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
Vaccination Act the parents or guardians were liable to a summary conviction and fine of 20"s". The Act also provided that any person who produced or attempted to inoculate another with smallpox could be imprisoned for a month. In 1871 another Act was passed appointing a Vaccination Officer, also authorising a defendant to appear in a court of law by any member of his family, or any other person authorised by him. This act also confirmed the principal of compulsion, which evidently sparked hostility and opposition to the practice. Made vaccination compulsory. Records of the reasoning for this are not widely available.