VACCINATION

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16212, 29 September 1924, Page 7

VACCINATION

HOW THE CUSTOM ORIGINATED

The cabled account of the prosecu-

tion of Hawden, the well-known antivaccinationist, recalls the interesting history of Jenner’s investigations. Jenner, t)he son of a country vicar, served an apprenticeship at Sodbury with a. surgeon named Daniel Ludlow. One day a young countrywoman came for medical advice, and, smallpox being mentioned, remarked “I cannot take that disease, for I have had cowpox.” This made a deep impression on Jenner and started in his mind the meditations which ultimately led to his epoch-making discovery. On May 14th, 1796, he made the first important experiment in connection with smallpox. He vaccinated a boy of eight, named, James Phipps, .with lymph taken from the hand of a woman suffering from cowpox. On July Ist Jenner inoculated the boy from a smallpox patient, but Phipps did not develop smallpox. This was Jenner’s first triumph. The plucky doctor had much opposition to encounter before his wonderful discovery became accepted by the large majority of medical men and the general public. From January, 1799, onwards vaccination became fairly common, though its adoption.was at first slow. Jenner was helped considerably by Lord Egremont, and in the year 1800 successfully vaccinated about two hundred persons at The latter’s seat in Sussex. Jenner’s fame soon spread to the Continent. In 1801 vaccine was sent to Moscow. The Dowager Empress of Russia took great interest in the experiments, and at her wish the first child in Russia to be vaccinated was called Vaccinoff, and a provision was settled on the child for life. In 1802 the Empress sent Jenner a diamond ring as a token of the importance she attached to his discovery. Napoleon thought so highly of Jenner’s services to humanity that at the doctor’s request he released some of the Englishmen who had been detained on the termination of the Peace of Amiens. Jenner petitioned Parliament for financial assistance to carry on his researches, and he received a grant of £IO,OOO, and subsequently £20,000. Vaccination was eventually made compulsory in England.