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
National Anti-Vaccination League National Anti-Vaccination League The National Anti-Vaccination League was founded in 1896 in Britain, growing from earlier smaller organizations in London, originally under the title Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League. The organisation opposed compulsory vaccination, particularly against smallpox. It was part of a wider anti-vaccinationist movement, arguing that vaccination did more harm than good. After the death of Richard B. Gibbs in 1871, the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League underwent various changes until 1876 when it was revived under the presidency of the Rev. W. Hume-Rothery. In 1880 the movement was enlarged and reorganised by the formation of "The London Society for the Abolition of