Edward Jenner was an English country doctor who pioneered the smallpox vaccine, the world’s first vaccine. He is called ‘the father of immunology’, and his work is said to have saved more lives than the work of any other human.
He was born the eighth of nine children. His father was a vicar in a village in Gloucestershire. Edward was an able student. He studied surgery and anatomy under the eminent surgeon John Hunter at St George’s Hospital in London. Hunter gave Jenner a powerful piece of advice – ‘Don’t think; try.’
Returning to his native countryside in 1773, Jenner became a successful family doctor and surgeon, practising in the village of Berkeley.
At that time, smallpox was a curse on humanity. It is estimated that some 60 per cent of the population caught the disease and a third of those died of it.
Jenner was fascinated by an unusual fact that had been known for some time; milkmaids hardly ever caught smallpox. He asked himself why this might be. His hypothesis was that they caught cowpox from cows and that this somehow protected them from catching smallpox. Cowpox was similar to smallpox, but much less virulent.
In 1796, Jenner tested his theory by injecting an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps, with cowpox pus. The boy developed cowpox. Jenner subsequently introduced smallpox infected material to the boy, who proved to be immune to the disease.
Jenner carried out further tests on different subjects and showed rigorously that cowpox pus could be used to protect people from smallpox. He described his experiment in a paper for the Royal Society in 1797. The reaction was sceptical, with more proof demanded. Jenner repeated the experiment on several other children, including his own son. In 1798, the results were published and Jenner recommended mass vaccination. His proposals were ridiculed. People considered it outrageous that a person should be inoculated with material from a diseased animal.
Eventually, the medical authorities were convinced by the evidence and starting vaccination programmes. The practice spread first in Europe and then across the world, with countless lives saved. In 1979, the World Health Organization declared that smallpox had been eradicated.
Jenner became famous and devoted his energies to medical research and developing the process of vaccination. He died in 1823.
Ask searching questions. Jenner famously asked, ‘Why do milkmaids never catch smallpox?’ Others had observed this anomaly, but he kept asking and used the question as a starting point for his brilliant concept. Instead of asking why something happens, try asking why it does not happen. A different question leads to a different answer and a different idea.
‘Don’t think; try’ – is a provocative precept for innovators. Of course, we must think but we must not become paralysed by cogitation. We need to experiment to discover the remarkable. Jenner’s approach appears dangerous and rustic compared with modern medical procedures. But it was only with evidence that he could convince people to change their ways. Theories are not as powerful as empirical data when it comes to changing minds. Prove your innovation with your experiments.
DID YOU KNOW?… The word vaccine was coined by Edward Jenner. It comes from the Latin word vacca, a cow.