1680-1766

American physician who performed experimental inoculations for smallpox in 1721, when New England was threatened by a smallpox epidemic. Boylston was the only doctor in the Boston area who agreed to work with the Reverend Cotton Mather (1663-1728) to test the safety and effectiveness of smallpox inoculations. In 1726 Boylston published An Historical Account of the Small-pox Inoculated in New England. His statistics demonstrated that inoculated smallpox was significantly safer than naturally acquired smallpox.