Reference
- Jenner, EdwardEnglish physician who pioneered vaccination. In Jenner's day, smallpox was a major killer. His discovery in 1796 that inoculation with cowpox gives immunity to smallpox was a great medical breakthrough.
Jenner observed that people who worked with cattle and contracted cowpox from them never subsequently caught smallpox. In 1798 he published his findings that a child inoculated with cowpox, then two months later with smallpox, did not get smallpox. He coined the word ‘vaccination’ from the Latin word for cowpox, vaccinia.
Jenner was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, on 17 May 1749, the son of a vicar. He was educated locally and in 1761 apprenticed to a surgeon in Sodbury. In 1770 he went to London to study anatomy and surgery under John Hunter, who took Jenner as his first boarding pupil at St George's Hospital in London. Hunter believed strongly that doctors could improve their treatments if they watched their patients and their surroundings closely, and taught Jenner the importance of observation and deduction. Returning to Gloucestershire in 1773, Jenner set up in private practice in Berkeley, where he regularly visited all parts of the local area, observing his patients closely.
One of the biggest killers at the time was smallpox, a viral disease that showed itself in scabs on a person's skin and almost always led to the death of the victim. In 1788 an epidemic of smallpox swept Gloucestershire and Jenner offered inoculations with live vaccine in spite of the tragedies that had previously accompanied this practice. Inoculation was well known in eastern countries, and had been brought to England in 1721 by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the British ambassador to Turkey. The treatment involved taking pus from the scab of a recovering smallpox patient and transferring it to an open cut in the person to be inoculated. The idea was that they would get a mild dose of smallpox and then be immune to the disease in future. However, despite the success of some practitioners, such as Jan Ingenhousz, who inoculated the royal family, inoculation was dangerous if the pus given to the healthy person was too strong, as they could contract a fatal dose of the disease. Despite Jenner's offers many people refused to be inoculated...
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Streaming Media
- Edward Jenner: The Man Who Cured Smallpox1798 was an important year for Edward Jenner, a country doctor from Berkley in Gloucestershire. Already a fellow of the Royal Society after discovering the anti-social nesting behavior of cuckoos, Jenner published a paper documenting his success using the mild cowpox virus to immunize his patients against smallpox. This program examines his life and achievements. Follow in Jenner's footsteps around the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside, the places of his childhood, fossil hunts, and nature studies. See the London hospital where he trained in the latest surgical procedures of the day, before returning to The Chantry, his beloved country home, now the Edward Jenner Museum.
Online Resources
- Edward Jenner's VaccineHenderson relates the story of the development of a smallpox vaccine by Edward Jenner. Jenner's experiments and subsequent development of a vaccine were chronicled in his book "An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the name of the Cow Pox."
- Edward jenner and the small pox vaccineEdward Jenner, who discovered that it is possible to vaccinate against Small Pox using material from Cow Pox, is rightly the man who started the science of immunology. However, over the passage of time many of the details surrounding his astounding discovery have been lost or forgotten. Also, the environment within which Jenner worked as a physician in the countryside, and the state of the art of medicine and society are difficult to appreciate today. It is important to recall that people were still being bled at the time, to relieve the presence of evil humors. Accordingly, this review details Jenner's discovery and attempts to place it in historical context. Also, the vaccine that Jenner used, which decreased the prevalence of Small Pox worldwide in his own time, and later was used to eradicate Small Pox altogether, is discussed in light of recent data.
- Historical context and the roots of Jenner's discoveryMay 2016 marks the 220 th anniversary of Edward Jenner's first experimental vaccination using cowpox to protect against smallpox. Jenner's discovery, and its rapid adoption around the world, launched a medical revolution that continues to shape how we approach disease prevention. The historical roots of vaccination are found in the popularization of smallpox inoculation during the 18 th century, part of an Enlightenment culture that fostered scientific inquiry and the global circulation of knowledge. Jenner was part of that culture and his study of cowpox stemmed from his varied interests as a natural historian, his contacts with leading savants in London, and his medical practice in a flourishing dairy area of England. The amazingly quick spread of vaccination resulted from organized hospital trials in major cities, the severe smallpox epidemic at the turn of the century, disease environment, and policies of European colonial powers.
- Nestling Cuckoos to Vaccination: A Commemoration of Edward JennerEdward Jenner did not prosper financially from his discovery of vaccination despite his being aware of its benefits and being internationally recognized for it. He became too busy with his medical practice that he was forced to neglect his interest in birds.
Perspectives
The End of Plagues
World-renowned immunologist John Rhodes's The End of Plagues is "an engaging and expansive exploration of humankind's quest to defend itself against disease" (History Today). At the turn of the twentieth century, smallpox claimed the lives of two million people per year. By 1979, the disease had been eradicated and victory was declared across the globe. Yet the story of smallpox remains the exception, as today a host of deadly contagions, from polio to AIDS, continue to threaten human health around the world. Spanning three centuries, The End of Plagues weaves together the discovery of vaccination, the birth and growth of immunology, and the fight to eradicate the world's most feared diseases. From Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination in 1796, to the early nineteenth-century foundling voyages in which chains of orphans, vaccinated one by one, were sent to colonies around the globe, to the development of polio vaccines and the stockpiling of smallpox as a biological weapon in the Cold War, Rhodes charts our fight against these plagues, and shows how vaccinations gave humanity the upper hand.
Smallpox
Scientifically known as Variola major, the deadliest form of smallpox has plagued mankind since "time immemorial." This text chronicles the worldwide effects of the killer disease, with particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries, including the devastations of the "speckled disease" during great armed conflicts. Specific attention is paid to the development and utilization of Dr. Edward Jenner's vaccination, chronicling the anti-vaccination movement, the evolving concept of compulsory vaccination and the global march toward eradication. Legal and moral challenges, the National Vaccine Institute, the treatment of American Indians and African Americans, immigrants, the often bloody quarantine battles, germ warfare, superstitions and home remedies are addressed from the historical perspectives of those who lived through and those who died of this scourge.
An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae
An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox