Abstract:
Edward Jenner is widely celebrated as the discoverer of the world’s first successful vaccine. His demonstration that inoculation with cowpox could protect against smallpox is viewed as the starting point for the development and worldwide dissemination of vaccination, and the eventual eradication of smallpox. However, despite efforts to situate Jenner in his historical context, and to claim him as an early practitioner of ‘One Health’, commentators have generally failed to grasp the nature of his work on cowpox, and the roles that animals played in it. (Read the full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)
Description:
Presentation delivered at the 44th International Congress of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine held from the 27-29 of February 2020 at The Farm Inn Hotel and Conference Centre, Pretoria, South Africa
