One method of prevention was inoculation. This involved putting pus from an infected person's scab into a cut on a healthy person's body. This allowed the body to develop natural resistance to the infection, protecting it in future: it would become 'inoculated'.

Although inoculation did sometimes protect people from smallpox, there were 3 main problems with its use.

• ❖ It was dangerous. Although inoculated patients usually only got a mild dose of smallpox, there was no guarantee of this. Sometimes they developed a severe case that could kill them.
• ❖ Patients were contagious after being inoculated, and might infect other people. They were supposed to spend some time in quarantine afterwards.
• ❖ It was offered by high-status doctors, who might charge as much as £20 for an inoculation (the equivalent of about £1,500 in today's money). This meant that it just wasn't available to ordinary people.