Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Would You Have Allowed Jenner to Inoculate You?



Edward Jenner (1749–1823).
Photo courtesy of the
National Library of Medicine.
Discovered here.
Have you ever thought it might be fun to have lived at a different time in history? No computers, no phones, no airplanes. You may immediately think, no way! I like those conveniences. There are pros and cons to many aspects of living during different historical time periods. However, the lack of current day medical practices and our extensive knowledge of disease is something I wouldn’t want to leave behind if time travel were possible.

You wouldn’t want to have the need for surgery because chances are that you wouldn’t get it (they rarely performed surgical operations) and you’d die, or you would get it and you’d die, or if you were that sick you’d just want to be left alone to die. Medicine is one of those things that I wouldn’t want to give up if I could escape into Regency England (one of my favorite eras) for a year or so.

Did you know that Edward Jenner discovered the vaccine for smallpox in late 18th century England? I doubt many high school students know about smallpox today unless they watch movies on bioterrorism, etc. Isn’t it scary that a disease that was virtually wiped out by 1977 could be resurrected for horrifying purposes?

Jenner used the pus and infectious matter of a dairymaid’s cowpox to inoculate a small boy in 1796. Do you want to know what that looked like? Probably not but I’ll tell you. He scraped inside nasty looking wounds on Sarah Nelm’s (dairymaid’s) hand and arm, gathered the infection, created two small incisions in the boy’s (James Phipps) arm and spread the pus into the incisions. You can read more here about the method of variolation here.

From Wikipedia, Jenner's Theory:

The initial source of infection was a disease of horses, called "the grease", which was transferred to cows by farm workers, transformed, and then manifested as cowpox.More here. For more on the great and terrible scourge go here.

Did you know the history of smallpox inoculation? Did any of this surprise you? Brings a whole new meaning to the saying, "A pox upon you!" Of course in that day if they didn't mean smallpox they probably meant the "Great Pox," syphilis. That's another post.

cowpock_treatment_color_lg   From an etching by James Gillray (1757-1815) 1802 caricature of Jenner vaccinating patients who feared it would make them sprout cowlike appendages. From Wikipedia.   

17 comments:

  1. No! I totally would not have allowed Jenner to inoculate me, and I don't allow doctors today to inoculate my children unless they have a really good reason. (So far, I'm still waiting for that really good reason, and the vaccination that doesn't pose any threat of side effects.)

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    1. Although the diseases are rare in these days, you never want your children to have any of the those prevented by the DPT shot. My boys had no side effects from these and none from the polio vaccine. I lived through the awful polio epidemics that crippled children and left them in braces or iron lungs, so I made sure the boys had all the vaccines available to them. Of course they couldn't go to school either without proof of those shots.

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    2. Hi Naomi,
      I forgot to hit reply to your comment so it's further down on the list. I'm curious what you would consider "a really good reason." I would be too scared not too have my kids vaccinated. I know there's a debate out there about vaccinations and autism but I really don't much about it.

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  2. No me either. I did know how it was done all the more reason not to have it done. I have to say im glad its different today as I had the booster for whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus today and have to say the arm is a little sore.

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    1. Hi Jenny,
      I had whooping cough as a child and it was very scary. I couldn't catch my breath. I'm glad we don't have most of the terrible diseases that used to plague us, but I hear what Naomi is saying too. However, I would be too scared not to be vaccinated today even against the flu.

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    2. Oh, I had whooping cough too back in 1942, and it was awful. I have a lung disease today called Bronchiectasis as a result. I have to be careful or a cold can turn into pneumonia very quickly.

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    3. Hi Martha,
      I also get pneumonia easily. They finally allowed me to get the pneumovax about 3 years ago and I've stayed much healthier.

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    4. I know people who have had Whooping cough and they say its now becoming bad again as many who were immunized haven't had a booster and the immunity has worn off. We are having more cases and they are asking people to think about being immunized. So I asked the dr while there and they did it there and then. In not in contact with a lot of kids but after my friends baby had it years back and almost died I would hate to get it and infect someone (I dont want it either). Have never had the flu jab. Mum had it once and got the worse flu she had ever had. she never got the flu again until last year and it did lead to her death but it was well and truely time. She was more than ready to go to heaven at 93 and no quality of life left.

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    5. Hi Jenny,
      I'm glad you brought that up. I don't think I have had a booster for whooping cough. I wonder if you've had once if you can get it again. Probably. I work in a hospital and we have to have flu shots. I'm so sorry about your Mum, Jenny. Thanks for joining the conversation here today.

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  3. Hi Naomi,
    I don't think there will ever be a vaccination that doesn't carry the risk of side effects. I remember being vaccinated against polio when I was very young. I would hate to see that make a resurgence in the world again and smallpox was horrible. Still, in that day I would have probably waited to see what happened to everyone else and pray I didn't succumb to smallpox in the meantime.

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  4. Interesting post, but I don't think I would want to do it.

    I did do the recommended vaccines when I traveled to South America(yellow fever, hepatitis A...) I didn't mind the sore arm from the vaccines and it was better then finding myself very ill in another country.

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  5. Speaking of yellow fever, J. Grace, I've read a great book, written for young readers called, Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson: http://www.amazon.com/Fever-1793-ebook/dp/B004ZZRZ7W/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383068962&sr=1-1&keywords=yellow+fever+by+anderson

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    1. Thanks, I will check it out

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    2. Sounds disgusting- puss, infection, etc. Who would have thot vacines came from this. sharon, CA wileygreen1(at)yahoo(dot)com

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    3. Not pretty that's for sure but the vaccine beats the disease. Just Google photos of smallpox victims.

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  6. Jillian, I loved your post! I found it very interesting. I grew up getting every inoculation that was offered since my mother worked for our small town doctor. Sugar cube polio vaccine, mumps vaccine, small pox vaccine.....

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  7. Hi there, Melanie,
    I remember getting the smallpox vaccine and developing the scab on my arm. When I was playing one day I rubbed up against the school building and OUCH! I won't go into the details. :)

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