Smallpox Great Britain it became the dominant form of smallpox, further reducing mortality rates. The English physician Edward Jenner demonstrated the effectiveness of cowpox to protect humans from smallpox in 1796, after which various attempts were made to eliminate smallpox on a regional scale. In Russia in 1796, the first child to receive this treatment was bestowed the name "Vaccinov" by Catherine the Great, and was educated at the expense of the nation. The introduction of the vaccine to the New World took place in Trinity, Newfoundland in 1800 by Dr. John Clinch, boyhood friend and medical colleague of Jenner. As
History of smallpox a few small scratches on the arm of an eight-year-old boy who had never before contracted either smallpox or cowpox, named James Phipps. Phipps recovered as expected. Two months later, Jenner repeated the procedure using matter from smallpox, observing no effect. Phipps became the first person to become immune to smallpox without ever actually having the disease. He was variolated many more times over the course of his life to prove his immunity. When the next cowpox epidemic broke out in 1798, Jenner conducted a series of inoculations using cowpox, all of them successful except on his own son Robert.