“K” is for Killpatrick (sometimes spelled Kilpatrick), James (ca. 1696-1770). Physician, medical writer, poet. A native of Ireland, Kilpatrick immigrated to South Carolina around 1717. He practiced medicine and established a pharmacy. During the smallpox epidemic of 1738, he became one of the foremost champions of the controversial new practice of inoculation. He defended the practice in a series of articles in the South Carolina Gazette an a pamphlet: An Essay on Inoculation Occasioned by the Smallpox Being Brought into South Carolina in the Year 1738. He left Charleston for London where he established a successful medical practice. His Essay on Inoculation and a later publication Analysis of Inoculation brought him widespread recognition. James Kilpatrick achieved financial success as an inoculator of British aristocrats, the French royal family, and some wealthy Carolinians.