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
Robert Francis Jenner Robert Francis Jenner Robert Francis Jenner (13 January 1802 – 8 April 1860) of Wenvoe Castle was High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1828. The name "Jenner" is said to be the same as Genor or Genore. The Jenners of Wenvoe traced their ancestry back to Thomas Jenner of Northam, Sussex, who died about 1640. His grandson was Sir Thomas Jenner of Petersham, Surrey (1638–1707), a barrister and member of parliament for Rye in 1685. Thomas Jenner's grandson was Charles Jenner (1707–1770), Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Rector of Buckworth and Chaplain in Ordinary to King George II of Great Britain. Charles Jenner's