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Edward Jenner (1749 – 1823)

In 1796, Edward Jenner made an incredible discovery that would change the course of human history. He found that cowpox – a virus that infected cows – could protect people from smallpox, a deadly disease that killed millions of people each year. Jenner’s discovery led to the development of one of the most successful vaccines in history, and it has saved countless lives.

Edward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749 in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. He was the eighth of nine children and the son of a local farmer. Jenner grew up in a time when smallpox was a major killer. In fact, it was one of the leading causes of death in Europe at the time. In 1768, Jenner became an apprentice to a surgeon named Daniel Ludlow. Ludlow was one of the first people in England to advocate for inoculation against smallpox – a procedure that involved infecting people with a weakened form of the virus.

Jenner was fascinated by Ludlow’s work and decided to become a doctor himself. In 1773, he enrolled in the University of Edinburgh Medical School. After graduation, Jenner returned to Berkeley and began working as a country doctor. He soon married a local woman named Catherine Kingscote and they had two children together.

In 1796, Edward Jenner made an incredible discovery that would change the course of human history. He found that cowpox – a virus that infected cows – could protect people from smallpox, a deadly disease that killed millions of people each year. Jenner’s discovery led to the development of one of the most successful vaccines in history, and it has saved countless lives.

Jenner’s breakthrough began with his observation that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox were immune to smallpox. Cowpox is a relatively harmless virus that infects cows, but it shares many similarities with smallpox. Jenner hypothesized that if someone was infected with cowpox, they would be protected from smallpox.

To test his theory, Jenner injected an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps with cowpox virus. A few weeks later, Jenner exposed the boy to smallpox and he did not get sick. This experiment was the first time that someone had been intentionally inoculated with a vaccine.

Jenner’s discovery soon caught on and people began vaccinating themselves and their children against smallpox. The vaccine was so successful that it eventually eradicated the disease from most of the world.

Edward Jenner passed away in 1823, but his legacy lives on. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of medicine and immunology.

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