Edward Jenner and the Theory of Vaccination

Edward Jenner, who by his discovery of vaccination has pre-eminently acquired a right to the title of the "Benefactor of Mankind," was born at the vicarage house of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, and was the third son of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, rector of Rockhampton, and vicar of Berkeley. Jenner's father died when he was only five years old, leaving him to be brought up under the care of his uncle. At eight years of age he was put to school at Wotton-under-Edge, from whence he was removed shortly afterwards to the care of Dr. Washborn, at Cirencester. Jenner early displayed that taste for natural history which afterwards formed so marked a feature in his character...

On the 14th of May, 1796, he made his first successful vaccination on a boy of the name of Phipps, eight years old, and announced the event in a letter to a friend named Gardner, in the following words: "But listen to the most delightful part of my story. The boy has since been inoculated for the small-pox, which, as I ventured to predict, produced no effect. I shall now pursue my experiments with redoubled ardour." In the year 1798 he made public the result of his continued observations and experiments, published during this year his work entitled an 'Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ', and henceforth the imperishable name of Jenner was to be identified with vaccination. Although Jenner announced his discovery thus late in life, his attention had been drawn forcibly towards the subject when quite a youth, while pursuing his professional education in the house of his master at Sudbury. During that time, a young countrywoman having come to seek advice, the subject of small-pox was mentioned in her presence; she immediately observed, "I cannot take that, for I have had the cow-pox." This incident rivetted the attention of Jenner, and he resolved to let no opportunity escape of procuring knowledge upon so interesting a subject.