Lady Mary Wortley Montagu discovered the Ottoman Empire concept of variolation during her stay in Istanbul in 1716-1718, and brought the idea back to Britain. ( Source).įor a long time, smallpox was greatly feared, as one in three of those who contracted the disease died, and those who survived were often badly disfigured. įigure 1: Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu by Charles Jervas (ca 1675-1739) (oil on canvas, after 1716). The present version was reedited and augmented. Lady Montagu Writing on Smallpox Vaccination in TurkeyĪ short version of this article was published on in March 2006 under the authorship of Dr. Introduction of the Smallpox Inoculation into Englandĥ.
The numbers inoculated remained small, and medical effort throughout the 18th century was concentrated on reducing the risks and side-effects of the inoculation process.Ĥ. However, her example certainly popularized the practice of inoculation with smallpox in British high society. On her return to London, she enthusiastically promoted the procedure, but encountered a great deal of resistance. Lady Mary, who had suffered from the disease, encouraged her own children to be inoculated while in Turkey. Unlike Jenner's later vaccination, which used cowpox, variolation used a small measure of smallpox itself. When Lady Mary was in the Ottoman Empire, she discovered the local practice of variolation, the inoculation against smallpox. The English aristocrat and writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) is today remembered particularly for her letters from Turkey, an early example of a secular work by a Western woman about the Muslim Orient.
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