1796Reputable sourceWell documented
Jenner and the First Vaccine
On the timeline · around 1796 · The Rise of Medicine
What happened
The English physician Edward Jenner tested a folk observation that milkmaids who caught mild cowpox never got smallpox. In 1796 he deliberately inoculated a boy with cowpox and then showed he was immune to smallpox. He called the method 'vaccination,' from the Latin vacca, for cow.
Why it matters
Jenner's vaccine was the first successful defence ever devised against an infectious disease, launching the science of immunization that would go on to save more lives than almost any other medical advance in history.
Sources
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. History of Smallpox · Reputable source
Related timelines
- Medicine → — The birth of vaccination