Variolation: Difference between revisions

The Chinese practiced the oldest documented use of variolation, dating back to the fifteenth century. They implemented a method of "[[nasal administration|nasal]] [[Insufflation (medicine)|insufflation]]" administered by blowing powdered smallpox material, usually scabs, up the nostrils. Various insufflation techniques have been recorded throughout the 16th and 17th centuries within China,<ref name="Williams2010">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Gareth|title=Angel of Death|year=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=Basingstoke|isbn=978-0230274716}}</ref>{{rp|60}} most notably by [[Wan Quan]].<ref>Needham J (1999). "Part 6, Medicine". Science and Civilization in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 134.</ref> According to such documentation, mild smallpox cases were selected as donors in order to prevent serious attack. The technique used scabs that had been left to dry out for some time. Fresh scabs were more likely to lead to a full-blown infection. Three or four scabs were ground into powder or mixed with a grain of musk and bound in cotton. Infected material was then packed into a pipe and puffed up the patient's nostril. The practice of variolation is believed to have been [[ritual]]ized by the Chinese. The blowpipe used during the procedure was made of silver. The right nostril was used for boys and the left for girls.<ref name="Henderson2009">{{cite book|last=Henderson|first=Donald|title=Smallpox: The Death of a Disease|year=2009|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1591027225}}</ref>{{rp|45}} Variolated cases were treated as if they were as infectious as those who had acquired the disease naturally. These patients were subsequently kept apart from others until the rash had cleared. In the 18th century, the practice of using scabs from epidemic patients was seen as beneficial by some, but others were convinced of its danger; [[Kangxi Emperor|Emperor Kangxi]], however, approved of it.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Needham |first1=Joseph |last2=Lu |first2=Gwei-Djen |date=2000 |title=Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 6, Medicine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bEZ8Hp8h5sC |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2022 |pages=139–140|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521632621 }}</ref> Two reports on the Chinese practice were received by the [[Royal Society]] in London in 1700; one by Dr. [[Martin Lister]] who received a report by an employee of the [[East India Company]] stationed in China, and another by the physician [[Clopton Havers]], but no action was taken.<ref>

[[Lady Mary Wortley Montagu]] had lost her brother to smallpox in 1713. In 1715 she contracted the disease herself. Although she survived, she was left with severe facial scarring. While in the Ottoman Empire she came across the process of variolation as it was introduced and published in Constantinople by two Greek doctors, Emmanuel Timoni and [[Iacob Pylarino]].<ref>{{cite book|title=History of Medicine, Second Edition: A Scandalously Short Introduction|year=2010 |author=Jacalyn Duffin |publisher=University of Toronto Press |page=179 |isbn=978-0802095565 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com/books/edition/History_of_Medicine_Second_Edition/?id=1_hmDQAAQBAJ}}</ref> She first mentioned variolation in the famous letter to her friend, Sarah Chiswell, in April 1717.<ref name="fenner1988">{{cite book|title=Smallpox and its Eradication|year=1988|publisher=World Health Organization|location=Geneva|isbn=92-4-156110-6|author=Fenner, F.|author2=Henderson, D.A. |author3=Arita, I. |author4=Jezek, Z. |author5=Ladnyi, I.D. }}</ref>{{rp|55}} in which she enthusiastically recounted the process, which in Constantinople 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 (physician)|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.<ref name="Williams2010" />{{rp|90}} 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.<ref name="Henderson2009" />{{rp|45}} 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Baxby|first=Derrick|author-link = Derrick Baxby|title=A Death from Inoculated Smallpox in the English Royal Family|journal=Med Hist|year=1984|volume=28|issue=3|pages=303–07|doi=10.1017/s0025727300035961|pmid=6390027|pmc=1139449}}</ref>