Smallpox vaccine Smallpox vaccine Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, was introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796. He followed up his observation that milkmaids who had previously caught cowpox did not later catch smallpox by showing that inoculated cowpox protected against inoculated smallpox. Dryvax is a freeze-dried calf lymph smallpox vaccine. It is the world's oldest smallpox vaccine, created in the late 19th century by American Home Products, a predecessor of Wyeth. By the 1940s, Wyeth was the leading US manufacturer of the vaccine and the only manufacturer by the 1960s. After world health authorities declared smallpox had been
HMS Surprise (1796) time, Le Drézénec, who had been recently promoted to "capitaine de frégate", was suffering from smallpox and was incapacitated. Consequently, her first lieutenant, Lieutenant Le Breton, commanded "Unité". Captain Thomas Fremantle in command of the frigate HMS "Inconstant" had heard there was a French frigate in Bône, and sailed to intercept her. When "Unité" arrived in the afternoon of 20 April 1796, the watch aboard "Unité" identified "Inconstant" as a neutral vessel and Le Breton did not clear the ship for action. About an hour later, "Inconstant" sailed alongside, boarded and captured "Unité" intact. About a year after capture, "Unité"