Smallpox 1718. In 1721, Cotton Mather and colleagues provoked controversy in Boston by inoculating hundreds. In 1796, Edward Jenner, a doctor in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, rural England, discovered that immunity to smallpox could be produced by inoculating a person with material from a cowpox lesion. Cowpox is a poxvirus in the same family as variola. Jenner called the material used for inoculation vaccine, from the root word "vacca", which is Latin for cow. The procedure was much safer than variolation, and did not involve a risk of smallpox transmission. Vaccination to prevent smallpox was soon practiced all over the world. During the
Frank Jenner into his home for tea and told him about the gospel. Jenner converted to Christianity and, when he went home, told Jessie that she was a sinner bound for hell and therefore in need of salvation. According to Wilson's biography of Jenner, Jessie thought that Jenner had become manic or insane. They had a young daughter named Ann by this point and Jenner was gambling so much that he was not providing for his family. For both of these reasons, Jessie left Jenner and moved to Corowa to work on a farm, taking Ann with her. She said that she