...in 1721, Boston doctor Zabdiel Boylston took a gamble with
his young son's life and inoculated him against smallpox.
Puritan minister Cotton Mather had learned from one of his
slaves that in Africa people did not fear the disease that so
terrified Europeans. The Africans placed a small amount of
smallpox pus into a scratch on children's arms, thus making them
immune to the disease. When an epidemic broke out in Boston in
1721, Mather wanted to try this method. He convinced Dr.
Boylston, but other physicians and the public thought the idea
barbaric, even sinful. However, when those Boylston inoculated
survived, the tide of public opinion began to turn. Within a few
years, the once-controversial practice would be routine. Called
"the speckled monster," smallpox was considered "the most
terrible of all the ministers of death." Because it spreads
through infected saliva droplets, smallpox is easily transmitted
by face-to-face contact. Once a person is exposed to the Variola
virus (the scientific name for small