Who was Cotton Mather?

Answer 1

In the spring of 1721, the people of Boston were alarmed by the news that there were several cases of smallpox in town. They knew that the disease could spread like wildfire and that a great many people would suffer or die from the dreadful illness.

Cotton Mather, a religious leader from Boston, had read about a new process that could provide a defense against the killer disease. It was called inoculation, and involved putting infected matter from a smallpox sore into a cut made in a healthy person's skin.

Nearly all physicians in the community opposed the inoculation of healthy people, because the process actually gave those inoculated a milder case of the disease. They saw it as a means of spreading the already disastrous epidemic among even greater numbers of people.

Finally, however, Mather and a few of his followers won out. While thousands fled to the countryside and others lay suffering and dying, they proceeded to inoculate many of the townspeople. By the time the epidemic was over, 240 persons had been inoculated and only 6 of them had died. Thanks to the scientific interest of Cotton Mather, a new defense against smallpox had been found.

Answer 2

for minister and judge in the salmen witch trails

Answer 3

Lobbied for the endowment that established Yale University.