Medicine - Method of inoculation for smallpox (Holwell, 1767)

Excerpts from Dharampalji's book Indian Science and Technology in the 18th Century (1971)

Inoculation is performed in Indostan by a particular tribe of Bramins, who are delegated annually for this service from the different colleges of Bindobund, Eleabas, Banaras, etc. over all the distant provinces; dividing themselves into small parties, of three or four each, they plan their travelling circuits in such wise as to arrive at the places of their perspective destination some weeks before the usual return of disease; they organise commonly in the Bengall provinces early in February, although they some years they do not begin to inoculate before March, deferring it until they consider the state of the season, and acquire information of the state of the distemper.

The inhabitants of Bengall, knowing the usual time when the Bramins annually return, observe strictly the regimen enjoined, whether they determine to be inoculated or not; this preparation consists only in abstaining for a month from fish, milk, and ghee (a kind of butter made generally of buffalo's milk); the prohibition of fish respects only the native Portuguese and Mahomedans, who abound in every province of the empire.

When the Bramins begin to inoculate, they pass from house to house and operate at the door, refusing to inoculate any who have not, on a strict security, duly observed the preparatory course enjoined them. It is no uncommon thing for them to ask the parents how many pocks they choose their children should have: Vanity, we should think, urged a question on a matter seemingly so uncertain in the issue; but true it is, that they hardly ever exceed, or are different, in the number required.

When the before recited treatment of the inoculated is strictly followed, it is next to a miracle to hear, that one in a million fails of receiving the infection, or of one that miscarries under it; of the multitudes I have seen inoculated in that country, the number of pustules have been seldom less than fifty, and hardly ever exceeded two hundred. Since, therefore, this practice of the East has been followed without variation, and with uniform success from the remote known times, it is but justice to conclude, it must have been originally founded on the basis of rational principles and experiment.

By K. Kesava Rao
Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Science
Bengaluru 560012, India
kesava@iisc.ac.in

...To be continued ...

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