Luther King Jenner Research Paper

Jenner worked in a rural community and most of his patients were farmers or worked on farms with cattle. In the 18th century smallpox was a very common disease and was a major cause of death. In 1788 an epidemic of smallpox hit Gloucestershire and during this outbreak Jenner observed that those of his patients who worked with cattle and had come in contact with the much milder disease called cowpox never came down with smallpox. Jenner needed a way of showing that his theory actually worked. Jenner was given the opportunity on the 14 May 1796, when a young milkmaid came to see him with sores on her hands like blisters. Jenner identified that she had caught cowpox from the cows she handled each day. Jenner now had the opportunity to obtain the…show more content…
This turned many London doctors away. The Royal Society refused to publish his findings. Many vaccinators were not trained or qualified. They often had to carry out the procedure several times before it worked. Some cut too deep into the skin, making the child bleed a lot. This simply carried away the cowpox matter. Vaccinators were paid according to the number of successful vaccinations they had carried out, so they did them in a hurry and claimed all were successful even when they were not. Most of the opposition came from the poor they especially disliked compulsion. They continued to use old methods like inoculation, ‘roasting’ patients in front of enormous fires, and making children share the same bed to keep each other warm. The main worry for the poor was to keep their family fed they didn’t have time to worry about vaccinations. By 1893 33per cent of infants in London were still not vaccinated. Other people had distaste for taking matter from a sick cow. They said that vaccination introduced a beast’s disease into humans whereas inoculation used human’s disease. Some were worried that other diseases might be transmitted from the cattle to humans. Sometimes vaccination did not work because people did not use it as carefully as Jenner. The vaccine was contaminated sometimes or the needle was not clean. Some doctors mixed the vaccination with water, sometimes dirty, to make it go further. This meant it…show more content…
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist; he worked in the 19th century. In 1861 he proved his germ theory. He did it to find out what caused diseases. Pasteur collected dust from the air, and found a microorganism in it. He then found the same microorganisms in decaying organic matter. Everyone knew that heat killed microorganisms. Pasteur measured exactly what temperature was needed. Some lived at up to 125degrees. Pasteur saw clearly the need to prove that it was the dust and not something else. Like the air itself, that made things go bad. He designed an experiment to do this. Pasteur heated the flasks, the liquid and the air to above 125degrees. He was now certain that there were no live germs in the flasks. All the flasks were allowed to cool. As long as they were not shaken or tipped up, the liquid did not go bad. The necks of some flasks were broken so allowing the air to carry dust into them. The experiment was repeated with many flasks under many different conditions. The result was always the same. Factors that helped his work are, there were microscopes so he could see the microorganisms. He had training so he knew what he was looking for and how to do it and he was able to work in a science lab so he had all the equipment he needed to do his experiment. Importance of Pasteur’s work is he proved the germ theory so that Jenner’s vaccination was accepted. But there is a