1749-1823. English physician who pioneered
vaccination. In Jenner's day, smallpox was a
major killer. His discovery that inoculation
with cowpox gives immunity to smallpox was a
great medical breakthrough. He coined the
word `vaccination' from the Latin word for
cowpox, vaccina. Jenner observed that people
who worked with cattle and contracted cowpox
from them never subsequently caught smallpox.
In 1798 he published his findings that a
child inoculated with cowpox, then two months
later with smallpox, did not get smallpox.