Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner, (1749-1823). British physician. After obtaining his medical degree in 1792 Jenner started to experiment with possible cures for smallpox. In 17% he removed some blister fluid from a milkmaid with cowpox (a disease similar to smallpox but much milder) and injected it into a boy. Two months later the boy was injected with smallpox but did not develop the disease. Jenner repeated this experiment in 1798 and published his findings, coining the word vaccination for the practice (from vaccinia, the Latin name for cowpox). After 70 of London’s most respected surgeons signed a document stating their confidence in the discovery, vaccination spread throughout Britain and Europe. In Britain the number of deaths from smallpox was reduced by two thirds.
