Vaccination : who should decide when doctors disagree? : the Muncie smallpox epidemic of 1893

Abstract

This thesis explores the events and controversies surrounding the smallpox epidemic that hit Muncie, Indiana, in the summer and fall of 1893. The disease struck 150 individuals and left 22 dead, but it also raised broad questions regarding the authority of local and state public health officials to force vaccination upon citizens. Following recent historiographical trends that interpret anti-vaccinationist sentiment in Progressive-Era America as an important part of the political dialog, it argues that anti-vaccinationists in connection with the Muncie epidemic were not simply anti-modem, but had reasonable concerns as to the safety of smallpox vaccination and the government's authority to enforce it.