Print, A History of Medicine in Pictures – ca. 1961
What is going on here? This poor kid does not look very happy! And understandably so. Titled “Jenner: Smallpox is Stemmed,” this print illustrates English physician Edward Jenner performing the first vaccination against smallpox in 1796. Jenner was able to prove that his discovery of vaccination worked after inoculating 8-year-old James Phipps with cowpox to prove that it would protect against smallpox.
For thousands of years, smallpox devastated mankind. The earliest evidence we have of smallpox is found on the faces of Egyptian mummies from the 18th and 20th Dynasties, around 1570-1085 BC. After it was introduced to Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, smallpox epidemics were frequent and devastating. For example, in Europe during the 18th century, 400,000 people died each year of smallpox, and a third of the survivors went blind. Most survivors were left with disfiguring scars.
Today we do not have to worry about smallpox thanks to the remarkable work of English physician Edward Jenner on immunizations and later developments from his discoveries.
Edward Jenner is well known around the world for his work with vaccination and his efforts which ultimately led to the eradication of smallpox. Jenner’s work is widely regarded as the foundation of immunology—even though he wasn’t the first to suggest that those infected with cowpox (a related disease) provided immunity to smallpox. He wasn’t the first to attempt cowpox inoculation to provide immunity to smallpox either. However, work represented the first scientific attempt to control an infectious disease by the deliberate use of vaccination. He was relentless to promote vaccination as a proven scientific procedure and devoted to studying vaccination and proving its effectiveness. As a result, Jenner changed the way medicine was practiced.
In science credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not the man to whom the idea first occurs.
—francis galton
See more Artifacts of the Week
Artifact of the Month Video Series
Connect with curiosity!
