In the 18th century, smallpox was a major killer. The disease was frequently fatal and usually left any survivors badly scarred and disfigured.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu learnt about inoculation in Turkey and introduced it to Britain. Inoculation had arrived in Turkey from China.
Montagu discovered that a healthy person could be immunised against smallpox using pus from the sores of someone suffering from a mild form of the disease.
A thread soaked in pus was drawn through a small cut in the person to be inoculated. After a mild reaction, they were immune to smallpox.
Unfortunately inoculation sometimes led to full-blown smallpox and death. The fear of smallpox led people to take the risk of inoculation. Doctors could become rich doing inoculations.
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Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner was a country doctor in Gloucestershire. He heard that milkmaids didn't get smallpox, but they did catch the much milder cowpox.
Using careful scientific methods Jenner investigated and discovered that it was true that people who had had cowpox didn't get smallpox.
In 1796 Jenner was ready to test his theory. He took a small boy called James Phipps and injected him with pus from the sores of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid with cowpox. Jenner then injected him with smallpox. James didn't catch the disease.
The Latin for cow, vacca, gives us the word vaccination.
Smallpox was taken to America by European settlers - Jenner's vaccinations made him famous even amongst the Native Americans, who sent a delegation to England to thank him.
In 1802 and 1806 Parliament gave Jenner £10000 and £20000 respectively - equivalent to millions today.
Vaccination was made free for infants in 1840 and compulsory in 1853.
Some people were opposed to vaccination. Some doctors who gave the older type of inoculation saw it as a threat to their livelihood and many people were worried about giving themselves a disease from cows.
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