Lady Mary Wortley Montague contributed to microbiology and immunology by virtue of her powers of observation and her passion for letter writing. As the wife of the British Ambassador Extraordinary to the Turkish court, Montague and her family lived in Istanbul. While there she observed and was convinced of the protective power of inoculation against the disease smallpox. She wrote to friends in England describing inoculation and later, upon their return to England, she worked to popularize the practice of inoculation in that country.

Montague's interest in smallpox stemmed from her brush with the disease in 1715, which left her with a scarred face and lacking eyebrows, and also from the death of her brother from the disease. While posted in Istanbul, she was introduced to the practice of inoculation. Material picked from a smallpox scab on the surface of the skin was rubbed into an open cut of...