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On June 26th 1721, after much research by Cotton
Mather, the first inoculation in American history was completed
by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston at Boston. Dr. Boylston made a small wound in three
patients, and the pus of active smallpox was smeared into these wounds.
The result was that the people deliberately infected by the smallpox
received a mild case of the deadly disease, and thereafter had complete
immunity to it. The three subjects were an adult male slave named
Jack, a male two-year old slave named Jackey, and Dr. Boylston's six-year
old son. This event can be considered analogous to what is known today as a
clinical trial.
Smallpox was a terrible scourge to humanity. In Colonial Boston,
horrific outbreaks occurred in 1640, 1660, 1677-1680, 1690, 1702,
and 1721. Hundreds of people were killed by the disease with each
outbreak. This first inoculation in Boston is very historic for two
reasons: Religious faith opposed experimentation on the human body at
that time, and the medical profession had not yet even conceived the use of
laboratory analysis to treat diseases back then.
The prevailing religious view of 1700 was that smallpox was a judgment of
God upon humanity, due to the sins made by humanity. It was believed that
trying to prevent smallpox could provoke God, and a wrath of greater
consequences might be made on humanity if experimentation
occurred. Reverend Mather and Dr. Boylston believed that faith and
clinical empiricism together could save many lives from smallpox. Their decision caused great dissent, and drew much criticism upon
themselves.
From the time of Hippocrates c.400 BC to the mid-1800s, the medical
profession used observation and logic to diagnose and treat diseases. In very general terms, medicine did not advance at all for over two thousand
years due to this. If a person looked very red by observation, then
they logically had too much blood. The treatment was therefore
lancing and bleeding the patient. Reverend Mather did much research
into smallpox inoculation, and concluded that an animacular (germ) is
likely a cause. The work by Mather and Boylston led the
way for later scientists like Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur, who developed
clinical methodologies and engaged in controlled scientific
experimentation.
Cotton Mather was first made aware of smallpox inoculation by an African slave in 1706. Mather then investigated
use in other parts of the world by communicating with London physicians and other sources. Inoculation is a method
of infecting a person with a disease in a mild way and for them to then overcome it, unlike later
developed vaccinations in which the patient usually does not get
the target disease. Using data from later Boston smallpox epidemics, the
mortality rate of those inoculated was only about 2.5%, compared to 14% of those
infected naturally.
Cotton Mather is buried at Copp's Hill Burying Ground along the
Freedom Trail, and also had great
influence concerning the Salem Witch Hysteria of 1692.
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