Edward Jenner

Background: Jenner's Discovery (1796)

• Edward Jenner, an English physician, discovered that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox (a much milder disease) seemed immune to smallpox, a deadly and disfiguring disease.

• In 1796, he inoculated a young boy, James Phipps, with pus from cowpox sores. The boy developed mild symptoms but did not get smallpox after exposure later.

• Jenner published his findings in 1798, marking the beginning of vaccination (from vacca, Latin for cow).