AP Success - AP World History: Lady Montagu on Early Modern Medicine
Source 1
"The small-pox, so fatal, and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless, by the invention of engrafting, which is the term they give it. There is a set of old women, who make it their business to perform the operation . . . the old woman comes with a nut-shell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox, and asks what vein you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that you offer to her, with a large needle (which gives you no more pain than a common scratch) and puts into the vein as much matter as can lie upon the head of her needle . . . There is no example of any one that has died in it, and you may believe I am well satisfied of the safety of this experiment, since I intend to try it on my dear little son."
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Letter to Friend, 1717
Question 1
Based on Lady Montagu's description, what medical practice is being referred to in the source?
Question 2
What can be inferred about Lady Montagu's attitude towards the medical practice she describes?
Question 3
The practice of 'engrafting' as described by Lady Montagu is most similar to which of the following?
Question 4
The source suggests that the practice of 'engrafting' was carried out by which group of people in the Ottoman Empire?
Question 5
What does Lady Montagu's willingness to try the procedure on her son indicate about the cultural exchange between the Ottoman Empire and Britain at the time?
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