ABSTRACT
Smallpox is a highly contagious disease yet strangely enough the fact was not recognised until modern times; indeed the Arabian physicians believed that it was due to a poison naturally incident to birth. During the 18th century a determined effort was made to fight smallpox. The practice of inoculation was introduced from Constantinople by Lady Mary Wortley Montague about 1720. Inoculation generally produced only a mild form of smallpox but occasionally it produced ordinary smallpox which sometimes proved fatal. Great controversy also arose as to whether inoculation increased or decreased the death rate from smallpox. Dr. John Heysham records in detail the efforts made at Carlisle to deal with smallpox by inoculation and the degree of their success. The doctors, however, became more and more adverse to inoculation but when they refused to inoculate their patients simply resorted to amateur inoculators who had the additional attraction of cheapness.
