ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the debates about the effectiveness of variolation for smallpox that took place between two doctors in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, in which their differing views reflected the various medical understanding of the time. What both do is use the game of numbers to justify their additions to the debate, a debate which takes place in the public arena about the impact on finance of illness and its prevention. The chapter also explores the illness from smallpox of Daniel Ellis who fell ill in a parish many miles from his own. The parish of Wallington where he fell ill nursed him through his illness from which we can assume he recovered, and then sent his home parish the bill for looking after him, which was duly paid. At the heart of the debate lies the ultimate question of what intervention will achieve when you live in a fragile world where if the latest frightening disease does not get you one year, some other disease might the next year.
