Thomas Nettleton facts for kids

Thomas Nettleton (1683–1742) was an English doctor. He was one of the first people to try a special method called smallpox inoculation. This method helped protect people from the dangerous disease smallpox. He also studied the results of his work using statistics, which means he used numbers to understand what happened.

Thomas Nettleton: A Pioneer Doctor

Not much is known about Thomas Nettleton's early life. We know he worked as a doctor in a town called Halifax in Yorkshire. He lived during a time when smallpox was a very common and deadly illness.

Fighting Smallpox with Inoculation

By 1722, Dr. Nettleton had heard about early ways to protect people from smallpox. When a smallpox outbreak happened in his area, he decided to act. He began to use a method called inoculation.

Inoculation was a way to give someone a very mild form of smallpox on purpose. The idea was that after getting a little sick, their body would learn to fight the disease. This would protect them from getting a much more serious case later on.

Dr. Nettleton carefully inoculated at least 60 people in his community. He then watched them closely to see how they reacted.

Proving It with Numbers

In 1724, Dr. Nettleton shared the results of his work. He wanted to show how well inoculation worked. He looked at the difference in how many people died from natural smallpox compared to those who were inoculated.

He wrote a letter to another important scientist, James Jurin. In this letter, Dr. Nettleton explained his findings. He noted that in his area, almost 19 out of every 100 people who caught smallpox naturally died. But, out of the 61 people he inoculated, not one person died.

This amazing difference showed how effective inoculation could be. Dr. Nettleton's letter encouraged James Jurin to collect even more information and study the results of inoculation himself. Their work helped show the world that inoculation was a valuable way to fight smallpox.

I would only . . . leave to remark, that it appears from these Accounts, that this last Year, in this Part of the Kingdom, almost nineteen out of every hundred, or near one fifth of those, who have had the natural Small Pox, have died; whereas out of sixty one which have been inoculated hereabouts, not one has died ...

– Nettleton to Jurin (1724)