In the 18th Century smallpox was a major killer.
The idea of inoculating people to protect them from developing the disease was brought to Britain in 1721 by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the British ambassador to Constantinople in Turkey.
When a smallpox epidemic threatened Britain she asked her doctor to inoculate her daughter. Royal physicians took up the idea, and doctors around the country followed suit.
But the treatment was controversial - people thought it was going to give them the disease.
Sir James Jurin, editor of Philosophical Transactions, collected reports from around the UK.
His research, published in the journal in 1723, found people were much more likely to die from smallpox than from inoculation.
The findings were also published in pamphlets, and were important in persuading the public of the value of inoculation.