Dr. Edward Jenner
Credit: Edward Jenner. Oil painting.
Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark
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Bronze statue of Dr Edward Jenner at the University of Oxford, image by Sean Elias, University of Oxford
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Dr. Edward Jenner, FRS FRCPE (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English country doctor and scientist who lived and worked in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. He is best known for his pioneering work on vaccination against smallpox. In Jenner's time, smallpox killed around 10% of the population, with the number as high as 20% in towns and cities where infection spread more easily. Smallpox also caused long term consequences including disfigurements.
Jenner scientifically tested the use of cowpox to prevent smallpox in 1796. He, like others, had observed that people who had had cowpox did not get smallpox and that dairymaids caught the disease through scratches on their skin when they milked cows. Sarah Nelmes, a dairymaid, is reputed to have informed Jenner that she had acquired cowpox from a Gloucester cow called Blossom and this provided Jenner with an opportunity to test his hypothesis that cowpox could be transferred between people. Knowing that cowpox was a mild disease, Jenner scratched matter from Sarah’s hand into the arm of James Phipps, the 8 year old son of his gardener and observed that the boy became ill with cowpox before quickly recovering. It was the practice at the time to prevent serious cases of smallpox by inoculating people with matter from someone who was suffering from smallpox, a process called variolation. However when Jenner tried to variolate Phipps it had no observable effect. Jenner collected together evidence from a series of case studies, including Phipps, and wrote a paper that he presented to the scientific establishment in London and published at his own expense. It was not long before this new preventative method, subsequently called vaccination (from the latin, vacca, for cow), became used globally. Jenner vaccinated local people for free in a summerhouse in his garden which he called (tongue in cheek) the Temple of Vaccinia and went on to advise people all around the world on methods of safe use and storage. After his death the World Health Organisation (WHO) continued the programme of vaccination and in 1979, declared the disease eradicated. Jenner is frequently called the father of immunology and he is often credited with having saved more lives than the work of any other human being.
Like many educated gentlemen of his time Edward Jenner had very wide interests including dinosaurs, hibernating hedgehogs, soil fertilisers, ballooning and bird migration and applied scientific methodology to increase understanding of all of them. He was awarded a Fellowship of The Royal Society after submitting a paper on the nesting habits of cuckoos.
Edward Jenner was also an active citizen who became Mayor of Berkeley and a Justice of the Peace. In 1821, he was appointed physician extraordinary to King George IV. In 2002 Jenner was named in the BBC's list of The 100 Greatest Britons.
Jenner’s legacy is relevant to our 2020 experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Like modern scientists he used systematic observation of nature to create scientific breakthroughs. He broadened local experience to international processes and demonstrated tenacity in the face of adversity. He advocated free vaccination for all. The Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford is named in his honour and developed one of the first vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. The story of Jenner's life and his legacy of vaccination truly provides a 'project for our time' to share and engage with schools, the community and a wider audience.
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