Month: September 2022

TRIALS ON ROYALTY. “Finally, on April 17, 1722, Maitland successfully treated the two daughters of the Princess of Wales. Not surprisingly, the procedure gained general acceptance after this last success.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

POPULATION IMMUNIZATIONS. “Since there was also a demand for protection against smallpox, physicians soon began the variolation procedure on a massive scale.” Homebrews without quality controls of any type. https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

SIGNIFICANT SIDE EFFECTS. “Although 2% to 3% of variolated persons died from the disease, became the source of another epidemic, or suffered from diseases (e.g., tuberculosis and syphilis) transmitted by the procedure itself, variolation rapidly gained popularity among both aristocratic and common people in Europe.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

IATROGENIC MEDICINE. “In fact, when we read that "the rate of smallpox infection in England actually rose during the eighteenth century," we cannot help but wonder if the practice of variolation may have contributed to that increase by directly increasing the number of infected (and therefore infectious) persons in the population.” http://www.bioethicscourse.info/jotsite/jot-chp2.html View in LinkedIn

MILITARY VARIOLATION. “In 1766, American soldiers under George Washington were unable to take Quebec from the British troops, apparently because of a smallpox epidemic that significantly reduced the number of healthy troops. The British soldiers were all variolated. By 1777, Washington had learned his lesson: all his soldiers were variolated before beginning new military operations.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

NEW ATTRIBUTION. “There has been a growing recognition of Benjamin Jesty (1737–1816) as the first to vaccinate against smallpox.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

FIRST COWPOX VACCINATION. “Benjamin Jesty was a humble cow farmer who observed the immunity afforded milkmaids to smallpox. “His grave stone indicated that he utilized cow pox material to inoculate his wife and sons in 1774, 22 years before Jenner’s experiments in 1796.” The inoculation was conducted with his wife’s knitting needle since he was not a doctor. https://lnkd.in/eMnANmQ View in LinkedIn

COW UDDER VACCINATE. “When smallpox was present in Jesty's locality in 1774, he was determined to protect the life of his family. Jesty used material from udders of cattle that he knew had cowpox and transferred the material with a small lancet to the arms of his wife and two boys. The trio of vaccinees remained free of smallpox, although they were exposed on numerous occasions in later life.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

IMMUNIZATION SOURCE. “Whereas vaccination involved the use of a cowpox vaccine extracted from infected humans with cowpox, the older method of variolation used live smallpox virus, extracted from a human pustule, requiring two week isolation due to infectivity risk (which was often not possible).” https://lnkd.in/eYNfQxg View in LinkedIn

“EDWARD JENNER’S work is widely regarded as the foundation of immunology—despite the fact that he was neither the first to suggest that infection with cowpox conferred specific immunity to smallpox nor the first to attempt cowpox inoculation for this purpose.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn