Jenner, Edward
Achievements: Smallpox vaccination
Born: May 17, 1749, Berkeley, England
Died: January 26, 1823, Berkeley, England. Aged 73
Field & Discipline: Medicine; Surgeon
Education: St. George's Hospital, London.
Major Work:
"An Inquiry Into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae"
Life & Times:
As a teenager apprenticed to the surgeon John Ludlow, Jenner learned of a common belief among farmers that if milkmaids caught cowpox (a relatively mild disease which affected the udders of cows) they were immune from catching smallpox, a terrible disfiguring disease. With a good grounding in medicine and surgical practice, Jenner went to London at 21 to study anatomy and surgery under [studied under] John Hunter*. He also attended [taught by] William Hunter*'s anatomy school.
In 1772, he helped to catalog the geological and zoological specimens brought back from [catalogued specimens from] Cook*’s first voyage, but in 1773, gave up the job and returned to Berkeley to begin a medical practice. (Jenner got the cataloguing job through [a pal of] Banks* of the Royal Society). In 1788, Jenner wrote a paper about the cuckoo, pointing out that it was not the foster parent, but the newly hatched cuckoo, which ejected the original occupants out of the borrowed nest. In recognition of this discovery, the [member of] Royal Society* made Jenner a Fellow.
During his first years at Berkeley, where he would live for the rest of his life, Jenner was asked to inoculate many smallpox patients. He found that patients who had contracted cowpox were resistant to smallpox (i.e. they did not contract smallpox after variolation), but he also found that this was not always the case.
Around 1780, he found a difference in pustules on the teats of cows infected with cowpox, and discovered that while all could be spread to the hands of milkers, only one kind created a resistance to smallpox. Jenner called this type "true cowpox". After investigating for several years, he discovered that cowpox provided immunity against smallpox only when matter was taken from the pustules soon after they formed. He then came to the idea that protection against smallpox could be provided by deliberately passing cowpox from one person to another.
In 1796, Jenner finally felt sufficiently confident to carry out an experiment. Taking matter from the fresh cowpox lesions of young dairymaid Sarah Nelmes, he inoculated James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy, who promptly developed a slight fever and a low-grade lesion.
Six weeks later, Jenner inoculated the boy with smallpox matter. No disease developed. Immunity had been achieved. After further investigation, Jenner published privately: "An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a Disease Known by the Name of the Cowpox" (1798), in which he described 23 cases in which cowpox had conferred a lasting immunity to smallpox.
To describe the matter that produced cowpox, Jenner introduced the term "virus". Following the publication of Jenner's book, the practice of vaccination spread rapidly across England.
Jenner also discovered that the vaccine could be dried on cloth and kept for up to three months, which allowed it to be sent abroad. He sent the vaccine first to Swiss physician, Jean de Carro, who introduced the process to Europe and was instrumental in sending vaccine virus into Italy, Germany, Poland and Turkey.
In 1801, [helped by] Thomas Bruce Elgin*, British ambassador at Constantinople, sent the vaccine overland to Basra on the Persian Gulf, and from there it went to Bombay, India. Many thousands of people were vaccinated in India during the next few years. Vaccination was introduced to North America by the Reverend John Clinch of Trinity, Newfoundland, in 1798. Jenner also sent vaccine to President [sent vaccine to] Jefferson*, who in 1801 vaccinated his family and 200 neighbors near his Monticello home.
Jenner received worldwide recognition for his achievements, and was received by King George III, through whose influence vaccination was made compulsory in both the British army and navy.
In 1803, the Royal Jennerian Society was founded in London to promote [introduced] vaccination*, and Jenner became deeply involved in its affairs. The Society was superseded in 1808 by a national vaccination program.
In 1815, Jenner retired to Berkeley, where he continued as a general practitioner and resumed his studies in natural history, completing a paper on the migration of birds, published after his death.
Extra Connections: His work related to that of [work related to] Audubon*, [work related to] Lady Mary Wortley Montagu*, and [work related to] Hales* (governor of Middlesex smallpox hospital)
He inspired the rabies work of [inspired] Pasteur*
Assessment: The founder of immunology. In vaccination, he made the first use of an attenuated virus for immunization
Oneliner: Edward Jenner, discoverer of smallpox vaccination
Bibliography:
- Dictionary of National Biography.
- Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
- Collier' s Encyclopedia.
- Encyclopedia Britannica.
- Fisher, Richard B., Edward Jenner, 1749-1823, London: Andre Deutsch Limited, 1991.
Language: English
Father: Rev. Stephen Jenner
Mother: Sarah Head
Siblings: 8 of whom 5 survived
Spouse: Catherine Kingscote
Children: Edward; Catherine; Robert Fitzhardinge