Hacker News Reader

Comment by jkabrg | Hacker News Reader

The wording is misleading. For the following reasons:

  - Variolation was common in England at the time.
  - Wikipedia says that he *inoculated* the boy with smallpox. That means variolation.

View on HN

Indeed it was misleading. "The basis for vaccination began in 1796 when an English doctor named Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids who had gotten cowpox did not show any symptoms of smallpox after variolation. The first experiment to test this theory involved milkmaid Sarah Nelmes and James Phipps, the 9 year-old son of Jenner’s gardener. Dr. Jenner took material from a cowpox sore on Nelmes’ hand and inoculated it into Phipps’ arm. Months later, Jenner exposed Phipps a number of times to variola virus, but Phipps never developed smallpox." from https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com