A letter dated December, 1713 from Timoni of Constantinople to John Woodward, and read to the Royal Society in May, 1714, described the practice in that city of inoculation against smallpox. The letter aroused interest in inoculation in England. A fellow of the Royal Society since 1703, Timoni was the first to write on this subject for Western physicians, although Pylarini’s researches had commenced in 1701.