Christian was still a child when she went blind, probably as a result of the smallpox attack which scarred her badly. When she was in her twenties or thirties, the suggestion was made that she should apply for admission to the Asylum for the Blind at Edinburgh, and she got so far as to write a sketch of her life apparently designed for selectors. It is not clear whether or not she actually applied; in any event, she never entered the Asylum. Though as a young woman she could walk outdoors unaided, later in life (still in her forties) she had difficulty walking.

MG contracted smallpox, but survived.

She was left (in her own words) totally disfigured, with some damage to her left eye, by an attack of smallpox when she was four years old, of which a younger brother died..

At some time before she was married, Frances Thynne suffered from smallpox, which left her a little marked.

After her husband's death she suffered an attack of smallpox.

On the day her marriage contract with John Hutchinson was signed, Lucy Apsley went down with smallpox. She lost her looks at least temporarily, but kept her suitor.

ML 's childbirth experiences were not propitious. Her daughter was delivered by forceps (at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Maternity Hospital in London, UK) after a 36-hour labour, and the delivery cracked the baby's collar-bone—a not unusual occurrence, ML was assured. The bone healed within ten days. Jocelyn lived through a greater danger at two months, when her smallpox and yellow fever injections, for Africa, were administered too close together and in the wrong order. The baby went into convulsions, while the doctor concerned (who was angry with Laurence for insisting on continuing to breast-feed while her daughter was severely ill in hospital) ascribed the convulsions to either a congenital tendency or else meningitis. Two years later another doctor admitted that the first had been at fault. When Laurence got pregnant in Ghana a pregnancy test falsely registered negative, netting her a diagnosis of neurotic, and after that she had two false labours before managing a swift natural childbirth, assisted by a reassuring black midwife. A white nursing sister spoiled the experience slightly by forcing her to eat while in labour although she said she would throw up, which she duly did.

At some time during her youth she suffered from a bout of smallpox which left her badly marked.

When they parted she fell gravely ill. Possibly this was the occasion in her youth when she had smallpox. This left her badly marked, though she said later that she had little beauty to spoil.

The year after her father died, the child Anna or Anne Riggs was dangerously ill with smallpox.