Edward Jenner Edward Jenner Edward Jenner, FRS FRCPE (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who was the pioneer of smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms "vaccine" and "vaccination" are derived from "Variolae vaccinae" (smallpox of the cow), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1796 in the long title of his "Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox", in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox. Jenner is often called "the father of immunology", and his work is said to have "saved
Edward Jenner of the previously misunderstood life of the nested cuckoo, a study that combined observation, experiment, and dissection. He described how the newly hatched cuckoo pushed its host's eggs and fledgling chicks out of the nest (contrary to existing belief that the adult cuckoo did it). Having observed this behaviour, Jenner demonstrated an anatomical adaptation for it—the baby cuckoo has a depression in its back, not present after 12 days of life, that enables it to cup eggs and other chicks. The adult does not remain long enough in the area to perform this task. Jenner's findings were published in "Philosophical