Source: Global Times
According to the Russian Satellite News Agency reported on the 2nd, the only female tsar in Russian history known as the Emperor - a letter from Catherine II's life was auctioned in London on the 1st, and a portrait was auctioned for 951,000 pounds. The anti-epidemic ideas expressed by Catherine II in her letter are progressive even today.
Portrait of Catherine II. Image source: Visual China
The letter was dated April 20, 1787, and was received by the famous Russian general Rumyantsev. In her letter, Catherine II wrote that smallpox caused great harm and instructed: "The vaccine should be fully universally disseminated." According to the New York Times, the letter also reflected the general doubts and fears of the Russian people at that time about vaccination.
Compared with today, the vaccination methods of the 18th century are primitive: the vaccination method of smallpox vaccine is called "human pox vaccination", that is, a hole is cut in the arm of a healthy person, and a thread or cloth soaked in the pox pulp of smallpox patients is placed on the incision and soaked into the blood to produce antibodies. To persuade the populace, Catherine II led by example by vaccinating herself against smallpox and her 14-year-old son.