Edward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749 in the Gloucestershire town of England. The father of the pastor sent the boy to the local schools to get his primary education. Since childhood, Jenner’s tendency was visible in zoology and he also started studying medical science methodically. One way to become a doctor in those days was to apprentice to another doctor – and Jenner also became an apprentice to the surgeon Daniel Ludlow. At the age of 21, Jenner reached St. George’s Hospital in London to become something under the tutelage of John Hunter, the great surgeon of the era.
Doctor Hunter was very curious, full of enthusiasm. He was a doctor who believed more in trying things himself. Unfortunately, he subjected himself to many trials, the result of which was a terminal illness and his life was cut short. Well, if he instilled this disease in himself, then he instilled more of his life-philosophy in the students that ‘Why are you surprised, why don’t you test yourself and see?
John Hunter corresponded with Jenner, and remained a friend and counselor for the rest of his life. After graduating from St. George’s Hospital, Hunter sent him back to Gloucestershire to start a practice there. He probably thought that the village-born Jenner would not be happy in the cramped environment of the city. But today the world is highly indebted to Hunter for this advice of going to the village to practice medicine.
• Before scientific medicine and modern miraculous medicines came into use, common belief used to be in native ‘tricks’. It was believed that some plants had some special power to cure diseases. Digitalis was used in heart disease from a long time ago, although even the doctors themselves did not know what was the reason for its effect. People had been using moss or mildew earlier also to prevent the disease from spreading further, while Fleming invented penicillin much later. Even today, how many people believe that raw onion can cure throat pain if the voice stops. In fact, raw onions really have the power to destroy germs.
Before scientific analysis came into the medical field, some other superstitions were popular, one of which was that some diseases affect humans only once in life. Today’s parents are satisfied that their girls have got German Measles; Because if a middle-aged woman catches this disease, then it becomes a disaster for her, but it does not have any special effect on the children. The girl who got German measles once, will now be free from its humiliation for the rest of her life.
The same thing was also about smallpox, that once the patient survived smallpox, the patient could not get smallpox again. The people of the East began to take advantage of this idea by deliberately letting smallpox worms into their bodies. They have even found a method by which the power of these insects can be reduced and they cannot cause much harm by reaching inside. A slight attack of small pox, after a few days he recovered, and afterwards no name of the disease for the rest of his life. Fortunately, this remedy would have worked to a greater extent, many people would never have recovered after the injection.
The naïve people of Gloucestershire knew that ‘cowpox’ or smallpox did not catch the old mother’s sick. It is clear from the name of the mother that this disease usually affects cows, and it comes to humans only after getting infected from cows. But the wonder was why such a disease, which is born in the hoofs of horses, gets infected by cows.
The study of this wonderful condition of Bara Mata or Measles and smallpox was begun by Dr. Jenner, encouraged by the old Master Hunter, “Research, but with patience, and never neglecting any point of view.”—And, In any scientific research, what else could be a guideline? Altogether Jenner examined 27 patients. In 1796 he published his findings.
Jenner made a sequential ‘history’ of each patient and found that, on initial examinations, patients with smallpox did not appear to have smallpox, although patients with smallpox came into their daily contact. Not only this, some of the smallpox Even after injecting the liquids into the arms of these people, he saw that smallpox did not even touch them.
And finally—we must commend the courage of the child’s parents—Dr. Jenner administered the mother’s vaccine to a healthy eight-year-old child, Jimmie Phipps, and made him soundly ill. He vaccinated her, and also a man who had no mother, for smallpox. Smallpox came out – in a healthy man away from mother’s curse, not in Phips ‘good luck’ with mother’s germs.
When Jenner published these findings, a storm was bound to arise. Some even said that it was ‘violating’ the laws of nature, while others claimed that the discovery was theirs, and there were those who understood the story of smallpox without even testing it. Started it and, in this scam, the sick were spared death, let alone health!
Six million people, that is, double the population of London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and Moscow combined. Smallpox is estimated to have killed 600,00,000 people in Europe between 1700 and 1800.
In the 1721 epidemic, half of Boston’s population was infected with smallpox, and it also killed one in 10 patients. But today this menace has almost disappeared from the world itself. The eradication of plague was possible only by the discovery of vaccine, and its promoter was Dr. Edward Jenner.
This time of excitement came and went, and then Jenner proved his methods to the medical world, which now earned him respect and prestige throughout the civilized world. Parliament recommended a ‘knighthood’ for him and awarded him £20,000. Oxford gave him an honorary degree. The Tsar of Russia sent her a gold ring. Napoleon of France lavished praise on him. Then a delegation of American Indians reached England with gifts and messages of thanks for him.
This man studied an old superstition of the savages and proved that it had scientific facts. Along with this, he also had the courage that a person can be saved from a huge humiliation by taking a trivial disease through injection. At heart he was only a country doctor, and after receiving this great honor, he returned to his own village.
He returned and spent the last years of his life on his farms. He died in January, 1823.
Now, whenever you come across the mark of vaccine on your arm, take care of those unknown persons who once presented themselves for these experiments. And consider Edward Jenner, who invented the vaccine to protect us all from smallpox forever.
And consider all the different types of vaccines that are the custodians of our health, including the one that Dr. Jonas Salk invented to protect against polio.