern vaccination, individuals placed too much trust in the treatment far too soon. Variolation was developed in Asia, where practitioners would blow dried smallpox scabs up the nose of an uninfected individual. Europeans, on the other hand, opted to take pustule samples from a mild smallpox patient and punctured the skin of uninfected individuals. Either way, the purpose of variolation was to induce immunity to smallpox in previously uninfected individuals via this archaic form of inoculation. Due to the fact that this method did yield viable results and many people were successfully immunized, society was quick to deem this procedure as a "cure." People were content with calling it a safe solution, despite the fact that there was very little detailed information that explained why this method worked the way it did. In addition, it became a fashionable practice in Europe, with Turkish peasants even holding smallpox parties.

In reality, variolation was a very risky process. Every patient that went through smallpox variolation ran the risk of contracting the disease, and anyone who contracted the disease could potentially spread it through the surrounding regions, risking an epidemic. It wasn't until Edward Jenner's work that variolations were taken a step further, into the realm of early vaccinations.

Depiction of a variolation procedure in which the substance from a smallpox sore and was innoculated it into a healthy person's arm.

Picture Source: historyofvaccines.org