Shetland pioneer Johnnie Notions helped treat smallpox with homemade science

MOST people would run a mile if a self-taught doctor concocted a special serum that he insisted would protect them against a killer disease, but in the 18th century thousands of Shetlanders trusted a man nicknamed Johnnie Notions to administer a homemade smallpox inoculation, saving a great many lives.

- by LAURA BROWN

Smallpox came to the islands in 1700, three decades before Johnnie – real name John Williamson – was born, and the devastation continued with each subsequent outbreak.

So many people succumbed that the survivors struggled to bury them all, with cemeteries expanded to accommodate the dead. Smaller communities, like Foula, faced the possibility of being wiped out. Little wonder that smallpox was known locally as the mortal pock or pox.