"Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Adventurer, Poet, And The Mother Of Immunology!"
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) Nor dream of vigils that we lovers keep While all the night, I waking sigh your name, The tender sound does every nerve inflame, Imagination shows me all your charms, The plenteous silken hair, and waxen arms, And all the beauties that supinely rest ...between your sheets. How fond, how true, how free from fraudful art, The warmest glances poorly do explain The eager wish, the melting throbbing pain Which through my very blood and soul I feel, Which you cannot believe nor I reveal, Which every metaphor must render less And yet (methinks) which I could well express ...between your sheets. In 1717 the British ambassador, Lord Montagu, was presented to the royal Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul, Turkey. His wife, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, noticed that the local practice of deliberately stimulating a mild form of smallpox through inoculation conferred immunity. Lady Montagu had contracted the disease as a child and her beautiful face was pockmarked as a result. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu inoculated her two children, since it was a deadly disease often called the scourge of mankind. Because of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's strong advocacy inoculations became very popular. She campaigned publicly for medical advances, especially in the field of smallpox and inoculation. Soon, physicians all over Europe were using the procedure, but it was Doctor Edward Jenner who made the process simpler. He noticed that milkmaids, who contracted cowpox, never got smallpox. Cowpox only affects their hands. Cowpox was a mild version of smallpox. He soon developed a cowpox serum and called this new kind of inoculation, vaccinations after the Latin word vacca, meaning cow. When humans were vaccinated it led to the eradication of smallpox throughout the known world starting at the end of the eighteenth century. He is often called the father of immunology, but it was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who led the fight for inoculation in the early part of the eighteenth century. There will be another influenza pandemic. Click Here. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is not given enough credit and should be called the mother of immunology. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was quite a lady. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was a major contributer to family health and wellness for the entire planet.
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