Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination.

Edward Jenner and the discovery of vaccination--an appeal for the Edward Jenner Museum.

The discovery of vaccination was one of the greatest medical dvances of all time and, indeed, an estimated 8–10 million lives are resently saved on an annual basis worldwide by vaccines. Included n this number are the many that would have died of smallpox, radicated by vaccination in 1977 [1]. The potential for doubling his number exists if vaccines can be developed to control the major orld he...

Edward Jenner's unpublished cowpox inquiry and the Royal Society: Everard Home's report to Sir Joseph Banks.

Edward Jenner's Inquiry into the causes and effects of the variolae vaccinae ... known by the name of the cow pox, published in 1798, contains the evidence on which he based his claim that inoculated cowpox (later called vaccination) induced lifelong immunity to smallpox. He did one vaccination in 1796, but more important was the small series of vaccinations done in 1798 which showed that vacci...

The origins of vaccination: myths and reality.

In 1796, 75 years after Lady Mary Wortley Montague and Charles Maitland introduced inoculation into England, Edward Jenner performed an experiment that would eventually lead to the eradication of smallpox and the end of inoculation. (NB: in this article, inoculation refers to immunization with smallpox virus and vaccination refers to immunization with cowpox virus.) He inoculated a child with m...

The prevention of smallpox: from Edward Jenner to Monckton Copeman.

Virology in the 21st century.

V iruses and viral diseases have been at the center of science, agriculture, and medicine for millennia, and some of our greatest challenges and triumphs have involved virology. Smallpox is a prime example. This greatest killer of humankind changed the course of history during the European conquest of the New World and is also the only disease ever eradicated. This remarkable achievement began ...