Thanks for that bit of history.
Okay, so if the variolation only had a 1% death rate, versus the 30% death rate of actually getting small pox, why did they only force it on the soldiers and not require it for the whole citizenry?
There was a significantly increased risk for spreading contagious diseases within armies living together than in the more dispersed civilian population so the motivation was higher. That had been well known for centuries. The virtues of variolation were relatively new knowledge in the colonies, having been popularized in Boston by Cotton Mather who actually learned of it from his his African slave in 1706, then from medical literature out of Turkey in 1714, then was able to try in during an epidemic in 1721. Subsequent experience convinced most Bostonians and the practice gradually spread. Revolutionary War successes spread the process further. Jenner’s discovery gradually replaced it, but even that was slow to become automatic. Abe Lincoln, who never was vaccinated, delivered the Gettysburg Address during the prodrome of smallpox, became ill the next day and nearly died. He was essentially comatose for over a week. The medical history of smallpox is fascinating; I wish we could be certain it’s all written.