The Jenner Trial During The 1700s

The Jenner Trial

"The smallpox was always present, filling the churchyards with corpses, tormenting with constant fears all whom it had stricken, leaving on those whose lives it spared the hideous traces of its power, turning the babe into a changeling at which the mother shuddered, and making the eyes and cheeks of the bighearted maiden objects of horror to the lover" (Macaulay). Imagine walking down the busiest street in 1700s London, and you only saw a dozen people. In every window, bodies swelling with bumps were everywhere. Dead, ravaged bodies were tossed aside. No one could escape smallpox’s destruction. During the 1700s in Europe, 400,000 more were left dead with each passing year. The lucky survivors became deaf, blind, scarred,
and suffered painful neuritis. Vital organs were targeted, and survivors would often die of pneumonia, heart failure, or brain damage. ‘From smallpox and love but few remain free’. (Kerns) Edward Jenner changed the world forever after he undertook a grueling process where he explored the world of disease, exchanged information, and encountered doubt, to create the first vaccine.
Before Jenner could create the vaccine and change the course of humanity, he had to encounter the disease first hand and understand it.
“He [Edward Jenner] was bled until pale, then purged and fasted repeatedly, until he wasted to a skeleton. He was denied solid food in favor of a vegetable drink that was supposed to sweeten the blood” (Kerns). Jenner’s miserable variolation experience made him realize how important it was to find a new way to prevent smallpox and helped him understand how his adversary worked. As a teenager, a milkmaid had told him, “Now I'll never take the Small pox, for I have had the Cow pox’’ (Unknown). Later in his life, it inspired the approach he took to eliminating smallpox. According to a Stanford student, cowpox was similar to that of smallpox; both cause skin lesions and occasionally colds. Noticing the similarities, Jenner was able to learn about smallpox and create a vaccine from cowpox material. His early experiences poured a strong educational foundation of diseases and specifically
smallpox.
In Jenner’s time, technology, knowledge, and experience with micro biology was limited; therefore, creating a vaccine was a long painful process of inquiry. Sarah Neimus, a milkmaid, contracted cowpox and went to Edward’s mentor. He realizes this is his chance to test his theory, and sets out to find a viable candidate. James Phipps was chosen, because he’d never contracted smallpox and was susceptible. Edward started by rubbing cowpox material on his scratches. In theory, when Phipps is exposed to smallpox, he’s incapable of getting sick. Edward Jenner then proceeds to infect him with smallpox. However, as expected, James did not exhibit symptoms. At the age of 40, Jenner, gave his own baby boy cowpox. (Kerns) He did this in order to prove his previous experiment wasn’t a coincidence. Jenner would not do this if he wasn’t confident that his vaccine worked.
Despite his effort, creating a vaccine would be in vain. Following his discovery, the public doubted and mocked him. How could anyone believe that by infecting themselves with cow material, would prevent one of the deadliest diseases ever? “In an age when infection was not understood, cowpox samples often became contaminated with smallpox itself, because those handling it worked in smallpox hospitals or carried out variolation. This led to claims that cowpox was no safer than smallpox inoculation”. Such claims founded a distrust in cowpox. Political cartoonists took advantage, and started showing images of cow headed people. Fortunately, parliament banned variolation in 1840, and by 1853, the vaccine was inforced. (Smallpox-the Speckled Monster) Despite the lack of support, Jenner fought for the greater good. Edward Jenner published his findings in An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a Disease Known by the Name of Cow Pox.
“It was his gift to the world”, Trueman said about the vaccine. Jenner did not patent his vaccine, for If he had it would have made it out of reach for most people (Trueman). “I shall endeavour still further to prosecute this inquiry, an inquiry I trust not merely speculative, but of sufficient moment to inspire the pleasing hope of its becoming essentially beneficial to mankind” (Jenner). What mattered to him was the impact the vaccine would leave on the world. Edward Jenner devoted the rest of his life to spreading his vaccine. The “vaccine clerk to the world”, is how Jenner referred to himself, since he travelled the world transferring pock material (Smallpox - The Speckled Monster). The British government compensated him for his service to the world (Smallpox - The Speckled Monster). In order to, honour Blossom (the cow) and Sarah Neimus, the name vaccine was based after the Latin word for cow, vacca (Edward Jenner - Biography, Facts and Pictures). One-hundred years post smallpox vaccine, Louis Pasteur created the rabies and anthrax vaccines (Smallpox - The Speckled Monster). According to Jenifer Ehreth, 5,977,855 lives are prevented annually from vaccination. The World Health Organization followed in Jenner’s steps, spreading vaccines. As of 1980, smallpox was officially declared eradicated (Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (U.S.); World Health Organization.;). "The eradication of smallpox shows that with strong mutual resolve, teamwork and an international spirit of solidarity, ambitious global public health goals can be attained” (Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO). None of this could have happened without Edward Jenner’s exploration, encounter, and exchange. Everything Edward Jenner did impacted the world. His close encounters with nature and animals, has proved to be an important asset to his discovery (Trueman). In a city, he would not have met Sarah Neimus. The exchange of information to the public and in between milkmaids, controlled the effects of Jenner’s discovery. If the milkmaid hadn’t planted the idea of cowpox’s connection with smallpox prevention in his head, he may have never made the connection himself. By exploring the world and spreading vaccines, Edward saved many lives and set an example.