BCG vaccine immunity against human tuberculosis. The BCG vaccine can be anywhere from 0 to 80% effective in preventing tuberculosis for a duration of 15 years; however, its protective effect appears to vary according to geography and the lab in which the vaccine strain was grown. A number of different companies make BCG, sometimes using different genetic strains of the bacterium. This may result in different product characteristics. OncoTICE, used for bladder instillation for bladder cancer, was developed by Organon Laboratories (since acquired by Schering-Plough, and in turn acquired by Merck & Co.). Pacis BCG, made from the Montréal (Institut Armand-Frappier) strain,
Inoculation the French scientific mission of 1839–1841. The knowledge of inoculating oneself against smallpox seems to have been known to West Africans, more specifically the Akan. A slave named Onesimus explained the inoculation procedure to Cotton Mather during the 18th century; he reported to have gotten the knowledge from Africa. In January 1714 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society published an account of a letter John Woodward had received from Emmanuel Timonius in Constantinople. Smallpox inoculation was advocated as a proven method of curbing the severity of the disease. The practice was introduced to England by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Lady