Just Jenner

“I shall endeavour still further to prosecute this inquiry, an inquiry I trust not merely speculative, but of sufficient moment to inspire the pleasing hope of its becoming essentially beneficial to mankind.”

-Edward Jenner

 Edward Jenner was born on May 17^th, 1749, in Berkley, Gloucestershire. He was the eighth of nine children born to Sarah Jenner and Reverend Stephen Jenner. By the age of five, Jenner’s parents had both passed away leaving him to be cared for by his older sister, Mary.

                “Edward Jenner was himself variolated whilst at school. He was "prepared" by being starved, purged and bled; then locked up in a stable with other artificially infected boys until the disease had run its course. He suffered particularly badly. It was an experience he would never forget.” Beginning at 14, Jenner began to study medicine as an apprentice surgeon first under Mr. Daniel Ludlow, a surgeon of Chipping Sodbury and then under surgeon and experimentalist, John Hunter. With Hunter, Jenner began to refine his investigation and dissection skills.

                Due to his negative experience with variolation, he became particularly interested in the gossip of the country-folk. They claimed that people who had been infected with cowpox would not become sick with smallpox. Cowpox was similar to smallpox but with much milder effects: a few pocks on the hand and some mild fever.

                When Sarah Nelmes, a dairymaid, called on Jenner to look at some pocks she had, Jenner determined she had contracted cowpox. Seizing the opportunity, Jenner decided to test the rumors. James Phillips, the eight year-old son of his gardener, was his first experimental group. Jenner made small cuts in James’ arm and rubbed some of the cowpox material into the wound.

                James became mildly ill with cowpox a few days later proving the vaccination had some effect. Then came the real test: Jenner needed to see if James was now safe from smallpox. On the 1^st of July, Jenner variolated James and waited. Remarkably, James did not become infected with smallpox. Jenner repeatedly tested to be sure of his results, but James’ immune system warded of the virus again and again.

                After more experimentation, Jenner became more convinced his results were not isolated cases. He chose to publish his findings to the medical community in a book entitled: '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'. This was the first recorded introduction of vaccination. And thus, Jenner became the Father of Immunology.

Sources:

http://www.jennermuseum.com/vaccination.html