One of the most surprising and devastating was the smallpox epidemic that struck the colonies. At the time, vaccines had yet to be invented, but a grisly new technique existed to combat the deadly smallpox virus. This technique used an infected individual's pustules (blisters on the skin of smallpox victims) to inoculate patients. In a particularly evocative scene Abigale Adams sends for a doctor to vaccinate her family. The doctor brings home a living patient who is dying of the disease and uses the wounds to rub pus into the cuts made on the family's arms. This graphic scene evokes a feeling of sympathy for the colonists and was important to add to the series because it represented a major cause of death at the time.