Definitions for "Variolation"
Inoculation with smallpox.
a procedure, not used today, in which material from the pustule of an individual infected with smallpox (variola virus) was scratched into the skin of an infected person to induce immunity to the disease.
The practice of scratching into the skin (usually of children) some matter taken from a part of a person recovering from a mild infection with smallpox. If the amount used was just right this produced only a mild case of smallpox. Wrong treatments could kill or be ineffective. This was practiced by surgeons in Europe during the 18th in an attempt to give immunity to smallpox later in life.