Edward Jenner

“Edward Jenner”
Edward Jenner was a big part of the enlightenment period. His discovery was a medical breakthrough and saved many lives. He was a country doctor that lived from 1749-1823. Jenner’s father died when he was only five, he also had a brother and a sister. Edwards’s brother stepped in as the head of the family with his father gone. At a young age Jenner was very good at noticing and observing nature. At the age of 13 he decided he wanted to be a doctor. When he was 22 he went to St George’s Hospital in London to study surgery under the successful surgeon John Hunter. He then returned to his old town and remained there until his death. Before Jenner’s discovery the main treatment for smallpox was to inject a person with a substance from people who had a mild case of smallpox, although this method was very risky and sometimes people died because of them developing full case of smallpox. An epidemic broke out in Gloucestershire (Edward Jenner’s home town), Jenner took this opportunity to observe the people and he noticed something. The people that worked with cattle, that caught a milder version of smallpox called cowpox had en immunity to smallpox. One day a milk maid called Sarah Nelmes came to Jenner with cowpox. This gave Jenner the opportunity to test out his ideas. He took some fluid from the milkmaid’s sores and then some fluid from a patient with the more deadly smallpox. Jenner asked one of the farmers in the area if he could try his cowpox injection on his son. The farmer agreed to this because Jenner explained that if he was correct then his son would never catch the harmful Smallpox in his life. James (the farmer’s son) caught mildly ill after the cowpox vaccination, but recovered in time, and then Jenner injected the more harmful virus smallpox. James did not catch the smallpox. He had created the first vaccination. He then continued to do more test and further prove his theory; in 1789 he published a book. Jenner got...