Topical Medicine History and Inoculation

15 March 2022

Hospitals are testing therapies today, and pharmaceutical companies are rapidly developing vaccines. At the same time, the public discusses the results of medicine and debates its significance. Rarely has the work on the unknowable been as visible as in the past two years. In Basel, pandemics and medicine have been science and industry focal points for centuries.

Achilles Mieg (1731-1799) inoculated the first children against smallpox on 29 May 1756. At the same time, the mathematician Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) studied the effectiveness of smallpox vaccination with mathematical methods. His work is considered the first mathematical model for vaccination against infectious diseases.

On 17 December 1882, however, the citizens of Basel voted to abolish compulsory vaccination. Even then, there were passionate supporters and opponents.

The exhibition (in the German language) at the Philosophicum in Basel shows the history of pandemics and vaccines in Basel, which is rarely linear and rarely without errors and deviations, disputes and controversies.

The exhibition also discusses various medical topics and developments from 1500 to the present. Lectures by experts accompany the exhibition.

(Source and further information: www.kosmoskoerper.ch).