ANN ARBOR—Politicians and various health organizations are debating over who should receive the smallpox vaccine, but this isn’t a new argument.

It is one that has been going on in the United States since the early 1700s. In 1722 Benjamin Colman published A Narrative of the Method and Success of Inoculating the Small Pox in New England. An original copy, part of the holdings in the University of Michigan’s Clements Library, presents the pros and cons of inoculation at that time. By 1721, Boston had between 15,000 and 16,000 people, 100 of whom had died of smallpox. An early Boston Newsletter called inoculating the population against the disease “wicked and felonious,” comparing the introduction of the vaccine into the body as putting “the most venomous poison in the blood.”

At that time the practice of inoculation involved taking matter from a young person who had contracted the disease in normal fashion. That matter was then introduced into a “well” person through a slight incision. There were some side effects to the vaccination.

“This makes him dull and heavy for a day or two, and presently he finds himself well,” Colman reported. “The pock appears, rises, turns, and goes off without any more illness or pain.” Yet Colman also reported that the common people of Boston opposed vaccination. Some opposed the practice “out of a regard to the Public Good.” Others objected because of the chance of spreading infection. Medical practice at the time included “purges and vomits.”

And as one advocate of vaccinating against smallpox said “Now, if I may lawfully make my self sick by taking something in at my mouth, why not by putting something in at my arm?” There were those from the churches who argued that small pox was “a judgment of God, sent to punish mall Pox is a judgment of God, sent to punish and humble us for our sins.”

Related Links:

• Benjamin Colman
• Clements Library