Edward Jenner
1749-1823
English Physician and Scientist
Edward Jenner developed the medical procedure known as vaccination, or the inoculation of cowpox to prevent smallpox. He also conducted research on the cuckoo bird, promoted a new method of preparing emetic tartar, and observed the structural changes in the heart that are associated with angina pectoris.
Born May 17, 1749, Jenner was the third son of Reverend Stephen Jenner of Berkeley, Gloucestershire. After being educated locally, he entered into an apprenticeship with Daniel Ludlow, a surgeon-apothecary in Sodbury. In 1770 he traveled to London and became a house-pupil of surgeon and anatomist John Hunter (1728-1793) at St. George's Hospital. Jenner obtained a fellowship to the Royal Society in 1789, and received his medical degree in 1792 from St. Andrew's in Scotland. His personal and professional lives were centered in Cheltenham, where he lived with his wife, Catharine, and three children, and where he worked as a resident physician for nearly 20 years. He died in January 1823.
Jenner's most significant contribution to medicine was the development of smallpox vaccination.
Edward Jenner. (Library of Congress. Reproduced with permission)Smallpox is an infectious disease that may result in disfigurement, blindness, and death. Before the use of vaccination, men and women submitted to a method known as variolation, or the introduction of smallpox into the skin under controlled conditions. Chinese, Indian, and African practitioners were aware of and employed the procedure before it was widely used in Europe. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) introduced variolation into England after observing and undergoing the procedure in Turkey in 1717. The goal of variolation was to produce a mild outbreak of the disease in order to confer acquired immunity on the patient. Variolation, however, posed the danger of a full-blown attack of the disease and had the potential of spreading the affliction among the general population.
Edward Jenner reported his findings on vaccination in Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Variolae Vaccinae (1798). In his publication, Jenner claimed that cowpox provided protection from infection by smallpox. He came to this conclusion after observing 25 cases of cowpox that prevented 24 subjects from contracting smallpox. He also vaccinated a number of people, four of whom resisted smallpox after being variolated.
A keen observer, Jenner also noted changes in the heart brought on by angina pectoris, performing dissections that revealed thedisease's artery hardening and blockage. In addition, he refined the composition of emetic tartar (a drug thought to rid the body of disease by inducing vomiting) in order to ensure a more exact dosage.
Finally, Jenner studied natural history. His interest in botany and the animal kingdom influenced John Hunter's decision to choose him as his pupil. Jenner paid particular attention to the cuckoo bird, a creature that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. Jenner hoped to figure out how the newborns of the foster mother were evicted from the nest in order for the cuckoos to gain her full attention. He concluded that the body structure of the newborn cuckoo bird allows it to overwhelm the other birds and forcibly remove them from the nest.
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