Edward Jenner
Storyboard Text
- hmm...
- Maybe...
- I can give you immunity James!
- Edward Jenner was a country doctor, he had noticed that the milkmaids who had contracted cowpox while working would never get smallpox, this gave him an idea...
- He theorised from his observations that if someone got infected with cowpox it granted them immunity to smallpox!
- It worked!
- I know who I'll try it on next...
- To test his theory, he approached an 8-year-old boy named James Phipps and promised him immunity to smallpox if he listened to him. Inoculations for smallpox had been carried out before but infecting someone with smallpox could lead to issues and can even be life threatening.
- Now what to call it...
- Jenner made a small cut in James's arm, and proceeded to rub pus from a cowpox blister or 'pock' onto the wound, cowpox was not nearly as deadly as smallpox and wouldn't have a significant impact on health.
- After contracting cowpox and recovering, James was in fact immune to smallpox, after this success, Jenner spent the next two years testing on other people, usually labourers or work house inmates.
- After these two years, Jenner published a book with his findings, this is also when the procedure was given the name vaccine, coming from the Latin word 'Vacca', meaning cow.
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