Inventor: Edward Jenner

Smallpox was a major problem throughout most of history. It killed millions of people and had a great effect on the culture of many societies. However, in 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner created a method of inoculation against smallpox. He had heard from a milk maid that people who were infected with cowpox never seemed to have smallpox. However, this did not hold true He then discovered that there are two different forms of cowpox, only one of which created resistance to smallpox. With this information, he collected liquid from the blisters of a girl infected with smallpox, and injected it into a farmer’s boy, James Phipps. The boy came down with a mild case of cowpox, and once he recovered, Jenner injected him with the smallpox virus. The boy never contracted smallpox, so the experiment was considered a success. This discovery was the basis for the inoculation procedure that saved millions of lives, and eventually led to the eradication of smallpox in 1980.

Picture from
Doctor administering smallpox vaccine. N.d. Encarta Online. 28 Dec. 2003 <http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/
targets/images/pho/t032/T032246A.jpg>.

Sources:

Edward Jenner and Smallpox. The Jenner Museum. 28 Dec. 2003 <http://www.jennermuseum.com/sv/smallpox2.shtml>.

• The museum is very helpful with a lot of information on Jenner and the creation of the vaccination process.