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Smallpox

Smallpox

Collection: Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925    Volumes    Smallpox

This volume is concerned with smallpox. Caused by the Variola virus, smallpox is regarded as one of the deadliest diseases in human history. It is characterised by an initial fever and vomiting, followed by the formation of a distinctive rash with fluid-filled blisters. Mortality rates were extremely high, particularly for young children. Smallpox was a leading cause of death in eighteenth century Europe. It frequently left survivors disabled. In the late eighteenth century, physician Edward Jenner developed a smallpox vaccine that utilised cowpox for the purposes of inoculation—he realised that people who had contracted cowpox seemed immune to smallpox. The introduction of the smallpox vaccine led to a significant reduction in smallpox cases worldwide and ultimately led to the eradication of the disease.

This volume tracks responses to smallpox in the UK throughout the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century. The volume also contains documentation regarding smallpox dating from the eighteenth century. The documents within this collection were sourced from four leading UK archives: The National Archives, British Library, University College London, and London Metropolitan Archives. A complete item listing for this collection can be found here.

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C.194.a.1203: Two Treatises: The First of Blood-Letting, and The Diseases to Be Cured Thereby. The Second of Cupping and Scarifying, and The Diseases To Be Cured Thereby By Nich Culpeper

Date:1616-1654
Contributor:British Library
Identifier:73754-D87
Archive Reference(s):C.194.a.1203

1039.b.7: The Charitable Physitian By Philbert Guibert Esquire

Date:1639-1639
Contributor:British Library
Identifier:73754-D68
Archive Reference(s):1039.b.7.

C.31.c.48: Help for The Poor, Collected for The Benefit of Such as Are Not Able to Make Use of Physitians and Chirurgions, or Live Remote From Them

Date:1653-1653
Contributor:British Library
Identifier:73754-D89
Archive Reference(s):C.31.c.48.

C.192.a.35: A Choice Manual, or Rare and Select Secrets in Physick and Chyrurgery: Collected, and Practiced By The Right Honorable, Countesse of Kent

Date:1659-1659
Contributor:British Library
Identifier:73754-D86
Archive Reference(s):C.192.a.35

C.194.a.396: Galen's Art of Physick

Date:1671-1671
Contributor:British Library
Identifier:73754-D88
Archive Reference(s):C.194.a.396

MS 71626: Diary of Anne Dawson

Date:1721-1722
Contributor:British Library
Identifier:73754-D75
Archive Reference(s):Add MS 71626

RB.23.a.1378: A Collection of Pamphlets Containing The Way and Manner of Inoculating the Smallpox Both in Britain and New England

Date:1722-1722
Contributor:British Library
Identifier:73754-D91
Archive Reference(s):RB.23.a.1378

1174.h.22.(3.): The New Practice of Inoculating The Smallpox

Date:1722-1722
Contributor:British Library
Identifier:73754-D71
Archive Reference(s):1174.h.22.(3.)
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