variolation

Variolation was the original way that doctors immunized people against smallpox. The process of variolation involved infecting a healthy person with tissue or fluid of a person with smallpox.

Variolation required the healthy patient to have tissue from a person with active smallpox (or who had recovered from smallpox) inserted into scratches on the skin. When variolation was "successful," the patient had a very mild case of smallpox, a disease which was often deadly. Ultimately, this method was found to be ineffective, and it was replaced in the late 1700s by the smallpox vaccine. Variolation comes from variola, "smallpox," and the Latin varius, "changing" or "spotted."

Definitions of variolation

1. noun

   the obsolete process of inoculating a susceptible person with material taken from a vesicle of a person who has smallpox
   synonyms: variolization

   type of:

   inoculating, vaccinating

   the act of protecting against disease by introducing a vaccine into the body to induce immunity