Engrafting against Smallpox
- Written
- April 1, 1717 (Old Style); published 1763
- Place
- Adrianople
- Language
- English
- Kind of source
- letter
- Reading time
- 5 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Intensity
- Low: plague deaths mentioned briefly; the engrafting is described plainly, nothing graphic
SmallpoxInoculation and vaccinationPlague
Once in a Lifetime themes: Unknowns
An old woman arrives with a nutshell full of smallpox matter and a large needle. She opens four or five veins on each child, puts in a drop of the matter, and binds up the cuts with a bit of shell. Eight days later the children have a mild fever, and soon they are well.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) wrote this letter from Adrianople (modern Edirne, Turkey), then a seat of the Ottoman court. Her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, had been named British ambassador in 1716, and early in 1717 the family traveled overland from Vienna to Adrianople, where they stayed about two months. The letter is addressed to Sarah Chiswell, a friend from her childhood in Nottinghamshire. Lady Mary had survived smallpox herself before the journey; it cost her her eyelashes, and it had killed her only brother.
She describes engrafting as people around her explained it. Her claim that no one died of it is what she was told. On the plague she was kept in the dark by her own household, as she says. She kept her promise about her son: in March 1718, at Pera near Constantinople, an old Greek woman and Charles Maitland, the surgeon who attended the embassy, engrafted him.
The printed letter is not exactly the letter she sent. Lady Mary later copied her Turkish letters into a manuscript book, reworking them from her journal into what one editor called a book of travels. A short list of her letters sent on April 1, 1717 survives in her hand; under Mrs. C—l [Chiswell] it reads only “Pomp. Country agreeable. No particulars. Homage.” The letters were printed in London in 1763, the year after her death, in an edition her family had not authorized. She wrote with an eye on readers in England, and on the doctors she expected to oppose her.
Watch how she weighs the plague against smallpox, and what she says about the doctors back home.
What we know now
Engrafting, also called inoculation and later variolation, did protect most people for life, but it was not harmless. A WHO history of smallpox puts deaths after it at about 0.5 to 2 percent, against 20 to 30 percent after smallpox caught the natural way. The engrafted could also pass full smallpox to people around them (Fenner et al. 1988). Lady Mary had her daughter inoculated in London in 1721, and the practice spread in Britain in the following decades. From 1796 Edward Jenner’s safer cowpox vaccine gradually replaced it, and smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980.
Read alongside
- What the Africans of Boston Knew about Inoculation
In Boston in 1721 Cotton Mather and Zabdiel Boylston argued for the same practice, learned from Africans in the town and from reports out of Constantinople. Compare whose knowledge each writer relies on, and how each describes the people who taught it.
- A Sermon against Inoculation
A year after Lady Mary had her daughter inoculated in London, the clergyman Edmund Massey preached that inoculation was against God’s will. Set her confidence that no one died beside his fears, and ask what each could know.
- Instructions for Vaccine Inoculation
Edward Jenner’s instructions of 1801 describe the cowpox vaccine that replaced engrafting. Compare the step-by-step care he asks of doctors with the old women’s nutshell and needle.
The edited translation, in simplified modern English. Bracketed words were added for clarity; [...] marks a cut. Tap a note number to read the note.
In my opinion, dear S.,1 I ought rather to quarrel with you for not answering my Nimeguen2 letter of August till December than to excuse my not writing again till now. I am sure there is on my side a very good excuse for silence, having gone such tiresome land journeys, though I don’t find the conclusion of them so bad as you seem to imagine. I am very easy here, and not in the solitude you fancy me. The great number of Greeks, French, English, and Italians that are under our protection make their court to me from morning till night, and, I’ll assure you, are, many of them, very fine ladies. For there is no possibility for a Christian to live easily under this government but by the protection of an ambassador3—and the richer they are, the greater is their danger.
Those dreadful stories you have heard of the plague have very little foundation in truth. I own I have much ado to reconcile myself to the sound of a word which has always given me such terrible ideas, though I am convinced there is little more in it than in a fever. As a proof of this, let me tell you that we passed through two or three towns most violently infected. In the very next house where we lay (in one of those places) two persons died of it. Luckily for me, I was so well received4 that I knew nothing of the matter, and I was made believe that our second cook had only a great cold. However, we left our doctor to take care of him, and yesterday they both arrived here in good health. And I am now let into the secret that he has had the plague. There are many that escape it; neither is the air ever infected.5 I am persuaded that it would be as easy a matter to root it out here as out of Italy and France. But it does so little mischief, they are not very solicitous about it, and are content to suffer this distemper instead of our variety,6 which they are utterly unacquainted with.
Apropos of distempers, I am going to tell you a thing that will make you wish yourself here. The smallpox, so fatal and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless, by the invention of engrafting,7 which is the term they give it. There is a set of old women who make it their business to perform the operation every autumn, in the month of September, when the great heat is abated. People send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the smallpox. They make parties for this purpose, and when they are met (commonly fifteen or sixteen together) the old woman comes with a nutshell full of the matter of the best sort of smallpox,8 and asks what veins you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that you offer to her with a large needle (which gives you no more pain than a common scratch), and puts into the vein as much matter as can lie upon the head of her needle, and after that binds up the little wound with a hollow bit of shell; and in this manner opens four or five veins. The Grecians9 have commonly the superstition of opening one in the middle of the forehead, one in each arm, and one on the breast, to mark the sign of the cross. But this has a very ill effect, all these wounds leaving little scars, and is not done by those that are not superstitious, who choose to have them in the legs, or that part of the arm that is concealed. The children or young patients play together all the rest of the day, and are in perfect health to the eighth. Then the fever begins to seize them, and they keep their beds two days, very seldom three. They have very rarely above twenty or thirty in their faces,10 which never mark, and in eight days’ time they are as well as before their illness. Where they are wounded, there remain running sores during the distemper, which I don’t doubt is a great relief to it.11
Every year thousands undergo this operation, and the French ambassador says pleasantly that they take the smallpox here by way of diversion, as they take the waters12 in other countries. There is no example of anyone that has died in it, and you may believe I am well satisfied of the safety of this experiment, since I intend to try it on my dear little son.13 I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this useful invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our doctors very particularly about it, if I knew any one of them that I thought had virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of their revenue for the good of mankind. But that distemper is too beneficial to them not to expose to all their resentment the hardy wight14 that should undertake to put an end to it. Perhaps, if I live to return, I may, however, have courage to war with them. Upon this occasion, admire the heroism in the heart of your friend, etc., etc.
Notes
- Sarah Chiswell of Nottingham, a friend of Lady Mary’s since childhood. The printed letters hide names behind initials. She died of smallpox about 1726. back
- Nimeguen (modern Nijmegen, in the Netherlands), where she had stopped on her journey east in 1716. back
- Her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. back
- The manuscript copy of the letters reads “deceived” here. The printed “received” may simply be a misreading of it. back
- Many believed that disease spread through corrupted air, foul or poisoned air often rising from rot or swamps. She reports that here no one thought the air itself carried the plague. back
- The meaning is uncertain. It may mean the many kinds of sickness common in England. Both the printed edition and the manuscript read “variety.” back
- Giving a person smallpox on purpose, by putting matter from a smallpox sore into a small cut, so as to cause a milder case and lasting protection. In English it was also called inoculation. back
- Pus from the sores of someone with smallpox. “The best sort” probably means a mild case. back
- Greek Orthodox Christians living under Ottoman rule. back
- That is, twenty or thirty pocks, the sores of smallpox. “Which never mark”: they leave no scars. back
- Like the doctors of her day, she assumes the disease is bad matter in the body that needs an outlet; the open sores let it drain. back
- Drink or bathe in mineral springs at a spa, for health. back
- Edward, her son, born in 1713. He was engrafted at Pera, near Constantinople, in March 1718. back
- Bold fellow. back
IN my opinion, dear S. I ought rather to quarrel with you, for not answering my Nimeguen letter of August, till December, than to excuse my not writing again till now. I am sure there is on my side a very good excuse for silence, having gone such tiresome land-journies, though I don't find the conclusion of them so bad as you seem to imagine. I am very easy here, and not in the solitude you fancy me. The great number of Greeks, French, English and Italians, that are under our protection, make their court to me from morning till night; and I'll assure you, are, many of them, very fine ladies; for there is no possibility for a Christian to live easily under this government, but by the protection of an Ambassador—and the richer they are, the greater is their danger.
In my opinion, dear S., I ought rather to quarrel with you for not answering my Nimeguen letter of August till December than to excuse my not writing again till now. I am sure there is on my side a very good excuse for silence, having gone such tiresome land journeys, though I don’t find the conclusion of them so bad as you seem to imagine. I am very easy here, and not in the solitude you fancy me. The great number of Greeks, French, English, and Italians that are under our protection make their court to me from morning till night, and, I’ll assure you, are, many of them, very fine ladies. For there is no possibility for a Christian to live easily under this government but by the protection of an ambassador—and the richer they are, the greater is their danger.
- Sarah Chiswell of Nottingham, a friend of Lady Mary’s since childhood. The printed letters hide names behind initials. She died of smallpox about 1726.
- Nimeguen (modern Nijmegen, in the Netherlands), where she had stopped on her journey east in 1716.
- Her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
Those dreadful stories you have heard of the Plague, have very little foundation in truth. I own, I have much ado to reconcile myself to the sound of a word, which has always given me such terrible ideas; though I am convinced there is little more in it, than in a fever. As a proof of this, let me tell you, that we passed through two or three towns most violently infected. In the very next house where we lay, (in one of those places) two persons died of it. Luckily for me, I was so well received, that I knew nothing of the matter; and I was made believe, that our second cook, had only a great cold. However we left our doctor to take care of him, and yesterday they both arrived here in good health; and I am now let into the secret, that he has had the Plague. There are many that escape it, neither is the air ever infected. I am persuaded that it would be as easy a matter to root it out here, as out of Italy and France; but it does so little mischief, they are not very solicitous about it, and are content to suffer this distemper, instead of our variety, which they are utterly unacquainted with.
Those dreadful stories you have heard of the plague have very little foundation in truth. I own I have much ado to reconcile myself to the sound of a word which has always given me such terrible ideas, though I am convinced there is little more in it than in a fever. As a proof of this, let me tell you that we passed through two or three towns most violently infected. In the very next house where we lay (in one of those places) two persons died of it. Luckily for me, I was so well received that I knew nothing of the matter, and I was made believe that our second cook had only a great cold. However, we left our doctor to take care of him, and yesterday they both arrived here in good health. And I am now let into the secret that he has had the plague. There are many that escape it; neither is the air ever infected. I am persuaded that it would be as easy a matter to root it out here as out of Italy and France. But it does so little mischief, they are not very solicitous about it, and are content to suffer this distemper instead of our variety, which they are utterly unacquainted with.
- The manuscript copy of the letters reads “deceived” here. The printed “received” may simply be a misreading of it.
- Many believed that disease spread through corrupted air, foul or poisoned air often rising from rot or swamps. She reports that here no one thought the air itself carried the plague.
- The meaning is uncertain. It may mean the many kinds of sickness common in England. Both the printed edition and the manuscript read “variety.”
A propós of distempers, I am going to tell you a thing, that will make you wish yourself here. The small-pox, so fatal, and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless, by the invention of engrafting, which is the term they give it. There is a set of old women, who make it their business to perform the operation, every autumn, in the month of September, when the great heat is abated. People send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the small pox; they make parties for this purpose, and when they are met (commonly fifteen or sixteen together) the old woman comes with a nut-shell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox, and asks what veins you please to have open'd. She immediately rips open that, you offer to her, with a large needle (which gives you no more pain than a common scratch) and puts into the vein, as much matter as can lie upon the head of her needle, and after that, binds up the little wound with a hollow bit of shell, and in this manner opens four or five veins. The Grecians have commonly the superstition of opening one in the middle of the forehead, one in each arm, and one on the breast, to mark the sign of the cross; but this has a very ill effect, all these wounds leaving little scars, and is not done by those that are not superstitious, who chuse to have them in the legs, or that part of the arm that is concealed. The children or young patients play together all the rest of the day, and are in perfect health to the eighth. Then the fever begins to seize them, and they keep their beds two days, very seldom three. They have very rarely above twenty or thirty in their faces, which never mark, and in eight days time they are as well as before their illness. Where they are wounded, there remains running sores during the distemper, which I don't doubt is a great relief to it.
Apropos of distempers, I am going to tell you a thing that will make you wish yourself here. The smallpox, so fatal and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless, by the invention of engrafting, which is the term they give it. There is a set of old women who make it their business to perform the operation every autumn, in the month of September, when the great heat is abated. People send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the smallpox. They make parties for this purpose, and when they are met (commonly fifteen or sixteen together) the old woman comes with a nutshell full of the matter of the best sort of smallpox, and asks what veins you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that you offer to her with a large needle (which gives you no more pain than a common scratch), and puts into the vein as much matter as can lie upon the head of her needle, and after that binds up the little wound with a hollow bit of shell; and in this manner opens four or five veins. The Grecians have commonly the superstition of opening one in the middle of the forehead, one in each arm, and one on the breast, to mark the sign of the cross. But this has a very ill effect, all these wounds leaving little scars, and is not done by those that are not superstitious, who choose to have them in the legs, or that part of the arm that is concealed. The children or young patients play together all the rest of the day, and are in perfect health to the eighth. Then the fever begins to seize them, and they keep their beds two days, very seldom three. They have very rarely above twenty or thirty in their faces, which never mark, and in eight days’ time they are as well as before their illness. Where they are wounded, there remain running sores during the distemper, which I don’t doubt is a great relief to it.
- Giving a person smallpox on purpose, by putting matter from a smallpox sore into a small cut, so as to cause a milder case and lasting protection. In English it was also called inoculation.
- Pus from the sores of someone with smallpox. “The best sort” probably means a mild case.
- Greek Orthodox Christians living under Ottoman rule.
- That is, twenty or thirty pocks, the sores of smallpox. “Which never mark”: they leave no scars.
- Like the doctors of her day, she assumes the disease is bad matter in the body that needs an outlet; the open sores let it drain.
Every year thousands undergo this operation, and the French Ambassador says pleasantly, that they take the small-pox here by way of diversion, as they take the waters in others countries. There is no example of any one that has died in it, and you may believe I am well satisfied of the safety of this experiment, since I intend to try it on my dear little son. I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this useful invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our Doctors very particularly about it, if I knew any one of them that I thought had virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of their revenue, for the good of mankind. But that distemper is too beneficial to them, not to expose to all their resentment, the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it. Perhaps, if I live to return, I may, however, have courage to war with them. Upon this occasion, admire the heroism in the heart of, Your friend, &c. &c.
Every year thousands undergo this operation, and the French ambassador says pleasantly that they take the smallpox here by way of diversion, as they take the waters in other countries. There is no example of anyone that has died in it, and you may believe I am well satisfied of the safety of this experiment, since I intend to try it on my dear little son. I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this useful invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our doctors very particularly about it, if I knew any one of them that I thought had virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of their revenue for the good of mankind. But that distemper is too beneficial to them not to expose to all their resentment the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it. Perhaps, if I live to return, I may, however, have courage to war with them. Upon this occasion, admire the heroism in the heart of your friend, etc., etc.
- Drink or bathe in mineral springs at a spa, for health.
- Edward, her son, born in 1713. He was engrafted at Pera, near Constantinople, in March 1718.
- Bold fellow.
Questions a reader might ask, with short answers and the sections they rest on. Checked in a separate review.
What happens
Where was Lady Mary when she wrote, and why was she there?
At Adrianople, in the Ottoman Empire. Her husband was the British ambassador, and many Christians in the city came to her for the embassy's protection.
Read section 1
What does she say about the plague?
That the dreadful stories are mostly untrue, that many escape it, and that the air is never infected. She admits her household hid from her that the second cook had it.
Read section 2
How was engrafting done?
Every September an old woman came to a party of fifteen or sixteen people with a nutshell of matter from a mild case. She opened four or five veins with a large needle, put in a drop, and covered each cut with a bit of shell.
Read section 3
What happened to the children afterward?
They played all day and stayed well until the eighth day. Then they had a fever for two or three days and a few pocks that left no scars, and in eight days they were as well as before.
Read section 3
What does she plan to do about engrafting?
To try it on her little son, and to bring it into fashion in England, even though she expects English doctors to resent losing the income smallpox brings them.
Read section 4
Thinking further
How much of the letter did she see for herself?
She describes the operation in detail, but her claim that no one has died of it is what she was told. On the plague she admits her household kept it from her. And she later reworked her letters into a book, so the printed text may differ from the letter she sent.
Why does she think English doctors will resist?
Because treating smallpox earns them a great deal. She says she knows of no doctor with "virtue enough" to give up that income for the good of mankind, so whoever tries to end the disease will face their anger.
Read section 4
Who and what this source names, in the original. Each name links to every source in the library that mentions it. Not yet checked.
Ideas
- Corrupted air The belief that disease spread through foul or poisoned air, often from rot or swamps. Sections 2.
- Doctors and healers Doctors, surgeons and other healers: what the writers say they could and could not do. Sections 4.
- Epidemic, plague, pestilence The words the writers themselves used for an epidemic: Greek loimos and nosos, Latin pestis, pestilentia and mortalitas, Chinese 疫 yi, Japanese 疫瘡 "epidemic sores". Sections 2.
- Inoculation Giving a healthy person smallpox on purpose, from the scabs or matter of a mild case, so that the illness would be mild and never come again. Chinese, Ottoman and African practitioners knew it before it was tried in Boston and London in the 1720s. Sections 3.
- Smallpox An infectious disease that begins with fever and leaves pitted scars. It was unknown in the Americas until Europeans arrived, and it struck Mexico and Michoacán in 1520; most historians identify the Japanese epidemic of 735–737 as smallpox too. Sections 3.
- Taking the waters Bathing in and drinking the water of hot or mineral springs as a cure. Doctors believed hot spa water, pumped onto the head or a weak limb, could restore movement. Sections 4.
People
- Edward Wortley Montagu Lady Mary's husband, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1716. Sections 1.
- Sarah Chiswell Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's friend from childhood, of Nottingham, to whom she wrote about engrafting against smallpox in 1717. She died of smallpox about 1726. Sections 1.
Places
- England The kingdom ruled by Edward III when the Black Death struck in 1348–1349, and later the home of the colonists who sailed to Roanoke and Plymouth. Sections 4.
- France The kingdom whose kings sent Cartier and Champlain to the St. Lawrence and claimed the lands they explored. Sections 2.
- Italy The peninsula south of the Alps, divided in the 1300s among city-republics, lordships, the Papal States and the kingdom of Naples. The Black Death swept it in 1348. Sections 2.
- Nijmegen (Nimeguen) A town in the Netherlands, where Lady Mary Wortley Montagu stopped on her journey east in 1716. Sections 1.
Page images of the original object or of the printed edition, from the libraries and archives that hold them. The pages shown are copied here where the holder marks them public domain; titles link to the holder's own viewer. Click a page to see it full size.
Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W---y M----e, vol. 2, London 1763
Internet Archive (New York Public Library copy, digitized by Google). Vol. 2, pp. 57–63 (images n255–n261). Public domain (published 1763); marked NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT by the holder.
The London first edition, which our text follows.
Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M---y W---y M----e, the second edition, Dublin 1763
Internet Archive. pp. 137–140 (images n146–n149). Public domain (published 1763).
A Dublin reprint of the same year, compared with our text. Its dateline adds the year 1718.
Difficulty: Moderate, eighteenth-century English with long sentences; a few old words (distemper, wight, apropos) are glossed in the notes.
Fits these units
- From inoculation to vaccine. How did a new way to prevent smallpox spread, and why did people resist it? (Innovation in History)
- Case study: smallpox. How did a terrifying disease become the only one ever eradicated? (Once in a Lifetime)
Key terms
- engrafting
- putting matter from a smallpox sore into a small cut to cause a mild case and lasting protection; also called inoculation
- distemper
- an old word for a disease or illness
- apropos
- speaking of; on the subject of (from French à propos)
- ambassador
- an official sent by one government to live in another country and speak for it
- Ottoman Empire
- the large Muslim empire ruled by the Turkish sultans from Constantinople (Istanbul)
- revenue
- income; the money someone earns
Questions
- Comprehension
Describe engrafting step by step as Lady Mary tells it: who performs it, when, how, and what happens to the children afterward.
- Analysis
Lady Mary says she will try engrafting on her son, but doubts that English doctors will welcome it. What reason does she give for their resistance, and what does that tell you about how she expected new ideas to be received at home?
- Analysis (reliability)
She says no one has ever died of engrafting, admits she was kept in the dark about the plague, and later reworked her letters into a book. Which of her statements did she see for herself, and which did she only hear? How should that shape the way we use the letter as evidence?
- Connection
Read Mather and Boylston's What the Africans of Boston Knew about Inoculation. In Boston in 1721 the same practice was argued for from what enslaved Africans reported. Compare where Lady Mary and the Boston writers got their knowledge, and how each describes the people who taught them.
Activity
Students write the letter Lady Mary might have sent to an English doctor on her return, in 1718, asking him to try engrafting. They must use only what she knew from this letter, answer one objection she expects, and decide what she should and should not claim. Classmates then reply as a doubtful doctor, naming what evidence would change his mind.
A printable worksheet for this source · More on Hearth Learning
Lady Mary wrote in English. Our text follows the London first edition of 1763, with spelling and punctuation modernized (small-pox to smallpox, open’d to opened, chuse to choose, land-journies to land journeys) and the long s printed as s. Her words and their order are kept; a few long sentences are divided where she put a semicolon. Where the 1763 edition and the manuscript copy of the letters differ, a footnote gives the manuscript reading.
The whole letter is included.
- Original
- Text as printed in the named edition or on the object, read from page images. Edition: Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W---y M----e: Written, during Her Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, to Persons of Distinction, Men of Letters, &c. in Different Parts of Europe (London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1763), vol. 2, Letter XXXI, pp. 57–63. Copy: New York Public Library, digitized by Google, Internet Archive item lettersrighthon01montgoog (vols. 1–2 bound together; vol. 2 begins at image n191). Digital text: that item’s OCR text, extracted by code and read word by word against the page images. The edition prints long s; we give it as s. Compared with the Dublin “second edition” of the same year (P. Wilson, J. Hoey Jr. and J. Potts, 1763), pp. 137–140, Internet Archive item bim_eighteenth-century_letters-of-the-right-hon_montagu-mary-wortley-l_1763, which has the same words but adds “1718” to the dateline.
- Editor’s review
- Not yet.
- Specialist review
- Not yet. Readings a specialist should confirm are listed for later review.
- Rights
- Original: public domain. Edition: public domain. Our translations and notes: CC BY-SA 4.0; credit “Hearth Library, hearthinteractive.com” with a link.
Sources for the notes
- Montagu, Mary Wortley. Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W---y M----e. 3 vols. London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1763. Vol. 2, Letter XXXI, pp. 57–63, read in the page images of the New York Public Library copy (Internet Archive).
- Montagu, Mary Wortley. Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M---y W---y M----e. The second edition. Dublin: P. Wilson, J. Hoey Jr., and J. Potts, 1763. Letter XXXI, pp. 137–140, read in the page images (Internet Archive).
- Montagu, Mary Wortley. The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Edited by Lord Wharncliffe, with additions by W. Moy Thomas. 2 vols. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1893. Vol. 1: Moy Thomas’s memoir, pp. 15–21 (the 1763 edition, the manuscript books, and Lady Mary’s list of letters sent in 1717–1718; Sarah Chiswell); Lady Louisa Stuart’s Introductory Anecdotes, pp. 88–89 (her smallpox, her brother, her son’s scars); the letter to Mrs. S. C. from the manuscript, pp. 307–309; the letter to Mr. Wortley of March 23, 1718, pp. 352–353; the letter to Lady Mar of [June 1726] on Sarah Chiswell’s death, pp. 498–499.
- Stephen, Leslie. “Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley (1689–1762).” In Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 38, 259–263. London: Smith, Elder, 1894. (The embassy and journey, her son, inoculation, the 1763 edition.)
- Maitland, Charles. Mr. Maitland’s Account of Inoculating the Small Pox. London: J. Downing, 1722. Pp. 4–9 (the son engrafted at Pera, March 1717 Old Style).
- Fenner, F., D. A. Henderson, I. Arita, Z. Ježek, and I. D. Ladnyi. Smallpox and Its Eradication. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1988. Chapter 6, “Early Efforts at Control: Variolation, Vaccination, and Isolation and Quarantine,” pp. 245–276; pp. 245–258 read.