Small Pox Essay

Disease, one of the major killers of the 18th and 19th Century. Hundreds of thousands across the world have died from numerous infectious disease that spread as fast as wildfire. One of the most notorious examples of a plague that spread and wiped out a third of europe was the Bubonic Plague or its common name, the Black Death. How do we keep diseases such as the Bubonic Plague from wiping out the developing new world known as America? What disease could cause cause such panic and uproar that hundreds of citizens to flee from their city to avoid it?

The disease in question was Smallpox. Smallpox is a fatal, infectious disease in which the infected become covered in fluid-filled bumps. The disease goes through 7 distinct stages in which the

With the disease running rampantly throughout the city it was quickly brought up to the medical community where the debate over inoculation began. The debate was whether or not inoculation was safe, ethical, and even if it worked with the majority opposing the method due to the lack of proper research, ethical reasons, and even religious reasons. However one doctor by the name of Zabdiel Boylston took it upon himself to inoculate a group of 282 citizens. Out of the 282 who were inoculated only 6 died to the disease thereby proving that inoculation was not an unsturdy

The Pamphlet detailed the procedure, previous successes, and process of becoming Smallpox inoculated and encouraged parents to inoculate their children against the disease. With the Help of Franklin the pamphlets were distributed throughout the colonies for free. Not long after in 1764 at Harvard University a smallpox outbreak occurred and forced an evacuation leaving the fireplaces unattended and burning down the campus taking all of their equipment and what was considered one of the colonies best libraries. During the same time of this outbreak John Adams underwent