The word 'vaccine' comes from the Latin vacca, cow. Jenner took material from milkmaid Sarah Nelmes, who caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom.

1796

Blossom's hide still hangs in the library of St George's medical school in London.

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The event

• Jenner's first vaccination1796 · Berkeley, England. In May 1796 country doctor Edward Jenner inoculated young James Phipps with cowpox and showed it protected against smallpox. Vaccination was born — a method that saved hundreds of millions of lives and later made smallpox eradication possible.

18th century

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