During the Ming Dynasty, powdered smallpox scabs were blown up the
nose of the healthy. The patients would then develop a mild case of
the disease, and once they recovered, they would be immune to it.
Nevertheless, the technique did have a 1-3% death rate, which was
still considerably lower than the mortality rate of smallpox, which
was around 20-30%. The process of exposing a healthy person to
infected material from a person with smallpox in hopes of providing
immunity is called variolation.

The first written account of variolation describes a Buddhist nun
living on a mountain named O-Mei Shan in the southern province of
Szechuan, China. She began practicing variolation around 1022 to 1063
AD after making the astute observation that those who managed to
survive smallpox never got it again. It wasn't until 1796 when English Physician Edward Jenner discovered the vaccination for smallpox by
injecting pus from a milkmaid's cowpox sore into an eight-year-old boy
and then attempting to infect him with smallpox six weeks later. The
boy did not develop smallpox, indicating that the earlier exposure to
cowpox protected him from infection.

Pic
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F92hYOSXYAAa5xQ.jpg

@historyinmemes

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