Jenner Vaccinates Boy: The Birth of Modern Immunology
Edward Jenner inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with matter from a cowpox blister on the hand of milkmaid Sarah Nelmes on May 14, 1796. Six weeks later, Jenner variolated Phipps with smallpox and the boy showed no symptoms. The experiment confirmed the folk observation that milkmaids who caught cowpox seemed immune to smallpox. Jenner coined the term "vaccine" from "vacca," Latin for cow. His publication met skepticism: satirical cartoons depicted vaccinated people sprouting cow parts. The Royal College of Physicians initially rejected his paper. But the evidence was overwhelming, and by 1801, 100,000 people in Britain had been vaccinated. Smallpox killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone before the WHO declared it eradicated in 1980, the only human disease ever eliminated.
May 14, 1796
230 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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