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The first vaccine was for smallpox created by Edward Jenner. He noticed that milkmaids exposed to cowpox didn't get smallpox. He devised the idea of intentionally exposing someone to cowpox and then smallpox to see if, in fact, the person would not get sick. Jenner coined the term "vaccination" because vacca is the Latin root meaning cow in his publication of his results in a medical journal in 1798.

However, Lady Mary Montagu published information about smallpox inoculation link prior to Jenner, noting that it was practiced in the Orient. At the same time, Cotton Mather was demonstrating the use of inoculation to prevent smallpox in America.

Inoculation is not quite the same thing as vaccination. Inoculation uses the live disease while vaccination used a similar but weakened variation of the disease.

Later Louis Pasteur, a more well known French pioneer in microbiology in the 19th Century, invented the first rabies vaccination using the information and trials of the scientists who preceded him.

On May 14, 1796 ---- Jenner learned of the connection between smallpox and the related cowpox--milkmaids could get cowpox from cows, but they would recover quickly. But the big thing was that those who had once gotten cowpox managed to escape the symptoms of smallpox even when it spread through their communities. Other doctors and scientists had noticed this as well, but Jenner was among the first to actively pursue the connection. Through various tests, he proved that exposure to the cowpox virus caused one's body to become immune to smallpox. He published his findings, and they quickly attracted attention and verification.

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15y ago

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