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Wikimedia Commons, via Wikipedia: Variolation

Medicine & Surgery

Variolation (smallpox inoculation)

documented by 18th c.; older claimedIndian folk-medical practiceReports incl. Holwell (1767)Pan-Indian / unspecified

1701

Deliberate exposure to smallpox material to induce mild infection and immunity.

Dated
1701–1800
As scholars put it
documented by 18th c.; older claimed
Originator
Indian folk-medical practice
Source text
Reports incl. Holwell (1767)
Region
Pan-Indian / unspecified
Discipline
Medicine & Surgery
Evidence
Documented
Confidence
Medium
Verification
Reference-cited

Meanwhile in the West

Preceded Edward Jenner's cowpox vaccination (1796).

Fair to say

The precise antiquity of the Indian practice is debated; variolation also existed in China and the Ottoman Empire.

Path to modern innovation

A conceptual ancestor of immunisation.

1701Variolation (smallpox inoculation)

Transmission

Observed by Europeans in India and the Ottoman world; fed into the move toward vaccination.

References

  • 1J. Z. Holwell (1767)
  • 2standard histories of vaccination

Further reading

Corrections and additional sources: edit IND-037 on GitHub.