INTRODUCTORY NOTE 





EDWARD JENNER was born at his father's vicarage at Berkeley, 

 Gloucestershire, England, on May 17, 1749. After leaving school f 

 he was apprenticed to a local surgeon, and in 1770 he -went to 

 London and became a resident pupil under the great surgeon 

 and anatomist, John Hunter, with whom he remained on intimate 

 terms for the rest of Hunter's life. In 1773 he took up practise at 

 Berkeley, where, except for numerous visits to London, he spent 

 the rest of his life. He died of apoplexy on January 26, 1823. 



Jenner's scientific interests were varied, but the importance of 

 his work in vaccination has overshadowed his other results. 

 Early in his career he had begun to observe the phenomena of 

 cowpox, a disease common in the rural parts of the western 

 counties of England, and he was familiar with the belief, current 

 among the peasantry, that a person who had suffered from the 

 cowpox could not take smallpox. Finally, in 1796, he made his 

 first experiment in vaccination, inoculating a boy of eight with 

 cowpox, and, after his recovery, with smallpox; with the result 

 that the boy did not take the latter disease. 



Jenner's first paper on his discovery was never printed; but in 

 1798 appeared the first of the following treatises. Its reception 

 by the medical profession was highly discouraging; but progress 

 began when Cline, the surgeon of St. Thomas's Hospital, used the 

 treatment with success. Jenner continued his investigations, pub- 

 lishing his results from time to time, and gradually gaining rec- 

 ognition; though opposition to his theory and practise was at 

 first vehement, and has never entirely disappeared. In 1802, 

 Parliament voted him 10,000, and in 1806, 20,000, in recognition 

 of the value of his services, and the sacrifices they had entailed. 

 As early as 1807, Bavaria made vaccination compulsory; and since 

 that date most of the European governments have officially en- 

 couraged or compelled the practise; and smallpox has ceased to 

 be the almost universal scourge it was before Jenner's discovery. 



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