When Mitty finds an envelope containing scabs from the 1902 smallpox epidemic, his life is

turned upside down. A scab crumbles to dust in his hand as his nose starts to itch...nothing

will be the same.

Mitty Blake couldn’t care less about his grades or school until his biology teacher, Mr. Lynch

assigns a paper on an infection disease. Having no idea what he should start researching two

days before it is due Mitty pulls some old books medical books on infectious diseases. There he learns of small pox, a very deadly disease that

killed thousands. And although he knows smallpox no longer exists, he can’t help but

wonder if maybe he is bringing it back to life.

DEFENITIONS

Variola Major: a severe case of smallpox with fatality rate at 30%

Pox: Latin word for spotted, referring to raised

bumps that appear on an infected victim.

Smallpox: a highly contagious disease unique to humans known as Variola Major or Variola

Minor depending on severance

Inoculation: a vaccination taken to prevent the contraction of a disease

Vaccination: administration of a substance that

cause an immune response to something

INOCULATIONS

China – insufflation

The Chinese believed that through inhaling the dust of smallpox scabs that they were immunizing themselves. They would take

smallpox scabs of an infected person, grind them up and inhale them through the nose.

This practice however was given up after studies proved it actually increased the

chances of getting infected with smallpox.

Turkey – slumber parties

Turkish mothers held huge slumber parties for all the kids on their block to immunize them of smallpox. They would scrape the child’s arm and rub in pus from a smallpox victim. The result was that the kids would have a mild

case of smallpox but survive with no scars on the child’s body. They did this because they

noticed that when you become infected with smallpox no matter how mild or severe it was, if you managed to survive, you were immune

for life.

COW POX

In 1796 Edward Jenner discovered that cowpox can be used as a cure for smallpox.

He had observed how dairy maids who works with cows never got smallpox, because they

had cowpox. Jenner cuts a kid’s arm open and places cowpox virus in the scrape. A couple of weeks later Jenner cuts open the child’s arm again and inserts smallpox into the cut. He

thought it was safe because cowpox does give the body some damage, but it is not

permanent and it fades after 4 – 6 weeks after infection. This is called a challenge, were it either works or it doesn’t. We don’t use it

very often today without plenty of research because it is someone’s life on the line. But

Jenner’s hypothesis was right. Cowpox prevented smallpox from entering the body.

Vaccine was also created in this process because of the involvement of the cow.

Vaccus in Latin means cow. Now, though we take a very small part of a dead virus and

inject it into our bodies to build up immunity.

A Young Boy with smallpox

A cowpox ulcer

The Envelope That Started It All