Department of History
University of California, Irvine
Instructor: Dr. Barbara J. Becker
 The Small Pox in Turkey excerpts from letters from Adrianople (1717-1718) by Lady Wortley Montagu (1689-1762)  |
| 1 April 1717
To her friend Sarah Chiswell, in England--
...Those dreadfull Storys you have heard of the plague have very little foundation in Truth. I own I have much ado to reconcile my selfe to the Sound of a Word which has allways given me such terrible Ideas, thô I am convinc'd there is little more in it than a fever, as a proffe of which we past through 2 or 3 Towns most violently infected. In the very next house where we lay, in one of 'em, 2 persons dy'd of it. Luckily for me I was so well deceiv'd that I knew nothing of the matter, and I was made beleive that our 2nd Cook who fell ill there had only a great cold. However, we left our Doctor to take care of him, and yesterday they both arriv'd here in good Health and I am now let into the Secret that he has had the Plague. There are many that 'scape of it, neither is the air ever infected. I am perswaded it would be as easy to root it out here as out of Italy and France, but it does so little mischeife, they are not very solicitous about it and are content to suffer this distemper instead of our Variety, which they are utterly unacquanted with. A propos of Distempers, I am going to tell you a thing, that I am sure will make you wish your selfe here. The Small Pox so fatal and so general amongst us is here entirely harmless by the invention of engrafting (which is the term they give it). There is a set of old Women, who make it their business to perform the Operation. Every Autumn, in the month of September, when the great Heat is abated, people send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the small pox. They make partys for this purpose, and when they are met (commonly 15 or 16 together) the old Woman comes with a nutshell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox and asks what veins you please to have open'd. She immediately rips open that you offer to her with a large needle (which gives you no more pain than a common scratch) and puts into the vein as much venom as can lye upon the head of her needle, and after binds up the little wound with a hollow bit of shell, and in this manner opens 4 or 5 veins. The Grecians have commonly the superstition of opening one in the Middle of the forehead, in each arm and on the breast to mark the sign of the cross, but this has a very ill Effect, all these wounds leaving little Scars, and is not done by those that are not superstitious, who chuse to have them in the legs or that part of the arm that is conceal'd. The children or young patients play together all the rest of the day and are in perfect health till the 8th. Then the fever begins to seize 'em and they keep their beds 2 days, very seldom 3. They have very rarely above 20 or 30 in their faces, which never mark, and in 8 days time they are as well as before their illness. Where they are wounded there remains running sores during the Distemper, which I don't doubt is a great releife to it. Every year thousands undergo this Operation, and the French Ambassador says pleasantly that they take the Small pox here by way of diversion as they take the Waters in other Countrys. There is no example of any one that has dy'd in it, and you may beleive I am very well satisfy'd of the safety of the Experiment since I intend to try it on my dear little Son [Edward]. I am Patriot enough to take the pains to bring this usefull invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our doctors very particularly about it if I knew any one of 'em that I thought had Virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of their Revenue, for the good of Mankind, but that Distemper is too beneficial to them, not to expose to all their Resentment, the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it. Perhaps if I live to return I may, however, have courrage to war with 'em. Upon this Occasion, admire the Heroism in the heart of your Friend....
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23 March 1718 To her husband, Wortley-- ...The Boy [Edward Wortley Montagu, Junior] was engrafted last Tusday [18 March], and is at this time singing and playing and very impatient for his supper. I pray God my next [letter] may give as good an Account of him.... I cannot engraft the Girl [her one-month-old daughter, Mary]; her Nurse has not had the small Pox.
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1 April 1718 To her husband, Wortley-- ...Your Son is as well as can be expected, and I hope past all manner of danger... 
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by Dr. Charles Maitland, Embassy Surgeon The Ambassador's ingenious Lady, who had been at some Pains to satisfy her Curiosity in this Matter, and had made some useful Observations on the Practice, was so thoroughly convinced of the Safety of it, that She resolv'd to submit her only Son to it, a very hopeful Boy of about Six Years of Age: She first of all order'd me to find out a fit Subject to take the Matter from; and then sent for an old Greek Woman, who had practis'd this Way a great many Years: After a good deal of Trouble and Pains, I found a proper Subject, and then the good Woman went to work; but so awkwardly by the shaking of her Hand, and put the Child to so much Torture with her blunt and rusty Needle, that I pitied his Cries, who had ever been of such Spirit and Courage, that hardly any Thing of Pain could make him cry before; and therefore Inoculated the other Arm with my own Instrument, and with so little Pain to him, that he did not in the least complain of it.
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