The Romance of 18th Century Science: Smallpox!

 

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CC BY 4.0Smallpox was a dread disease in the eighteenth century. The fatality rate is estimated to have been between 20% and 60%, and higher still in infants. Those who survived were often scarred; some were blind. 
Dr. Parkins pretty much sums up the value of the treatments available for smallpox (The English Physician, 1810): Alkanet root “…is as gallant a remedy to drive out the small pox and measles as any ...