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The Father of Vaccination. Through careful analysis and reporting of his scientific observations, Edward Jenner began the era of vaccination. Before 1796, the only known way to prevent smallpox infection was to deliberately infect a person with scabs from a person with smallpox.
Having heard of local beliefs and practices in rural communities that cowpox protected against smallpox, Dr Edward Jenner inoculated 8-year-old James Phipps with matter from a cowpox sore on the hand of Sarah Nelmes, a local milkmaid.
Jenner, Edward ( 1749–1823 ), surgeon and pioneer of smallpox vaccination, was born on 17 May 1749 at the vicarage, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, the fourth son and eighth of nine children of the Revd Stephen Jenner (1702–1754), vicar of Berkeley, and his wife, Sarah (1709–1754), daughter of the Revd Henry Head and his wife, Mary, of Berkeley.
