War Against Smallpox: Edward Jenner And The Global Spread Of Vaccination

438 Pages·2020·6.321 MB·English

by  Michael Bennett

War Against Smallpox
MichaelBennettprovidesthefirsthistoryoftheglobalspreadofvaccination
during the Napoleonic Wars, offering a new assessment of the cowpox
discoveryandEdwardJenner’sachievement inmakingcowpox inoculation
aviableanduniversallyavailablepractice.Heexploresthenetworksthattook
thevaccinearoundtheworldandthereceptionandestablishmentofvaccin-
ation amongpeoples in all corners of the globe.His focus is onthe human
storyofthehorrorsofsmallpox,thehopesinvestedinvaccinationbymedical
menandparents,thechildrenputarm-to-armacrosstheworldandtheearly
challenges,successesanddisappointments.Hepresentsvaccinationasaquiet
revolution,genuinelyemancipatory,butalsothesharpendofgrowingstate
power. By the end of the war in 1815, millions of children had been
vaccinated.Theearlysuccessofthewaragainstsmallpoxpavedthewayto
furtheradvancestowardseradication.
michael bennett is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of
Tasmania.HeistheauthoroffourbooksonlatemedievalEnglandandisa
FellowoftheAustralianAcademyofHumanitiesandaLifeMemberofClare
Hall,Cambridge.

War Against Smallpox
Edward Jenner and the Global Spread
of Vaccination
Michael Bennett
UniversityofTasmania
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Names:Bennett,Michael,1949-author.
Title:Waragainstsmallpox:EdwardJennerandtheglobalspreadofvaccination/
MichaelBennett,UniversityofTasmania.
Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversity
Press,2020.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2019060150(print)|LCCN2019060151(ebook)|
ISBN9780521765671(hardback)|ISBN9780521147880(paperback)|
ISBN9781139019569(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Smallpox–Vaccination–History–18thcentury.|Smallpox–
Vaccination–History–19thcentury.|Jenner,Edward,1749-1828.
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For Fatimah, Masni and Amy

Contents
List of Figures page viii
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations andAcronyms xii
1 ATale of TwoDiseases: Smallpox and Cowpox 1
2 Fire withFire: Smallpox Inoculationin theEighteenth Century 32
3 GoodTidingsfromtheFarm:JennerandtheCowpoxDiscovery 65
4 NationalMobilisation:Vaccination inBritainand Ireland 94
5 VaccineDiaspora:Medical Networks ina WorldatWar 122
6 Vaccine’s Conquest ofNapoleonic Europe 149
7 The Guardian Pox inNorthern Europe 174
8 Across thePyrenees: Early VaccinationinSpainand Portugal 198
9 RomanovsandVaktsinovs:VaccinationintheRussianEmpire 222
10 Passage throughIndia:Vaccination inSouthAsia 243
11 ‘This NewInoculationIs No Sham!’:Vaccination inNorth
America 267
12 ANew Pox for theNew World:Vaccination inLatin America 295
13 OceanicVaccine: The World Encircled 325
14 The World Arm-to-Arm: Jenner and the Vaccination
Revolution 351
Select Bibliography 381
Index 387
vii
Figures
1.1 Variola (Smallpox). Plaster cast (Universitäts-Hautklinick
Münster) page 12
2.1 View ofthe Smallpox Hospitalnear St Pancras, 1771
(Wellcome Collections) 48
3.1 Portrait of Edward Jenner. Pastel on vellum byJohn Raphael
Smith,1800 (Wellcome Collections) 89
4.1 Vaccination. Amonster being fedbasketsof infantsand excreting
them withhorns; symbolising vaccination and its effects.
Etching by C. Williams, 1805 (Wellcome Collections) 111
4.2 Ann Davis, awomanwithsmallpox and horns growingout of
her head. Stipple engravingby T. Woolnoth, 1806(Wellcome
Collections) 117
6.1 Admirable Effet de la Vaccine, 1801(WellcomeCollections) 160
7.1 Medal celebrating vaccination (German,early nineteenth
century), (reverse) children holding hands dancingaround the
cow, angel amidclouds above holding a garland of roses
(British Museum) 192
8.1 Babyboyshowingvaccinationscar, engravingby Jose deFonseca,
adapting original by Louis-Pierre Baltard, 1801 (Hernández,
Pedro,Origenydescubrimientodelavaccina(Madrid,1801)) 209
9.1 Vaccinating among the Buryats,1805–6,watercolour by
Dr Joseph Rehmann (WürttembergischeLandesbibliothek,
Stuttgart). 234
9.2 Lubokpromoting vaccination (V. O. Gubert, Ospa i
ospoprivivanie (St Petersburg, 1896)) 237
10.1 Sitala, goddess of smallpox andother epidemics, watercolour
(WellcomeCollections) 247
12.1 Map of thespread ofvaccinationin SpanishAmerica: Route
of theRoyal andPhilanthropicVaccine Expedition (1803–12) 297
13.1 Map of thespread ofvaccinationin theIndian Ocean and
SouthChina Sea 326
viii