Courtesy of umich.edu A study conducted in 1721 involved six in-mates from Lon-don's Newgate Pri- son.  The inmates were inoculated by implanting small-pox matter from infected patients on both arms and legs of inmates.  This proved to support the theory of inoculation. Courtesy of jennermuseum.org In 1798, Edward Jenner conducted a series of experi-ments involving in-oculation of people with cowpox as a protection against smallpox.  It was these early experi-ments that led to the discovery of a vaccination for smallpox. Courtesy of Wikipedia Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was a pioneer in inoculation against small-pox.  During a trip to Turkey, Lady Montagu witnessed a method of poking smallpox sores into open scratches of healthy children.  She campaigned to have this procedure instituted in England.  Thus the 1721 Newgate prison study. The University Group Diab-etes Program (UGDP) was one of the first multicenter trials to focus on the treatment of a chronic non-infectious disease.  The UGDP began in 1960 and was completed in 1974. Edinburgh University Press In 1747, while at sea, James Lind cond-ucted one of the first experiments using a control group.  The experiment involved seamen aboard the SS Salisbury (pict-ured left) affected by scurvy.  It was this experiment that first introduced the idea of using a simultaneously treated control group. Donald Fredrickson (1924-2002) was director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  A moving force in the development of clinical trials as the "indispensable ordeal. Last Updated: 07 Sep 2012