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- Title
Getting the Pox of All Their Houses: Cotton Mather and the Rhetoric of Puritan Science.
- Authors
Tindol, Robert
- Abstract
The article discusses the views of Puritan minister Cotton Mather on smallpox inoculations, noting his support for inoculations during the 1721 smallpox epidemic in Boston, Massachusetts. Several of Mather's writings are considered, including his diary entries and his books "The Angel of Bethesda" and "Philosophical Transactions." The author explores Puritan conceptions of divine intervention and disease as punishment. Mather's thoughts on the relationship between sin and illness are also explored.
- Subjects
MASSACHUSETTS; HISTORY of smallpox vaccination; MATHER, Cotton, 1663-1728; SMALLPOX vaccines; RELIGION &; medicine; DISEASES &; religion; PURITANS; COLONIAL Massachusetts, ca. 1600-1775; ANGEL of Bethesda, The (Book); CHRISTIAN Philosopher, The (Book); HISTORY; REVOLUTIONARY (Literary period); 19TH century (Literary period)
- Publication
Early American Literature, 2011, Vol 46, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
0012-8163
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1353/eal.2011.0002