Some of the great stories help shape our minds.
For example, if we learn the story about Edward Jenner, we can learn the steps needed for INNOVATION.
Hubert Alyea used the phrases "Lucky Accidents, which led to GREAT DISCOVERIES becuase someone had a PREPARED MIND."
Let's read a story, posted by the BBC, which presents the story of VACCINATION.
Why do we call it "a vaccine"?
It's interesting... "vaca" = "a cow" in Spanish.
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The story of Edward Jenner and vaccination.
Where did the word “vaccine” come from?
Vaca = cow
EXPERIENCE = “the prepared mind”
Jenner the doctor
After Jenner became a doctor in 1772, he went back to Berkeley. He rode out on his horse to visit sick people. He always wore a blue coat. He liked to ask people questions, about wild birds and animals, and about medicines they made from wild plants.
Home life
In 1788 Jenner married Catherine Kingscote. At home, he relaxed playing the violin and the flute. He spent a lot of time outdoors. He was a naturalist, and especially wanted to understand why cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests!
Smallpox
People worried about diseases. One of the most feared diseases was smallpox. 2,000 people in London died of smallpox every year. Smallpox had been around since the time of the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. It was horrible.
People with smallpox got spots filled with pus. Many people died of smallpox. Mostly it was children who died. If you didn't die, you were left with nasty sores on your face. These were 'pock-marks'. Smallpox also made some people blind.
What the dairymaid said
One day, Jenner met a dairymaid. 'I never worry about catching smallpox' she told him, 'for I have had cowpox'. Cowpox was a disease passed from cows to people. It was a mild sickness. No-one died from it. Dairymaids working with cows got cowpox easily - but not smallpox.
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Lucky Accidents
Giving people germs
Jenner knew about inoculation. Giving people a mild dose of a disease could protect them from getting the disease badly. If you got smallpox in a mild form, and got better, you wouldn't catch it again.
Inoculation had come to Britain early in the 1700s. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an English traveller, saw inoculation in Turkey. She told doctors in England how it was done. Doctors tried it without knowing much about germs. Inoculation worked sometimes. But other people were inoculated, got smallpox badly, and died.
Jenner's first experiment
Jenner decided to experiment with cowpox. He asked a dairymaid named Sarah Nelmes to help. Sarah had had cowpox. She'd caught it from a cow named Blossom. Jenner took a little cowpox pus from sores on her arm.
Then he made a small cut on the skin of an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps. He smeared the pus into the cut. This was the first vaccination.
What happened to James Phipps?
James Phipps caught cowpox. Eight weeks later, Jenner gave James a mild dose of smallpox, by inoculation. He waited to see if James got sick.
James was fine. He did not catch smallpox. The vaccination of cowpox had protected him.
The new vaccine
Jenner tried the same experiment on other children. He tried it on his baby son. They were all fine. His 'vaccine' (a word he invented) worked!
Great Discovery
What Edward Jenner did
Jenner was the first doctor to vaccinate people against smallpox. Smallpox was a dangerous disease. Jenner found a way to prevent people catching smallpox so fewer people got ill, and the disease became rare. Today smallpox has died out.
When did Jenner live?
Jenner was born in 1749. That was in the middle of the 18th century. He lived through exciting times, with the first balloon flights and new machines such as steam engines. But Jenner was happy to work as a country doctor in the west of England. He died in 1823.
Why we remember Jenner
Today, we are safe from smallpox, thanks to Edward Jenner. A disease that once killed thousands of people every year was beaten, thanks to his work. Some people laughed at his ideas, but Jenner was not put off. And people all over the world are grateful for what he did.
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The world's most famous doctor
Jenner wrote a book about his discovery. Vaccination was tried at St Thomas' Hospital in London. Doctors all over the world were interested, and Jenner sent them samples of vaccine.
Jenner was the most famous doctor in the world. Kings and emperors sent him presents. He was given money by the British Parliament, as a thank you for his work.
Treating everyone
Jenner became a rich man, but lived quietly at home in Berkeley.
He still worked as a country doctor, looking after rich and poor people. He gave free vaccinations to villagers, from a hut in his garden. In 1800, he vaccinated nearly 200 people in one day, at Petworth in Sussex. After his wife died in 1815, he spent a lot of time collecting fossils.
Jenner's place in history
During the war between Britain and France, Jenner asked France's emperor Napoleon to release some English prisoners. Napoleon set the prisoners free, saying he could refuse Jenner nothing. Jenner was an international hero. He had his place in history.
Edward Jenner died in 1823. A friend said he had never known 'a man of warmer heart'.
What happened to smallpox?
Smallpox did not die out for many years. Doctors made Jenner's vaccine better, and started a world-wide programme of vaccination. Year by year fewer people caught smallpox. In 1980 the World Health Organization reported that the world was now free of smallpox.
Many THANKS to the BBC. Good story.
For students at 21Century.Education and the Online Middle and High School, you can use this story as a starting point for a discussion or a "thought for today."
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