As history tells it, young Edward Jenner heard a milkmaid say she'd had cowpox so couldn't get smallpox. And thus his idea for a vaccine was born. Now a researcher has fact-checked the tale.

As history tells it, young Edward Jenner heard a milkmaid say she'd had cowpox so couldn't get smallpox. And thus his idea for a vaccine was born. Now a researcher has fact-checked the tale.

One of the most important precautions stipulated by Jenner was that samples should only be taken from cowpox blisters seven days after they first appeared, ensuring that the illness was less virulent.

As Jenner noted in the 18th century, the cowpox virus is also readily transmitted to man. Despite its name, cowpox no longer occurs in cows but wild mice and voles represent a source of infection: ...

Friday marks the 270th birthday of Edward Jenner, the doctor who developed the world's first vaccine. Newsletters Games Share a News Tip. ... but their work often exposed them to cowpox, ...

Smallpox was eradicated in 1977. This amazing, global public health achievement isn’t just a page in a history book or an ...

1796: Edward Jenner inoculates a boy with cowpox. After the lad recovers from the infection, Jenner inoculates him with smallpox, but the boy remains healthy. Vaccination is born.

On May 14, 1796, Jenner took fluid from a cowpox blister on milkmaid Sarah Nelmes. He inserted the pus taken into an incision on eight-year-old James Phipps’ arm.

Investigating the theory, Jenner endured the disbelief of colleagues-not to mention the stench of dairy farms-before proving his point. But prove it he did. In a now-famous 1796 experiment, Jenner ...

As history tells it, young Edward Jenner heard a milkmaid say she'd had cowpox so couldn't get smallpox. And thus his idea for a vaccine was born. Now a researcher has fact-checked the tale.

Jenner himself never explained how he developed the theory that led to his 1796 experiment. "After Jenner died, his biographer was trying to protect Jenner's reputation," says Boylston. John Baron ...

As history tells it, young Edward Jenner heard a milkmaid say she'd had cowpox so couldn't get smallpox. And thus his idea for a vaccine was born. Now a researcher has fact-checked the tale.