1721 Boston Smallpox Epidemic

Timelines — History of Vaccines

The Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Cotton Mather

1721

Boston Smallpox Epidemic

Smallpox raged through Boston in 1721, ending in 844 deaths. During this epidemic, physician Zabdiel Boylston, at Cotton Mather's urging, variolated 248 people, thereby introducing variolation to the Americas. Of those variolated, six died. The case fatality for variolation was about 3%, and the disease case fatality was 14%. About 900 people left town for fear of catching the disease.

At Harvard, the chambermaid of Cotton Mather’s son Samuel contracted smallpox. Samuel’s brother Increase encouraged his father to have Samuel variolated by Boylston, and Samuel survived the procedure.

Mather was widely criticized for his role in promoting variolation: a primitive grenade was thrown through a window of his house. The attached note threatened “COTTON MATHER, You Dog, Dam you. I’ll inoculate you with this, with a Pox to you.”