Jenner was the first doctor to vaccinate people against smallpox
His treatments were sometimes initially laughed at. In 1802, a cartoon showed people with cow’s heads, after Jenner had vaccinated them!
The vaccine was developed after he inoculated a boy with tissue from a dairymaid’s fresh cowpox lesions. 1796 he inoculated a young boy with matter taken from a dairymaid’s fresh cowpox lesions
In 1980,(nearly 200 years after Jenner first discovered vaccine) the World Health Organisation declared that smallpox had finally been eradicated from the world, though some samples were kept under laboratory conditions.
Jenner was keen on fossil collecting and horticulture.
In 1805 he was presented with the “Freedom of the City”for the discovery of the vaccination from the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London.
He learnt surgery under John Hunter’s who encouraged Jenner to experiment. His favourite saying was. ‘Don’t think, try’
Jenner earned his MD from the University of St Andrews in 1792.
In 1821, he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to King George IV.
He was fascinated with wildlife and birds, and in the last year of his life, presented a paper on the “Observations on the Migration of Birds” to the Royal Society.