Edward Jenner

author

Edward Jenner

1749–1823

Best known for helping turn smallpox from a deadly scourge into a preventable disease, this English physician changed the future of medicine with a simple but world-shaping idea. His work gave the world its first vaccine and helped lay the foundation for immunology.

1 Audiobook

An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox

An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox

by Edward Jenner

About the author

Born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, on May 17, 1749, Edward Jenner trained as a surgeon and physician in England. He is remembered above all for his work on smallpox, a devastating disease that killed and scarred millions.

In 1796, Jenner tested the idea that exposure to cowpox could protect people from smallpox. His published work on vaccination helped spread the practice in Britain and abroad, and the terms vaccine and vaccination grew out of the language he used for cowpox.

Jenner died on January 26, 1823, in his hometown of Berkeley. His legacy reaches far beyond his own era: his smallpox vaccine became the starting point for one of medicine's greatest public health successes.