Early Smallpox Inoculation

Edward Jenner's work on smallpox inoculation is well documented. However long before him the practice was already common in Asia though it was not understood scientifically. Lady Mary Montagu was credited with begining the practice in Europe after observing it in the Ottoman Empire.

But what if this idea was learned by Europeans earlier? Concievably Marco Polo could have picked it up in his travels and publicized it. What would be the historical implications if inoculation became common throughout Euroasia by the late Middle Ages?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variolation
 
Edward Jenner's work on smallpox inoculation is well documented. However long before him the practice was already common in Asia though it was not understood scientifically. Lady Mary Montagu was credited with begining the practice in Europe after observing it in the Ottoman Empire.

But what if this idea was learned by Europeans earlier? Concievably Marco Polo could have picked it up in his travels and publicized it. What would be the historical implications if inoculation became common throughout Euroasia by the late Middle Ages?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variolation

They are not quite the same thing though are they? Montagu's "solution" had a 1-2% death rate, Jenner's was almost risk free.

Interesting idea though - if some renaissance genius had stumbled on to Jenner's concept in the 1500's might this have saved the American tribes from the worst of the plagues that affected them?
 

Thande

Donor
Interesting idea though - if some renaissance genius had stumbled on to Jenner's concept in the 1500's might this have saved the American tribes from the worst of the plagues that affected them?

But would cowpox be quite so harmless to the natives as it was to Europeans and Asians? After all, no cows in pre-Columbian America = no cowpox.
 
But would cowpox be quite so harmless to the natives as it was to Europeans and Asians? After all, no cows in pre-Columbian America = no cowpox.

Quite - and transmission of cowpox to the Americas proved difficult, even when done intentionally. The Spanish resorted to deliberately infecting a chain of young boys to maintain a live virus during the sea crossing.

However, cowpox doesn't appear to have been the main hazard associated with vaccination, the main hazard would appear to have been co-vaccination with other infectious diseases (like syphllyis) with which the vacccine provider was infected (hence the young boys).

So it could have been implemented earlier if discovered and may have reduced the depopulation of the Americas to some degree

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1381857/pdf/pubhealthrep00041-0030.pdf
 
Fascinating WI...

Even with the 1-2% death rate this is far better than OTL's "pray the rosary and God will protect you" plan. Assuming Europeans willingly went for such "heathen magic", this could cause serious demographic butterflies in Europe. Still plenty of other diseases the keep populations in check, most notably the Bubonic Plague, but Small Pox is a biggie for sure.

Not sure how much if any this helps native Americans, as the cure may be nearly as dangerous as the disease in "virgin populations", particularly with all the other diseases that'll devastate them. Besides, I doubt any early Red Cross is going to mass-innoculate "savages" out of Christian charity. First use will be in keeping native slave stocks alive. Later in keeping the converts alive...strangely this might aid conversion if it looks like seeking Christ indeed protects you from the sickness.
 
There is a difference between inoculation and vaccination. Jenner invented the first vaccine. Vaccines imply that someone cannot get the disease from it because changes have been made to weaken or reduce the agent. Inoculation uses the unweakened live pathogen (albeit controlled in ways to make it safer), which means the subject may get the disease.

Jenner made a huge breakthrough which is why he is remembered. He did not introduce inoculation which was already in use in Western Europe (and also in America, I believe George Washington ordered the Contintental Army to be innoculated). It was already known. What Jenner did was something new and was not the same.

However, people did get sick and die from inoculation (or survive but have some scarring) so it was not entirely trusted.

So inoculation can be introduced earlier than in our time line, but don't confuse what Jenner did with the process. He did something better.

For inoculation to be widespread, it means the medical community has to understand it in terms of their medical theories of the day. This would be quite an advance, but given its efficacy it would happen. I see a couple of big impacts.

1) Unknown impact of how diseases would spread in the New World. Although the less developed tribes would still be horribly killed, the Spanish would likely inoculate their allies in Mesoamerica. Substantially larger native populations in much of Mexica and Peru.

2) It would approve the ability of European armies to not get sick and die off. Armies that first inoculate would have an advantage of those that don't. It will likely take some time before this becomes standard practice in Europe for all armies. But in the meantime, lots of butterflies.
 
Well, you need a lot of handwavium for it to be introduced, but there is no reason why it couldn't be.

You are always going to have issues with inoculation, so I don't see it being completely widespread. As long as there is a chance of dying or being scarred, there will always be a large group of people preferring to not do it. I certainly don't see it entering the common population except during periods of big epidemics. I don't know much about the subject, but I don't think inoculation was ever done on a massive scale even in those areas which previously did it. It was an elite thing. (I could be wrong, someone who knows better please chime in - I could China being the exception).

A big factor is that in the pre-modern period, the state is simply too weak to inoculate the mass of people. It doesn't have the money or institutional capacity to mandate and enforce universal inoculation. I really only see inoculation being done by the nobility and royal families, and perhaps done for any armies raised in order to cut down on casaulties. The rich middle classes would also take advantage of it during times of epidemics.

However, once it's proven to be effective, it will be studied by the medical schools at the university. This is going to have an effect on the theories of disease while people try to figure out why it works, why it doesn't work with other diseases, and how such a technique might work for other types of diseases.
 
Top