Saved by the Cow!

The pandemic of the past year has given us all cause for mourning, but today I’m thankful for cows, modern science, and the speedy development of vaccines, and I’m hopeful that all the world’s peoples will gain access to this lifesaving protection.

Renaissance Italy, with great artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and many others, is viewed by lovers of art and culture as the golden age of civilization.

During this era, scientists also were learning about how the human body works, even as wave after wave of the Plague decimated Italy and much of Europe and England:

Girolamo FracastoroGirolamo Fracastoro (1478–1553), an Italian doctor and scholar, suggested that epidemics may come from pathogens outside the body. He proposed that these might pass from human-to-human by direct or indirect contact. He also suggested using mercury and the oil from the Palo Santo tree as a cure for syphilis.In 1536, Ambroise Paré became a surgeon in the French army. He developed his ideas practically during 20 years of work, and in 1575 published his book, The Collected Works of Ambroise Paré, proposing changes to the way surgeons treated wounds and amputations. In 1537, Andreas Vesalius became professor of medicine at the University of Padua at the age of just 22. He insisted that his medical students should perform dissections to find out how the human body worked. In 1542, he published his book, The Fabric of the Human Body, with accurate drawings of the human body, giving doctors more detailed knowledge of human anatomy.William Harvey was a physician to English kings James I and Charles I. In 1628, he published An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, proving the principle of the circulation of the blood through the body.Back in the 10th Century, the Chinese were believed to have inoculated themselves with the smallpox virus by blowing pulverized powdery smallpox scabs into a boy’s nostrils. They may have also scraped smallpox matter onto the skin of healthy individuals. Some scholars think this inoculation method was first discovered in India and then the practice spread to China.But alas, no effective vaccine for the Plague existed for centuries in Europe! Vaccinations weren’t developed to prevent illness in the European world until 400 years after the Black Death first struck Italy.

Finally, the cow (and a wise physician) saved England from smallpox!

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Edward Anthony Jenner (1749-1823), an English doctor and scientist, created the smallpox vaccine and pioneered vaccinations. He noticed that milkmaids tended to be immune to smallpox, but did come down with cowpox (milder than smallpox). He suspected the pus from the cowpox blisters might protect the girls from smallpox.

In May 1796, he found a young dairymaid who had fresh cowpox lesions on her hand. On May 14, he used matter from her lesions to inoculate an eight-year-old boy who had never had smallpox. The boy became slightly ill over the course of the next 9 days but was well on the 10th. On July 1, Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with smallpox matter. The boy was immune to smallpox because of the cowpox “vaccine.”Why was it called a “vaccine?”  Jenner paid homage to the cow, which in Latin means “vacca,”

We can be thankful for the centuries of research which brought us the concept of vaccines, as well as modern-day researchers who worked so hard and quickly to develop them in the past year!

Interested in novels touching on the history of medicine? See this discussion: https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/college/journal/novel-approach-history-medicine-look-relationship-between-fiction-and-medical

Readers, please share your favorite stories of inspiring moments of medical history!

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