The Empress and the English Doctor

Smallpox was feared in the 18th century.  A new innovation, inoculation, offered hope, but one problem remained: convincing people to accept the treatment.  In Russia, Catherine the Great took a momentous decision: to be inoculated herself to set an example in her empire. In 1768, she summoned the Quaker physician Thomas Dimsdale from England to carry out the secret mission that would transform both their lives.  Lucy Ward describes these events and how it transformed the world.