The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-11-14
EPOCH MAKING
MEDICAL PROCESS
jenner and His Discovery
Which Has lengthen-
ed Human Life
Ey f.. WILL GRIFFITH. Nj. n.

ever stop TO consider the advantages
and blessings we enjoy as a direct
result of the advancement of medi-
cal science?
Diseases which only q short time
ago were looked upon with holy hor-
ror are today under complete con-
troll.
10 discuss in detail the steps by
which these were brought about
would require volumes. All we can
hope to do in this short article is
to mention a few Of the most i'm
portant discoveries and the men
chiefly responsible for them. Until
about the middle Of the nineteenth
dreaded than smallpox. Epidemic
followed epidemic, carrying off thou
sands at q time with absolutely no
means OF checking its In
the light oil our present knowledge
we are not much surprised at the
used. In 1913, Governor Winthrop
wrote to England for directions as
to treatment of the all
ments to which the colonists We're
subjected. The following is the part
OF the reply dealing with smallpox:
My Black powder against ye plague,
small pox: purple, all sorts OF
feavers; Poyson either by Way of
prevention or after Infection. In
the Moneth of March take Toades. as
many as you will, alive: putt them
into u 1Iarthen pott, SO it will be halle
full: Cover it with a broad lyle or
Iron plate; then overwhelne the
pott. so vt We bottome may be upper
most: putt charcoales round about it,
and in the open ayre, not in an house,
.--{ - - s-- I'D 1oAr - .>l ~-t
and extinguisn itself; When it is
cold, take out the toades; and in an
Iron-Morter pound them very we'll
and scarce them-then in a Crucible
calcine them 50 againe; pound and
scarce them againe. The first time
next time black. OF this you may
give a drag,ne in a Eehiculum COR
drinke} Inwardly III any infection
taken; and let them swea upon it in
their beddes: but lett them not cover
their heads; especially in the Small
pox. For prevention. half q draSne
will suffice; moderate the dose ac-
cording to We strength of the partie;
for [ have sett doWne We greatest
thai is needfull. There is 10 danger
in il. Let them neither cate nor
drinke during their sweat. except now
and then a spoonful of Warnle
po~sset-drinke to wash their nlouthes.
Keep warm and close (for d child OF
s years, 10 graynes is enough in in
lection. for prevention or D
graynes) till they be perfectly we'll;
and cate but little and that accord
ing to rules of physicke."
During the eighteenth century
some OF the holder physicians inocu-
lated healthy persons with the ma
ter taken directly from the pustule
Of q smallpox patient and thus paved
the way for the discovery Of vacclna-
io- 80, LO n r VIC ~ OF n q
nineteenth century Since then
smallpox has gradually disappeared
so that now the majority OF people
have I'VE seen a single case.
Just a few words about Jenner and
his discovery. Born in Berkeley
Eng, in 174a, at the age Of nineteen
he became apprentice to a country
physician. one day while talking to
d country woman about smallpox
she made the statement, Il cannot
take the disease for [ have had the
This was a common be-
lief with many in the country dis
tricts, although medic men never
thought Of any connection between
coWpox and smallpox. Aroused by
this casual remark, this boy Of nine
teen began the study Of the relation
oetWeen cowpox and smallpox 10
which he gave practically the re
mainder Of his life. 1t was not I'M
til twenty years later, 1895, that Jen-
ner felt tina he had sufficient data
to Justify the first experimental vac
cination. This he did by taking
lymph from the hand OF a woman
named Sarah Holmes who had COW
pox. This lymph he introduced into
the arm Of an eight-year-old boy
named James Phipps, giving him a
typical attack Of owpox. A few
weeks later some OF the pus from
a smallpox case was put into MS
arm and he remained perfectly Well
showing c~onclusively that the Facci-
nation with cowpox was q proven
tive against smallpox.
It is due almost entirely to yacci-
nation that smallpox has been rob
bed of it's terrors and placed among
The ordinary diseases. II hoe VINO