On this day, Edward Jenner, an English physician and scientist, first tested his hypothesis that a small quantity of pus taken from cowpox blisters could be used to vaccinate people against smallpox. Using some pus from the hands of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who was affected by the relatively mild disease of cowpox, Jenner inoculated James Phipps, the eight-year-old son of Jenner’s gardener. The inoculation led to a fever and some uneasiness but no full-blown infection. Later, Jenner injected the boy with smallpox material, the routine method of immunisation at that time, and again no disease followed. After a lengthy deliberation, the medical establishment accepted Jenner’s findings and in 1840, the British government banned the use of smallpox to induce immunity and provided vaccination using cowpox free of charge.
