Smallpox Vaccination Scab Carrier - Dr. F. E. Chatard

This small gold case has ornate chasing upon its hinged lid. The bottom half of the case is filled with wax. It is a decorative scab carrier - a scab containing vaccinia virus would have been set upon the wax, which, along with the tightly closed case, would have kept the scab moist and fresh. The fresh scab could then be easily carried by a doctor who used it when performing vaccination against smallpox.

The engraved inscription on the lid of the case on reads "Dr. F. E. Chatard." Ferdinand Edme Chatard was born August 3, 1805 and died October 18, 1888. Chatard received a degree in medicine in 1826 from the University of Maryland, and then studied in France for three years. He had a general practice in Baltimore and specialized in obstetrics, but was also well known as a prominent vaccinating physician.

Dr. W.C. Van Bibber, another prominent vaccinating physician in Baltimore and a friend of Dr. F.E. Chatard, wrote about scab carriers like Dr. Chatard's. He explained that when scabs, known as "crusts", were used for vaccinating, a physician would keep the crust mounted on wax or cork in boxes made of gold or silver, which he referred to as a "vaccine boxes". Van Bibber noted that a physicians would often loan his scab carriers to other physicians. He states that one could tell the value and quality of the crust the carrier contained, and the care the physician had taken in selecting that crust, by noting if the wax was clean and if the crust had been mounted meticulously within the carrier. Van Bibber further says that one would expect a fellow physician, when loaning their scab carrier, to testify that he had used the crust during his own vaccinating procedures and that its virus material is good and active, as well as to note how many days old the crust was.

Van Bibber records how the vaccinating physicians of Baltimore sought out the most effective crusts, as well as the trouble that they had in preserving the virulent activity of the crusts, especially during summer. Dr. Chatard, in particular, was known for sourcing high quality crusts and for supplying them to other physicians. Thus, Dr. Chatard's beautiful gold carrier can be seen as an indicator of his own wealth and status within the community, but also as an indicator of the value of the precious vaccinating material it contained and protected.

F.E. Chatard's father, Peter Chatard, had been a physician, and his son, F.E. Chatard, Jr., would come to be one as well. All three men were known as vocal proponents of smallpox vaccination practice and research in Baltimore. Van Bibber recounts a story about Peter Chatard, who sought to prove to skeptical Baltimoreans that vaccination against smallpox was effective. Van Bibber says that Peter Chatard vaccinated his children (three sons and a daughter) and observed the expected symptoms of a successful and protective vaccination. He then decided to send his sons to the house of a prominent man where there was a case of smallpox. The children, including the young F.E. Chatard, Sr., were sent to play “for several hours in the room of the smallpox patient." Reportedly, none of his children were sickened by smallpox, and Dr. Peter Chatard, having inspired trust in vaccination, allegedly "encountered no further opposition to vaccination" by his patients.

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