Edward Jenner (1749-1823) was a physician in England who studied the spread and inoculation techniques formerly unknown for small pox. In this paper I will explain the thought process and the happenings by which Jenner discovered the relationship between small pox and cowpox via transmission to milkmaids, the process by which he tested his findings and proved the relationship with inoculations, and how he communicated his findings based on his work titled “An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, or Cow-Pox”.
In the 18th century smallpox killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans (Bourzac). Variolation was a technique used to inoculate people from diseases in that time. Small pox inoculations were performed in many different ways including pinpricks with the small pox virus into the skin of uninfected parties. Edward Jenner was interested in the study of inoculation and set out to find better ways to perform this variolation.
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300-301). From the horses this disease is passed to the hands of maids and servants to the cows. This passing is believed to cause a infectious virus now able to infect dairy maids and farm hands
If it was suspected that a person was either infected with smallpox, or had come in contact with someone infected with smallpox, they could be taken from their home and sent to the Quarantine Station with as little as five minutes notice. This, combined with the shortages of the Quarantine stations facilities resulted in so many complaints that a Royal Commission was ordered resulting in the dismissal of the Superintendent of the Quarantine Station and the establishment of a ‘Board of Health’ to operate the Quarantine
In “The Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney 1739-1762,” she described how the settlers that were constantly insulted by the Indians and small pox rages as “ a great cloud over this province.” The impact of smallpox was awful. The small pox causes all business to stop on Charles Town making the economy go downhill. “....a violent kind of small pox rages in Charles Town that must puts a stop to all business.” (Doc E)
What Made it Hard to Settle Charles Town? Charles Town was a major development at the time owned by the mighty British Empire. They wanted to establish a settlement here because of the resources it had to offer. But, there were a number of problems that came with settling Charles Town.
A portion of the illnesses that the Locals abruptly needed to manage are chicken pox, measles, typhus, jungle fever, whooping hack and little pox. Since huge numbers of these maladies were transferable through air and touch, this made it much less demanding for these sicknesses to be transmitted from individual to individual. Out of the considerable number of sicknesses little pox seemed to have been the most decimating to the Locals. One of the fundamental explanations behind this was it was frequently misdiagnosed for being another
In the book, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 by Elizabeth Fenn (2001), depicts the casualty of one of the deadliest virus in mankind -- the smallpox during the American War of Independence and how it shaped the course of the war and the lives of everyone in the North America. Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by an Orthopoxvirus known as variola major virus. Spread by direct transmission, the disease produces high fever, headache, excruciating back pain, anxiety, general malaise, blindness at times, and the most distinctive of all, blistering rashes that can leave deep-pitted scars. Its spread could be attributed through human civilizations, voyaging, expansion of trade routes. The European colonizers brought
Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox Americana: the great smallpox epidemic of 1775-82, (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001). Pages, ix, 384, index, bibliography. Review by Samantha Pilcher. Elizabeth A. Fenn is the author of Pox Americana.
Edward Jenner, an english doctor found a less risky form of variation. He learned that cowpox, a milder form of smallpox, they wouldn’t develop smallpox.
On paragraph 3 of Document C, “The Great Disease Migration’, is shows how “By the time Columbus set sail, the people of the Old World held the distinction of being thoroughly diseased. By domesticating pigs, horses, sheep and cattle, they had infected themselves with a wide array of pathogens. And through centuries of war, exploration and city-building, they had kept those agents in constant circulation. Virtually any European who crossed the Atlantic during the 16th century had battled such illnesses as smallpox and measles during childhood and emerged fully immune.” Columbus and his men, along with the Old World, had been in contact with many diseases and became immune.
In the Americas, populations decreased by 50 percent to 95 percent by 1650. The illness component of the Columbian Exchange was distinctly one-sided.(Nunn, N., & Qian, N. (2010). The Columbian Exchange: A history of disease, food, and ideas. The Journal of Economic Perspectives: A Journal of the American Economic Association, 24(2), 163–188.).In 1493, swine flu was spread by the pigs on board Columbus' ships, making Columbus and other Europeans ill and killing the indigenous Taino people of Hispaniola, who had never been exposed to the virus before. Smallpox and other disease germs carried by the conquerors caused the Great Dying.(Edward Winslow, Nathaniel Morton, William Bradford, and Thomas Prince, New England’s Memorial (Cambridge: Allan and Farnham, 1855), 362.)
The Civil War was a vital event that occurred in America’s historical consciousness and in order to understand the medical aspect of the war, first defining exactly what the war was about is fundamental. According to Dixon, the Civil War transpired in 1861-1865 and it was essentially about the “uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states.” Significant battles occurred in Chickamauga, Shiloh in Tennessee, Fredericksburg in Virginia, and Antietam in Maryland, Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and Atlanta in Georgia.
In the Middle Ages infectious diseases took millions of lives in Europe. They came from the animals, but some people were genetically resistant to these diseases and then passed this onto others which led to some protection with a built-in vaccine. When the Spanish began to explore the world in search of conquest they found the ancient Aztecs. The Spaniards had advanced modern weapons and the Aztecs didn’t, but the Spaniards had an even more important weapon of conquest. Jared discovered that one Spanish ship reached Mexico with signs of fever; one of the slaves had small pox and lead to infect thousands of Native Americans.
During that time, measles were spread by explorer-to-native contact, animals, and filthy living conditions. Like today, there was no cure. Much of the Native American population drastically decreased amid the Age of Exploration. Based on the presented evidence, it can be concluded that measles were the most significant element of the Columbian
Before that, people used variolation to prevent getting a more serious version of smallpox. Variolation is when the patient is inoculated with live smallpox. But in a lot of cases around the world, the plan backfired, leading the individual to contract a full-blown case of the
Once the child recovered from the cowpox disease, Jenner then tried to infect the child with smallpox, but the young man proved to be immune. “It seemed that this attempt at vaccination had worked. But Jenner had to work on for two more years before his discovery was considered sufficiently tested by the medical profession to permit widespread introduction.” (Alexander, 2003). Beginning in 1831 and ending in 1835, due to increasing vaccination, smallpox deaths were down to one in a thousand.
Smallpox outbreaks have occurred from time to time for thousands of years, but the disease is now eradicated after a successful worldwide vaccination program. The last naturally occurring case in the world was in Somalia in 1977. After the disease was eliminated from the world, routine vaccination against smallpox among the general public was stopped because it was no longer necessary for prevention. In 1970, when smallpox was nearly eradicated, a previously unrecognized orthopoxvirus named monkey pox was identified in humans.