Lady Mary Montagu

Half postmodern Gothic and half medical epic, Sheryl Stolberg’s May 18 story on the annihilation of the smallpox virus was captivating. But the inset history of the smallpox vaccine resembles too many success stories that spotlight only the achievements of men and Europeans. While Edward Jenner’s experiments with the cowpox virus might have advanced smallpox vaccination at the end of the 18th Century, English writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had brought information about the vaccine to England in 1717, after a 15-month stay in Turkey, where smallpox inoculation had been practiced for some time.

Montagu tested the Turkish technique on her own son and came to be celebrated as a national heroine, one who devoted much of her own life to publicizing the miracle of vaccination. It’s all very well to celebrate human victory over those rare enemies that everyone can agree on. But let’s give credit where credit is due.

JAYNE LEWIS

Los Angeles

Jenner did not make the first inroads against smallpox. It was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who, in 1717, introduced variolation (inoculation with live virus) to Great Britain. She reduced the death rate from smallpox in that country from 30% to 2%. Like so many women inventors and discoverers, Lady Mary Montagu has slipped between the cracks of history--history written, usually, by and about men. Let’s not forget to give her her due.

ETHLIE ANN VARE

Beverly Hills

The writer is co-author of “Mothers of Invention: From the Bra to the Bomb, Forgotten Women & Their Unforgettable Ideas.”