Vaccinating the Poor, Smallpox Epidemic, 1872

Vaccinating the Poor, depicting smallpox vaccination of the poor in New York police station during the 1872 smallpox epidemic. A racially-mixed group of men, women, and children observe a physician as he vaccinates the tattooed left arm of a burly young man. In 1796 Edward Jenner, an English doctor, coined the word vaccination to describe his use of cowpox inoculation to obtain immunity to smallpox. Smallpox was a terrible disease, epidemics of which often had a mortality rate of 20% and left survivors disfigured. Jenner inoculated a boy with fluid obtained from a cowpox blister on the hand of a milk-maid. He later inoculated the boy with smallpox but found him to be immune. Vaccination soon became widespread and eradicated the disease in Europe and the US. This image has been color enhanced

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Clinic Enhancement Epidemic Healthcare Initiative Inoculated Mixed Plague Preventative Racially Smallpox Underclass Vaccination Vaccine Variola

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