Edward Jenner
Early Life
Edward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. He was the eighth of nine children. His father, the Reverend Stephen Jenner, was the vicar of Berkeley, so Jenner received a strong basic education.
Education
Jenner went to school in Wotton-under-Edge and Cirencester. During these years, he developed a strong interest in science and nature that continued throughout his life. At the age of 14, Jenner was apprenticed for seven years to Daniel Ludlow, a surgeon of Chipping Sodbury, where he gained most of the experience needed to become a surgeon himself.
Medical Career
In 1770, Jenner moved to St George's Hospital in London, where he was a pupil of John Hunter, a leading figure in the scientific revolution. Hunter was a great believer in the power of observation and encouraged Jenner to pursue his studies on cows and the disease known as cowpox.
Discovery of Smallpox Vaccination
Jenner's most famous discovery came from his investigations of the folklore that milkmaids who suffered from cowpox, a disease like smallpox, never contracted smallpox itself. In 1796, Jenner tested his theory by inoculating James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy who was the son of Jenner's gardener. He scraped pus from cowpox blisters on the hands of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who had caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom. Jenner inoculated Phipps with the pus and later exposed him to smallpox; the boy did not develop the disease and the experiment was hailed as a success.
Later Life and Death
Jenner continued his scientific investigations until his death on January 26, 1823. His work has been widely recognized as the foundation of immunology—despite the initial controversy it sparked. Today, Jenner is often called "the father of immunology".
Legacy
Jenner's work marked the beginning of a new era in medicine, one where the prevention of disease was possible. His discovery of the smallpox vaccine paved the way for the eradication of this devastating disease and the development of many other vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox eradicated in 1980, thanks to a global immunization campaign.
