variolated

Variolated is an adjective describing a person or matter related to variolation, an historical method of inducing immunity to smallpox. A variolated individual is someone who has undergone variolation, or something that has been treated by variolation.

Variolation involved exposing a healthy person to material from smallpox lesions, with the aim of triggering a mild infection that would confer protection against more severe disease. The practice originated in Asia, with early records from China and India, and spread to the Ottoman Empire and Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Methods varied, but commonly included scratching or injecting crusts or vesicle fluid from a smallpox case into a healthy person. While variolation reduced the risk of severe smallpox compared with natural infection, it carried significant dangers, including the possibility of a full-blown smallpox illness and the potential to seed outbreaks in the community.

The procedure contributed to substantial reductions in smallpox mortality in some areas, but it also caused occasional serious side effects and outbreaks. The development of vaccination by Edward Jenner in 1796—using cowpox material to confer immunity against smallpox—proved safer and more controllable, leading to a decline in variolation. Over the 19th century, variolation was progressively replaced by vaccination and eventually became obsolete in most parts of the world, though it remained part of medical history and literature.

Today, the term variolated appears primarily in historical or scholarly contexts. It reflects an early, transitional step in the global effort to prevent smallpox, preceding the era of modern vaccination.