A Cow Head Will Not Erupt From Your Body If You Get A Smallpox Vaccine

This did not really happen. Cows' heads did not emerge from the bodies of people
newly inoculated against smallpox. But fear of the vaccine was so widespread that it prompted
British satirist James Gillray to create this spoof in 1802.
H. Humphrey/Henry Barton Jacobs Collection, Institute of the History of Medicine, JHU

Smallpox was a deadly disease that killed hundreds of thousands of Europeans each year. Then one day 18th-century English country doctor Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids in English literature were described as having creamy complexions. One of the reason they had such nice complexion was they didn't get smallpox. Could it be that by being exposed to a bovine form of the disease, cowpox, milkmaids were protected from the much more lethal smallpox? Experimentation with live subjects led to the development of the first vaccine.

Despite its obvious benefits the discovery was not praised by everyone. Some religious leaders said it was immoral to stop a disease that God has created. A cartoon from 1802 lampoons Jenner. It shows a crazed scene in which cows' heads erupt from the bodies of people being inoculated against smallpox.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose?


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