Dr. Zabdiel Boylston (1679-1766)
Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, F.R.S., Pioneer Surgeon, of Brookline, Massachusetts
He was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and was the great-uncle of President John Adams and Mary (Boylston) Hallowell, mother of Ward Nicholas Boylston, the first American to visit Smyrna, Baalbek, Jerusalem and Cairo. Having apprenticed under his father and Dr. Cutler, Zabdiel became a physician and practised in and around Boston. Zabdiel Boylston was the first American to perform a surgical operation; the first to remove gall bladder stones (1710); and, the first to remove a breast tumor (1718). But, his greatest achievement was his introduction of an inoculation for smallpox in 1721 that saved countless lives - despite objections that he was challenging the will of God - cementing his reputation as one of the most revered names in American medical history. In 1723, he was invited to London by the court physician Sir Hans Sloane where legend has it that he inoculated Princess Caroline, and perhaps other members of the Royal family too. He remained in London for some years during which time he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society and published an account of his practice of inoculation in America. He died at his home on Boylston Street at Brookline, Massachusetts.
