Edward Jenner

English country doctor who invented cowpox vaccination and opened the age of vaccines.

Life

Country doctor

Jenner was a country doctor in Gloucestershire. Smallpox then claimed huge numbers of lives every year. Folk practice already used variolation (inoculation with smallpox matter), but it carried real risks. He noticed that milkmaids who had caught cowpox seemed never to get smallpox.

Milkmaid

In 1796 he took matter from a cowpox blister on a milkmaid's hand and inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps. Six weeks later he inoculated the boy with smallpox, and the boy did not fall ill. In 1798 he published his findings; the word "vaccine" comes from the Latin for "cow."

Vaccines

Cowpox vaccination soon spread around the world, reaching China in 1805. Jenner died in 1823. In 1980 the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated.

Legacy

Jenner is called the "father of immunology," and the vaccination he pioneered has probably saved more lives than the work of any other person.

Major works & achievements

• An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae

Did you know? The cow that supplied the cowpox pus was named "Blossom," and her hide is still preserved at St. George's medical school in London.

Key dates

• 1796Vaccinated Phipps with cowpox
• 1798Published his findings
• 1805Cowpox vaccination reached China
• 1823Died