HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF IMMUNOLOGY 11 



contracted cowpox from milking did not take 

 smallpox, and similar observations had been 

 noted in Germany and France. On learning of 

 this fact from a milkmaid, Jenner early con- 

 ceived the idea of applying it on a grand scale 

 in the prevention of the disease; and on May 

 14, 1796, he performed his first vaccination upon 

 a country boy, Thomas Phipps, using matter 

 from the arm of the milkmaid, Sarah Nehnes, 

 who had contracted cowpox in the usual way. 

 The experiment was then put to the test by in- 

 oculating Phipps with smallpox virus on July 

 first; and the immunization proved successful, 

 for Phipps did not contract smallpox. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 



The modern scientific movement did not at- 

 tain its full stride until well after the middle 

 of the century. The medicine of the early half 

 was with few exceptions only the stationary 

 theorizing of the preceding age. The descrip- 

 tions of new forms of disease, and the discov- 

 eries of anesthesia (1847) by Thomas Morgan 

 and antiseptic surgery (1867) by Lord Lister 

 were the special achievements of the Anglo- 

 Saxon race. 



