Effective against smallpox; used historically to describe treatments or vaccines that prevented or cured variola.
From anti- (against) + variolous (from variola, Latin name for smallpox). Medical term from the era when smallpox was a major epidemic disease.
Jenner's vaccine was called 'antivariolous' because it prevented variola—this word marks a pivotal moment in medicine when humans first deliberately used a disease (cowpox) to prevent a worse one.
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