n amazing author, even though at the time when she lived, writing was not appreciated, but rather laughed at. Smallpox was a cause especially dear to her heart because when she was younger both she and her brother had the virus. It took his life and her beauty, leaving her with pockmarks all over her face and no eyelashes. When she heard and of the inoculation process in Constantinople, she wrote a letter to a friend in London saying, "The smallpox, so fatal, and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless by the invention of ingrafting, which is the term they give it. There is a set of old women who make it their buisness to perform the operation, every autumn in the month of September, when the great heat is abated." (Appendix C) Ingrafting a process which was done by the old women of Constantinople. It was much like the process used by the Chinese, but instead of injecting the powdered scabs from the infected into the nostrils of the healthy; the powder was injected into a scratch that they made into the recipients' upper arm. In 1718, Lady Mary had her son inoculated by an old Greek woman while the Montagu family was still residing in Turkey. An embassy physician, Charles Maitland was also present at his inoculation. The inoculation went perfectly, and the family continued to live in Turkey until 1721, when they moved back to London. Just as they moved to London, a pestilence of smallpox hit the city. Lady Mary decided to have her four-year-old daughter inoculated. The same doctor, Charles Maitland, performed the operation by himself this time, and it was the first professional inoculation done in England. Princess Caroline had her daughters inoculated, and procedure was given the royal seal of approval. Inoculation was still, however, not expansively used in Great Britain. One of the main reasons that people were hesitant about adapting this new trend was that they were afraid of possible infections by those who were in...
