Why is Edward Jenner so well known in the field of medicine?

Why is Edward Jenner so well known in the field of medicine?

Edward Jenner was the person who introduced the practice of vaccination which proved to be a boon in the field of medicine. Jenner was a doctor who lived in Berkeley, England. In those days deaths due to small pox were very common.

However, country people noticed that persons who worked with cattle and had contracted with cowpox, never seemed to catch small pox. Dr. Edward Jenner decided to find out if there was any truth in the belief. As the first stage in his experiment he injected liquid from cowpox sores into a young boy called James Phipps. This was in the 1796. The boy caught the disease, but was soon healed.

As the second stage, Jenner injected the boy with smallpox. But it had no effect on the boy’s health. The cowpox had made him immune.

Although, initially there was opposition to the practice of vaccination, it gained rapid popularity all over the world. Because of Jenner’s efforts, small pox has been eradicated from the world, today.