Edward Jenner facts for kids

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Edward Jenner2
Edward Jenner

Edward Jenner (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician known for creating the vaccine for smallpox.

Vaccination

Vaccination as a concept was known long before Jenner.

In 1765, Dr John Fewster published a paper in the London Medical Society entitled "Cow pox and its ability to prevent smallpox", but he did not pursue the subject further.

After 1770, at least five investigators in England and Germany (Sevel, Jensen, Jesty 1774, Rendell, Plett 1791) successfully tested a cowpox vaccine in humans against smallpox. For example, Dorset farmer Benjamin Jesty successfully vaccinated and presumably induced immunity with cowpox in his wife and two children during a smallpox epidemic in 1774. Jenner may have been aware of Jesty's procedures and success, but after Jenner's work some 20 years later the procedure became widely understood at last.

It was a common observation that milkmaids were generally immune to smallpox. Jenner thought that the pus in the blisters that milkmaids received from cowpox (a disease similar to smallpox, but much less virulent) protected them from smallpox. He may already have heard of Benjamin Jesty's success.

On 14 May 1796, Jenner tested his hypothesis on an eight-year-old boy, the son of his gardener. He scraped pus from cowpox blisters on the hands of a milkmaid. Jenner inoculated Phipps in both arms that day, subsequently producing in Phipps a fever and some uneasiness, but no full-blown infection. Later, he injected the boy with a mild form of smallpox and he showed no sign of infection. Jenner successfully tested his hypothesis on 23 more subjects.

"Jenner's unique contribution was not that he inoculated a few persons with cowpox, but that he then proved [by subsequent challenges] that they were immune to smallpox. Moreover, he demonstrated that the protective cowpox pus could be effectively inoculated from person to person, not just directly from cattle".

Images for kids

  • Edward Jenner manuscript

    His original report is in the Royal College of Surgeons (London)

  • Cuculus canorus

    Common cuckoo

  • Edward Jenner, certificate of attendance at Wellcome L0020702

    A lecturer's certificate of attendance given to Jenner. He attended many lectures on chemistry, medicine and physics.

  • "Edward Jenner advising a farmer to vaccinate his family". O Wellcome V0018221

    Edward Jenner Advising a Farmer to Vaccinate His Family. Oil painting by an English painter, c. 1910

  • Jenner phipps 01

    Jenner performing his first vaccination on James Phipps, a boy of age 8. 14 May 1796

  • The cow pock

    James Gillray's 1802 caricature of Jenner vaccinating patients who feared it would make them sprout cowlike appendages.

  • Jenner and his two colleagues seeing off three anti-vaccinat Wellcome V0011075

    1808 cartoon showing Jenner, Thomas Dimsdale and George Rose seeing off anti-vaccination opponents

  • Memorial to Edward Jenner in Gloucester Cathedral

    1825 memorial to Jenner by Robert William Sievier, Gloucester Cathedral

  • Edward Jenner Museum, The Chantry, Church Lane, Berkeley, England-9March2010

    Dr Jenner's House, The Chantry, Church Lane, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England

  • Jenner statue, Kensington Gdns

    Bronze in Kensington Gardens, London

  • Edward Jenner's name as it appears on the Frieze of the LSHTM Keppel Street building

    Edward Jenner's name as it appears on the Frieze of the LSHTM Keppel Street building


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