Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762)
Production date
18th Century
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Details
Description
Oil on tin, held by Dumfries House
Copyright: The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust
Copyright: The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust
History
Lady Mary Wortley, a writer and poet, brought the practice of variolation to England. As the wife of the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, she saw variolation first-hand while living in Turkey and volunteered her four-year-old son to undergo the procedure. On her return to London in 1718, she used her position and connections to campaign and advocate for the adoption of smallpox variolation.
What was variolation?
Before the discovery of vaccination, variolation was the procedure used for protection against smallpox. It involved taking pus from a smallpox blister of a person with a mild form of the disease and infecting a healthy person with it to prevent the full disease from developing. However, variolation involved risks, and some people died from the mild dose of smallpox they were given.
Note: Variolation is not in use today. See our Covid-19 vaccine FAQs: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-help/coronavirus/coronavirus-vaccine/coronavirus-vaccine-faq
What was variolation?
Before the discovery of vaccination, variolation was the procedure used for protection against smallpox. It involved taking pus from a smallpox blister of a person with a mild form of the disease and infecting a healthy person with it to prevent the full disease from developing. However, variolation involved risks, and some people died from the mild dose of smallpox they were given.
Note: Variolation is not in use today. See our Covid-19 vaccine FAQs: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-help/coronavirus/coronavirus-vaccine/coronavirus-vaccine-faq
Catalogue Number
150.29
Subject Person and Role
Mary Montagu (b.1689, d.1762)
Subject Person
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Object Types
Part of 1 highlight set
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