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In the winter of 1764, smallpox descended on Boston and 约翰·亚当斯 went to get inoculated against it. You might have heard that Edward Jenner pioneered the smallpox vaccine in 1796 – so how did Adams get inoculated in 1764?

Adams used an earlier method of inoculation called “variolation,” rather than Jenner’s “vaccination.” Inoculation is the process of introducing a small amount of viral matter into the body in order to teach the body’s immune system to fight off the virus, thus making the patient immune to future infection. Variolation used viral matter from smallpox patients, usually pus from a light case of smallpox. Jenner’s vaccination, meanwhile, used matter from the milder cowpox virus. As a milder disease carrying the same immunities, cowpox matter was much safer.

撒巴第业波依斯顿, 约翰·亚当斯母亲的叔叔, 苏珊·博伊尔斯顿·亚当斯, is often credited for introducing variolation to the Americas in 1721. 事实上, 亲爱, 科顿·马瑟的一个奴隶, told Mather of the practice and Mather convinced his friend Boylston to try inoculation.[1] 差不多在同一时间, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had her daughter inoculated in England after learning about variolation during her husband’s diplomatic posting at the Ottoman court in Istanbul. Variolation was used in not only Africa and the Ottoman Empire but also China and India long before the Western world ever discovered this secret.

The impetus for Boylston and Mather’s efforts in 1721 was the arrival in Boston of the sixth large outbreak of smallpox.[2] Boylston began inoculating hundreds but controversy erupted over his efforts.[3] Many worried about the intentional spread of disease. Others felt that if anyone died from inoculation, Boylston was guilty of murder. Fierce debate raged in Boston between supporters and opponents of the practice of variolation. The debate did not remain on the page – Boylston was physically assaulted on the street. 然而, Boylston and Mather collected information on infections and were able to show that inoculation dropped the smallpox mortality rate to 1 or 2% from approximately 15%.[4] By 1749, 威廉•道格拉斯 最强烈反对接种的人, published an essay admitting inoculation’s benefits and encouraging society to inoculate.[5]

Though variolation was well accepted by the time of Adams’s 1764 inoculation, 剩下的约有五百人, 谁继续脱颖而出, 就经验而言, [和]神职人员的劝诫.” These individuals caused Adams to wonder if man was truly “a rational creature” since he would have seen himself as “a deliberate self Murderer” if he had refused to inoculate himself.[6] In addition, inoculation in 1764 was not an entirely uniform process. Adams wrote that in his recovery from the inoculation, “Each [doctor] has a few Particulars in Point of Diet, 在这一点上他与其他人不同, 每个都有药片和粉末, 不同于其他人的管理.”[7]

As we all wait for scientists to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, it’s important to remember the controversy that followed the 1721 Boston inoculations as well as the gradual normalization of the variolation process that preceded Jenner’s discovery. 发展, 采用, and improvement of infectious disease response are messy processes – not a single “eureka” event. It is common to have initial disagreements among experts on treatments and often the first workable treatment is later replaced with an improved option.

It’s easy to see dates like 1796 as the shining beacons in the lines of smallpox history – but to 约翰·亚当斯 and much of Boston in 1764, 他们庆幸自己活到了1721年以后. Adams celebrated “Inoculation for the Small Pox” as evidence of America’s “Glory of the Invention.”[8] He praised Boylston’s 1721 “discovery” and “practice” of smallpox inoculation “which has since proved of such inestimable benefit to Mankind.”[9]

Dr. Housman’s first book project uses digital tools to explore sexual crime in seventeenth century England. She has written on numerous historical topics including slavery, 选举权, 宗教自由, 工业化, 慈善捐赠, and pandemics for various public history organizations. 

[1] Stefan Riedel, “Edward Jenner and the History of Smallpox and Vaccination,” Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 18:1, (2005), 22.

[2] Shawn Buhr, “To Inoculate or Not to Inoculate?: The Debate and the Smallpox Epidemic of Boston in 1721,” 建构过去, 1:1, (2000), 63.

[3] For more on this controversy, see Christianna Elrene Thomas Hurford, “手臂上的伤疤":医学, 比赛, and the Social Implications of the 1721 Inoculation Controversy on Boston, unpublished doctoral dissertation, (Ohio State University, 2012); Amalie M. Kass, “Boston’s Historic Smallpox Epidemic,” 马萨诸塞州历史评论, 14 (2012), 1-51.

[4] Buhr, “To Inoculate or Not to Inoculate,” 66.

[5] 威廉•道格拉斯 一个总结, 历史与政治, of the first Planting Progressive Improvements, and present State of the British Settlements in North America, (波士顿:罗杰斯和福尔，1749年).

[6] 约翰·亚当斯 to Abigail Smith, 17 April 1764 in 亚当斯家书， 卷. 1. [link]

[7] 约翰·亚当斯 to Abigail Smith, 14 April 1764 in 亚当斯家书,卷. 1. [link]

[8] 约翰·亚当斯致国会总统的信. 1780年2月25日 约翰·亚当斯的论文,卷. 8. [link]

[9] Obituary of 苏珊·博伊尔斯顿·亚当斯 Hall, 29 April 1797 in 亚当斯家书,卷. 12. [link]