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This Day in History: English physician and scientist Edward Jenner was born on this day in 1749. Jenner pioneered the concept of vaccines including creating the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. Jenner is often cited as "the father of immunology", and his work is said to have "saved more lives than the work of any other human". In Jenner's time, smallpox killed around 10 to 20 percent of the population. Jenner coined the term vaccination, derived from vacca, which is Latin for “cow”. Edward Jenner discovered smallpox vaccination in 1796 after a milkmaid told him that cowpox, which she contracted from a cow's udder, protected her from smallpox, and he then noticed that milkmaids rarely exhibited the facial scars of smallpox.
"...vaccination did not start as science. It basically started as a hunch, based on no comprehension of the science at all. Of course, that doesn’t make it wrong, but you can hardly suggest it was founded on a thorough understanding of the human immune system. Edward Jenner did not know that such a thing existed, and nor did anyone else. It was just a good guess."
Over more than 12 years Jenner funded his own work. "He approached the Royal Society of London, hoping that the government-sponsored group would publish the results of his work. He was turned down, told that the concept was too revolutionary and the evidence weak. So he decided to publish the work himself. Appearing in 1798, An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Variolae Vaccinae quickly became one of the most important books of its kind. In addition to helping slow the spread of smallpox, the book sparked research into vaccinations for a number of other ills."
This all happened at a time when "all doctors thought infections were spread by Miasma. Basically, a nasty smell. No-one had the faintest idea that there were bacteria, or viruses. Somewhat ironically, vaccination – giving a small amount of a substance to cure/prevent a nasty disease – became the underlying principle of homeopathy – which most doctors now angrily dismiss as ‘woo woo medicine.’"
Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and The Forgotten History
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