In April 1721, at a villa in Twickenham, a doctor named Charles Maitland deliberately scratched the skin of a three-year-old girl, and rubbed into the wounds pus he had taken from the sores of a smallpox victim. It was the first time anyone in England had been inoculated, said Lucasta Miller in The Daily Telegraph – and the person who made it happen was the child’s mother, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the subject of this “passionate” biography. Lady Mary had come across the procedure while living in Constantinople, during her husband’s posting as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Known at the time as “engrafting”, the practice was common in Turkey, where the pus would be put into walnut shells and strapped onto the patient’s cuts. About a week later, patients would develop a mild fever – and be left with “lifelong immunity”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
