Reference no: EM133570728

Question: In effect, Zabdiel Boylston had conducted the first American clinical trial, and that first American clinical trial was inspired by the knowledge one black slave carried in his head from his African childhood. Now all that was needed was for Boylston to tell people about his study. In his 1726 paper, "An Historical Account of the Small-pox Inoculated in New England, Upon All Sorts of Persons, Whites, Blacks, and of All Ages and Constitutions: With Some Account of the Nature of the Infection in the Natural and Inoculated Way, and Their Different Effects on Human Bodies: with Some Short Directions to the Unexperienced in this Method of Practice / Humbly Dedicated to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales," he reported that of about 12,000 to 14,000 inhabitants of Boston, 5,759 people became ill with smallpox in the 1721 to 1722 season. Some 4,915 of these people survived, and 844 became ill and died. However, of about 282 people who were introduced to smallpox not naturally but via Boylston's inoculation, only six died. Due to this publication and others, word spread, and more and more people asked their doctors for variolation for themselves and their families. As time went by, Bostonians more routinely received vaccinations, and the terrible death toll dropped. In 1777, George Washington ordered mandatory variolation for soldiers in the First Continental army.

Scientists call the variable that is controlled, manipulated or specifically chosen for an experiment, the independent variable. Therefore, for Boylston's experiment, the independent variable would be whether or not the person was inoculated. The dependent variable is an outcome that is measured and depends upon the group into which the subject falls, i.e., inoculated or naturally infected. The dependent variable reported by Boylston was survival or death.

Using the numbers given in the text, make a table of the results of Boylston's experiment.

2. Using the table you made in the previous question, graph the results of Boylston's experiment. (Hint: It is probably easiest to work with percent deaths. Most frequently, the independent variable is arrayed on the X-axis, and the dependent variable belongs on the Y-axis.)