smallpox

Author Stephen Coss brings to life an amazing cast of characters in a year that changed the course of medical history, American journalism, and colonial politics. Featured players were Cotton Mather, the great Puritan preacher and son of the president of Harvard College; Zabdiel Boylston, a doctor whose name is on one of Boston's grand avenues; James Franklin and his younger brother Benjamin Franklin; and Elisha Cooke and his protege, Samuel Adams. In 1721, during the worst smallpox epidemic in Boston history, Mather convinced Doctor Boylston to try a procedure that he believed would prevent death--by making an incision in the arm of a healthy person and implanting it with smallpox. "Inoculation" led to vaccination, one of the most profound medical discoveries in history. But the public did not understand this. Outrage forced Boylston into hiding and Mather's house was firebombed. In the meantime, the colonies were chafing under the control of the English Crown and began thinking about independence, aided by Benjamin Franklin's skills as a journalist and printer. Between medicine and politics, the atmosphere in Boston in 1721 simmered for years and ultimately boiled over, leading to the full drama of the American Revolution many years later.

While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox. Mitty finds an envelope containing 100-year-old small pox scabs and fears that he has infected himself and all of New York City.

In a world riddled with diseases, there is only one that has been eliminated from humanity: smallpox. Learn about the compelling history of this disease, why it still exists in laboratories and research facilities around the world, and how what we learn about it now may affect humanity's future.

Discusses smallpox, covering vaccinations, inoculation, and the possibility of its return.

An African father tells his son about the disaster that followed the night a baby with smallpox was abandoned in his family's house.

Frances Irvine, destitute in the wake of her father's sudden death, is forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Cape. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men, leading her into the dark heart of the diamond mines. Torn between passion and integrity, she makes a choice that has devastating consequences.

Examines smallpox and how the vaccine came to be discovered.