Edward Jenner and history of Vaccine

         Edward Jenner and history of Vaccine 

Edward Jenner, (born May 17, 1749, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England—died January 26, 1823, Berkeley), he was  English surgeon and discoverer of vaccination for smallpox.Jenner was a country youth, the son of a clergyman. He attended grammar school and at the age of 13 was apprenticed to a nearby surgeon.. On completing his apprenticeship at the age of 21, he went to London and became the house pupil of John Hunter, who was on the staff of St. George's Hospital and was one of the most prominent surgeons in London.He was an anatomist, biologist, and experimentalist of the first rank.In addition to his training and experience in biology, Jenner made progress in clinical surgery. In addition to practicing medicine, he joined two medical groups for the promotion of medical knowledge and wrote occasional medical papers. Jenner married in 1788.

-- History of Smallpox and Vaccination

Smallpox was widespread in the 18th century, and occasional outbreaks of special intensity resulted in a very high death rate.The only means of combating smallpox was a primitive form of vaccination called variolation. The practice, which originated in China and India, was based on two distinct concepts: first, that one attack of smallpox effectively protected against any subsequent attack and, second, that a person deliberately infected with a mild case of the disease would safely acquire such protection.Jenner noticed that  a person who had suffered an attack of cowpox—a relatively harmless disease that could be contracted from cattle could not take the smallpox.Also Jenner concluded that cowpox not only protected against smallpox but could be transmitted from one person to another as a deliberate mechanism of protection. In May 1796 Jenner found a young dairymaid, Sarah Nelmes, who had fresh cowpox lesions on her hand. On May 14, using matter from Sarah’s lesions, he inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps, who had never had smallpox.Phipps was slightly ill for 9 days but was well on 10th day.After then Jenner inoculated the boy again with smallpox but no disease developed in Phipps and now he was protected from smallpox.

Jenner went to London seeking volunteers for vaccination but, in a stay of three months, was not successful. In London vaccination became popularized through the activities of others, particularly the surgeon Henry Cline, to whom Jenner had given some of the inoculant, and the doctors George Pearson and William Woodville.

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