La querelle de l'inoculation en 1763. Trois lettres inédites de Suard et du chevalier d'Éon

Abstract

Jean-Claude David : The innoculation debate in 1763, three unpublished letters from Suard and the chevalier d'Eon. Innoculation against smallpox, using a mild form of the disease, was used before Jenner's discovery of vaccination in 1798. However, this prophylactic measure, already known in ancient China, was still not completely accepted in France in 1763, as can be seen from these three letters between Suard, director of the Gazette de France, and Eon, plenipotentiary minister in London. They show the ramifications of this debate concerning a victory of the Enlightenment over the obscurantism of the Medical Faculty and the Paris Parlement.

David Jean-Claude. La querelle de l'inoculation en 1763. Trois lettres inédites de Suard et du chevalier d'Éon. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°17, 1985. Le protestantisme français en France. pp. 271-284.