This content was created by Maren Ehlers.
Immunization Scene from the TV Series "John Adams"
1 media/Het_eiland_Deshima_in_de_baai_van_Nagasaki_Keiga_Kawahara,_ca_1825 (1)_thumb.jpg 2020-11-12T13:19:34-05:00 Maren Ehlers 18502c6775e5db37b999ee7b08c8c075867ca31d 35 5 This scene shows the immunization of Abigail Adams and her children against smallpox in 1776. Note that the method shown here involved injection with human smallpox rather than the less dangerous cowpox lymph. But the two methods were comparable in that they both required body-to-body transfers through incisions of the arm. plain 2020-11-13T11:25:21-05:00 20191205 215206 20191205 215206 Maren Ehlers 18502c6775e5db37b999ee7b08c8c075867ca31dThis page is referenced by:
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The Vaccination Procedure
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2020-11-12T13:21:41-05:00
Maren Ehlers
Vaccination against smallpox was a time-sensitive, sequential procedure. The goal was to immunize the human body against smallpox by implanting the cowpox virus (Variolae vaccinae), which belonged to the same family as the smallpox virus but resulted in a much milder case of illness. In the late eighteenth century, several physicians across Europe had proven the protective properties of the cowpox virus, and British doctor Edward Jenner pioneered a method that involved extracting lymph from a liquid-filled pock on the arm of a cowpox patient and transfering it to the arm of an uninfected person. Because the cowpox virus was not contagious among humans, physicians needed to intervene. The vaccinator typically made several incisions with a lancet on the upper arm of the receiving child to imbed the vaccine into the skin. The number of incisions depended on the age of the child. Before the procedure, physicians had to confirm that the child was not currently suffering from any other illness such as scabies that might interact with the vaccine and interfere with immunization.
Next, vaccinators had to monitor the child's reaction. After three or four days, they checked whether pocks had appeared at the incision site. Between six and eight days after transfer, the pocks were considered ripe for extraction, and vaccinators could decide to use the child as a supplier for vaccinating other children. In Japan, physicians used the term tōbo ("pox base;" literally: "pox mother") for children who provided lymph for further vaccinations.
Vaccination required careful attention to time and space. To succeed, physicians had to prepare and expose the human body to the cowpox virus and then transfer the virus to another suitable host at just the right point in time. Ideally, both bodies would be present at the same place at time of transfer so that the lymph would not be exposed to the elements for too long. Physicians also experimented with glass and other containers to preserve scab and lymph for later use and transport them over long distances. Although they sometimes succeeded, they considered these methods far less reliable than arm-to-arm transfer between children.
Part of the vaccinator's job was to detect so-called "false pocks" (or "spurious pocks"). In some cases, vaccinated children developed pocks that superficially resembled genuine cowpox but in fact constituted reactions to other infections or bacterial contamination. Proper classification of "false pocks" was crucial because the children who developed them remained unprotected from the smallpox virus. If a child was found to display false pocks, vaccinators usually decided to revaccinate and repeat all the necessary steps.
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