Smallpox in Boston: A Complex Affair
695 views · Published 6 May 2014 · 35:29 · Indexed 24 October 2026
Channel: GBH Forum Network · 2014 · Education
Professor emeritus Philip Cash lectures on the history of the smallpox epidemic in Boston. The debate surrounding Smallpox inoculation in Boston began in 1721 when an epidemic struck the town. The Reverend Cotton Mather attempted to convince physicians to try the then controversial practice of inoculation, without success. In 1800, Benjamin Waterhouse, a Harvard professor of medicine, became the first person to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States. His first test subject was his 5-year-old son Daniel whom he infected with a sample of cowpox sent from England.
More from this channel
-
2:34
Shawn Kelly: Bionic Being and the New Prosthetics
-
1:00:11
Dambisa Moyo: "How the West was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly"
-
1:00:00
Edward Glaeser: "Triumph of the City"
-
44:01
Amir Aczel: "Present at the Creation: The Story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider"
-
54:08
Izzeldin Abuelaish: "A Gaza Doctor on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity"
-
1:00:02
Kenji Yoshino - Uncovering the Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights
-
1:22:06
Rabbi Michael Lerner - Left Hand of God: Responding to the Religious Right
-
56:56
David Kennedy - Of War and Law