"Scientifically known as Variola major, the deadliest form of smallpox has plagued mankind since 'time immemorial.' This text chronicles the worldwide effects of the killer disease, with particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries, including the devastations of the "speckled disease" during great armed conflicts."-- Provided by publisher.

Smallpox "from time immemorial" -- Enter inoculation -- Smallpox in the new world -- Cotton Mather and smallpox inoculation in the American colonies -- "This distemper is the king of terrors": smallpox and the American Revolution -- The father of immunology -- "This inestimable discovery" -- "The state of medicine is worse than that of total ignorance" -- The battle for vaccination in the early years of the republic -- Testimonies to the high value of esteem -- Compulsory vaccination -- The health and well-being of the general populace -- The vaccine institution and beyond -- The American Indian Vaccination Act -- Quarantines and death statistics -- The quarantine wars -- The contagion of smallpox -- The blue, the gray and the speckled -- The last full measure of devotion -- The non-eradication of smallpox in England -- The Franco-Prussian War and the smallpox pandemic of 1870-1874 -- Case studies of misdiagnosis -- Smallpox: variola, varioloid and vaccinia -- The Hoffman block outrage and other stories -- Smallpox in Canada and England through the 1880s -- "Providence does a great deal for us, the city fathers nothing" -- Of rags and railroads -- School boards win some and lose some -- Anti-vaccination hysteria in Great Britain -- Incidence of smallpox worldwide up to the 20th century -- New century, old problems -- Vaccination creeds, homeopathic pills and lettuce -- Vaccination is un-American -- As the world turns: the continuing scourge -- Soldiers, the law and old-fashioned smallpox -- International public health -- A new biological philosophy -- The decade of the 1970s: conflicting reports -- Stamping out smallpox -- A glossary of medicine in the 19th century.