What is jenner known for

Whilst he continued his work as a doctor he would meet up with surgeons and like-minded individuals to form the Gloucestershire Medical Society who would regularly meet to discuss issues of medicine at the Fleece Inn in Rodborough.

This informal group would discuss issues and share ideas with one another over dinner, reading and publishing papers on a wide variety of matters. Jenner would also partake in similar meetings with another society at Alveston, close to Bristol. During this time Jenner made valuable contributions to a variety of medical papers. He felt most comfortable in his own surroundings in Gloucestershire where he would continue to expand his knowledge on a variety of matters through observation and experimentation.

In fact, through his scientific investigations, Jenner was able to demonstrate how the young cuckoo had an anatomical adaptation in its back that allowed it to remove the eggs from the nest, an adaptation that would not remain past the twelfth day of its life. In the same year he married Catherine Kingscote with whom he would go on to have three children during their marriage.

Sadly, his wife Catherine passed away in as a result of tuberculosis. Back in his medical life, Jenner continued to embrace his passion for zoology, an interest which would serve him well as he would continue to investigate how a better understanding of animal biology could impact on human understanding of disease and how it is transmitted. The connections made by Jenner relating to cowpox and smallpox would also impact the creation of later vaccinations up to the present-day.

Jenner had always remembered the milkmaid who claimed immunity from smallpox, something he would scrutinise further. As his work found him largely surrounded by country farming people, he had repeatedly heard this claim of immunity whilst also noticing that many milkmaids would be clear from the unfortunate pox-ridden complexions suffered by others.

The common denominator proved to be the cowpox, which whilst working with cattle proved fairly unavoidable to catch. There is a memorial to Edward Jenner in the nave of Gloucester Cathedral.

The statue was moved to Kensington Gardens in Blossom takes pride of place in St George's Library. Need help? How to videos Why join? Edward Jenner. Edward Jenner discovered the smallpox vaccine. Today Edward Jenner is known as the "Father of Immunology". Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England.

Jenner inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with cowpox from dairymaid, Sarah Nelmes. Ten days later James was well, having had a mild case of cowpox. On July 1 Jenner inoculated the boy with smallpox matter but James did not develop the disease as he was immune thanks to his vaccination. Edward Jenner died. Vaccination with cowpox was made compulsory in the British Isles. The World Health Organization announced that the deadly disease of smallpox had been eradicated worldwide.

Start your child on a learning programme today! Trial it for FREE today. When he wasn't making discoveries, Jenner liked to play the violin and the flute to relax. Jenner's house is now a small museum which houses the horns of the famous cow Blossom! In the online game Mission Three: Nemesis in Neuropolis you'll learn about viruses and vaccines while investigating a smallpox case Viruses and Vaccines is a Royal College of Pathologists art and creativity resource developed by immunologists, virologists and microbiologists to celebrate the vital role vaccines play in preventing disease and improving public health.

Listen to the Horrible Histories song about Edward Jenner See "Edward Jenner" explain his life's work on an episode of the BBC spoof show 'The greatest science investigator of all time' Find out more The Kiddle Encyclopaedia's guide to Edward Jenner for children Read about Jenner and Blossom the cow in a history of vaccination Did you know that Dr Jenner opened his garden once a week so that the poor of the local area could be vaccinated?

Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets CSS if you are able to do so. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Cowpox is a mild viral infection of cows.

It causes a few weeping spots pocks on their udders, but little discomfort. Milkmaids occasionally caught cowpox from the cows. Although they felt rather off-colour for a few days and developed a small number of pocks, usually on the hand, the disease did not trouble them. In May a dairymaid, Sarah Nelmes, consulted Jenner about a rash on her hand. He diagnosed cowpox rather than smallpox and Sarah confirmed that one of her cows, a Gloucester cow called Blossom, had recently had cowpox.

Edward Jenner realised that this was his opportunity to test the protective properties of cowpox by giving it to someone who had not yet suffered smallpox. He chose James Phipps, the eight-year old son of his gardener. On 14th May he made a few scratches on one of James' arms and rubbed into them some material from one of the pocks on Sarah's hand.

A few days later James became mildly ill with cowpox but was well again a week later. So Jenner knew that cowpox could pass from person to person as well as from cow to person. The next step was to test whether the cowpox would now protect James from smallpox. On 1st July Jenner variolated the boy. As Jenner anticipated, and undoubtedly to his great relief, James did not develop smallpox, either on this occasion or on the many subsequent ones when his immunity was tested again.

Jenner followed up this experiment with many others. In each of the next two years he published the results of further experiments, which confirmed his original theory that cowpox did indeed protect against smallpox. Jenner's newly proven technique for protecting people from smallpox did not catch on as he anticipated.