Vaccinating

The first disease people tried to prevent by inoculation was most likely smallpox, with the first recorded use of variolation occurring in the 16th century in China. It was also the first disease for which a vaccine was produced.

Before the first vaccinations people have been inoculated in China, before being copied in the west, by using smallpox, called variolation. The earliest hints of the practice of variolation for smallpox in China come during the 10th century.

The Chinese also practiced the oldest documented use of variolation, which comes from Wan Quan's (1499–1582) Douzhen Xinfa of 1549. They implemented a method of "nasal insufflation" administered by blowing powdered smallpox material, usually scabs, up the nostrils.