Smallpox
Mortality Rates from Smallpox in the 18th century
Smallpox was the most feared and greatest killer of Jenner's time. In today's terms it was as deadly as cancer or heart disease. It killed 10% of the population, rising to 20% in towns and cities where infection spread easily. Among children, it accounted for one-in-three of all deaths. Jenner called it the Speckled Monster.
What is Smallpox?
Smallpox is caused by the virus variola. It enters the body through the lungs and is carried in the blood to the internal organs, which it infects. The virus then spreads to the skin where it multiplies, causing a rash.
Smallpox is characterised by fever, headache, backache and vomiting twelve days after exposure to the virus. The rash appears three days later, beginning as small discrete pink spots which grow bigger and become slightly raised. By the third day these are tense blisters, 6mm in diameter and deep in the skin.
These eventually shrink, dry up and fall off, leaving a sunken scar. In severe cases patients die of blood poisoning, secondary infections or internal bleeding. There is no effective treatment once infection has taken place.
A Brief History of Smallpox
Smallpox is a very ancient disease. The scars on the mummified body of the Pharaoh Rameses V, who died in 1157BC, are believed to have been caused by smallpox. It spread throughout Europe and was carried to the Americas with the voyages of discovery. It killed far more Aztecs and North American Indians than ever died in battles with the white settlers.
Smallpox touched every section of society, killing kings, queens and emperors as well as the common man. It altered the succession of the British royal family by killing Queen Anne's heir, Prince William, at the age of 11. Elizabeth I, Mozart, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln all experienced its terror. I
f it didn't kill you, your skin was left scarred by the pocks. This led to the fashions among ladies of wearing beauty spots or veils to hide their blemishes.
Variolation
Some communities tried to lessen the likelihood of death by scratching into their skin scab material from someone with a mild form of smallpox. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced this practice of inoculating with smallpox into England from Turkey in 1721.
This practice of deliberately giving people smallpox was later called variolation and many surgeons built up lucrative businesses administering it. Unfortunately, the identification of a suitable strain of the disease was not a precise science and deaths from variolation were not uncommon.
Edward Jenner was himself variolated whilst at school. He was "prepared" by being starved, purged and bled; then locked up in a stable with other artificially infected boys until the disease had run its course. He suffered particularly badly. It was an experience he would never forget.
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