Epidemics of the past: the response of Christian Malford

In conducting historical research in lots of different parishes in several counties, I have found that despite their socio-economic differences, one thing has generally unified them, the spectre of smallpox. Smallpox was an extremely contagious disease, and the risk of death once contracted was 1 in 3.  Survivors could be made blind or, at the very least, extensively scarred. It was a constant presence and intermittent epidemic.  The experience of Christian Malford was no different.  However, in the years before a vaccine was developed, one method was available to try and stop contagion, inoculation.

In one early example of mass inoculation, in 1792, Dr Underwood inoculated over 150 of the poor of Christian Malford against the disease.  The community paid the significant expense after cases began to appear in January.  It was a brave move. The method used was to apply matter from the smallpox pustules of those who had fully contracted the disease to the skin or nasal passages of those who had not. The idea being the resulting infection would be milder than if the disease had been naturally contracted. The beneficiary would, after that, remain free from the disease for life.  This approach, which some English practitioners had used for several decades, had risks, not least the possibility of the recipient developing a severe case of the disease or passing the infection onto others.  Consequently, after being inoculated, individuals needed to be quarantined.  I have not yet determined how effective this move was in the parish, but it seems that despite the inherent risk, inhabitants complied.  However, smallpox did not disappear from the area; it hit Chippenham the following year necessitating many more inoculations. 

In the time of Covid, the experience of smallpox in earlier centuries causes me to be grateful to live in an age of vaccines but also to wonder if we can still learn something from the approaches of the past.

~Louise Ryland-Epton