An Epitome of the History of MedicinePark, Roswell
History
An Epitome of the History of Medicine
Park, Roswell
Medicine -- History
his patients on a strict diet for nine days, then inoculated with the
smallest possible quantity of virus. The operation was not prohibited in
England until the year 1840, although it involved much greater dangers
than vaccination with cow-pox.
The first inoculation with cow-pox seems to have been performed in
1774: by a farmer of Gloucester, named Jesty, though the pioneer in
the extensive and general introduction of this method was Edward
Jenner (1749-1823), of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, who, therefore, is
generally known as the "Father of Vaccination." The son of a clergyman,
he began early the study of medicine and surgery, and during his
apprenticeship received from a milkmaid information of the protective
power of cow-pox against variola, as established by popular observation.
(Sutton and others had proved that inoculation of _sheep_-pox was not
efficient.) This communication so struck Jenner as a means of affording
protection to the whole human race{227} that the subject never
afterward left his mind. In 1770 he became a pupil of John Hunter, and
when he communicated to him this idea the great surgeon said: "Do not
think; investigate!" Accordingly he went to Berkeley and performed the
little operation which has made him famous; and from 1778 until 1788 he
communicated to Sir Everard Home such observations as he had made. But
the first vaccination was performed in 1796, upon a boy, with matter
from the hand of a maid who had contracted cow-pox in milking.
[Illustration: 0247]
In 1798 he published his memorable work, and afterward removed
to London. He died full of fame and honor, in his native place,
having-received rewards from the government amounting to one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, besides being made an honorary citizen of the
city of London. The subsequent wide-spread practice of the method, and
the formation of societies{228} for the promotion of vaccination are
matters of recent history.
The first vaccinations in the United States were performed by Doctor
Waterhouse, Professor of Medicine in Harvard College, in 1800, upon four
of his own children. The transmission of humanized virus through the
system of the cow, and its subsequent employment in vaccination of human
beings, was first practiced by Troja (1747-1827), of Naples, shortly
after the introduction of human vaccination; but in 1810 this was
prohibited in Italy. Compulsory vaccination was first extensively
introduced in Germany in 1807; in England it was first legalized in
1827. The occasional temporary character of the protection thus afforded
was first taught by Elsâsser in 1814. Schoenlein was the first to call
attention to the distinction between variola and varioloid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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