Edward Jenner was an English country practitioner (1749–1823). He had noticed that cowpox, which milkmaids caught from cattle, gave these women immunity from the scourge of SMALLPOX. In 1796 he transformed this observation into the medical technique of VACCINATION, innoculating a country boy with matter from the arm of a milkmaid infected with cowpox. Despite hostility from some doctors, Parliament voted him a grant of £10,000 for a society to promote vaccination and the technique spread worldwide, giving bene?t to an immense number of people.
Health Encyclopedia