In his “Autobiography,” he worried that well-meaning people were tragically misjudging the risks and rewards, as he himself had done.

“In 1736, I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the smallpox taken in the common way,” Franklin wrote. “I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of the parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.”