18th-Century Smallpox Inoculation Based on Susanna C. Heath’s Diary

This article explores late 18th-century smallpox inoculation from the patient’s perspective, based on an inoculation journal written by Susannah Craft Heath. A resident of Brookline, Massachusetts, Heath was inoculated at the William Aspinwall’s Inoculation Hospital in her hometown during the 1792 smallpox epidemic. Due to the scarcity of patients’ records, the methods and processes of smallpox inoculation have been reconstructed mainly from published medical books, which present a detailed record of doctors’ perspectives on the medical procedure while underrepresenting or disregarding those of patients. In such a historiography, an inoculated patient appears as a passive object whose experience and opinions are conveyed only through their doctors’ records in a limited manner. Taking advantage of Heath’s hospitalization record, this study gives voice to an 18th-century inoculation patient’s physical and emotional responses to inoculation technology in its unique 18th-century medical context. In doing so, this article presents smallpox inoculation as a complex procedure and experience involving the intermingling of various aspects, including medical intervention, community activities, and caring for the sick.