Benjamin Jesty, the grandfather of vaccination / by Patrick John Pead.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pead, Patrick J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vaccination--History.

Vaccination.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 280 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Newcastle upon Tyne, England : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, [2020]

Summary:

Benjamin Jesty has been described as 'the man history forgot'. Spanning the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this book tells the story of the ingenious Dorset farmer who used cowpox as a vaccine to protect his family against the dreaded disease of smallpox in 1774. This happened 22 years before Dr Edward Jenner used a similar process.The origins of vaccination have always been clouded in controversy. Probing previous accounts flawed by myth or subjectivity, this text sets the record straight. Man's early attempts at stimulating immunity are rooted in folk wisdom of the distant past. Vaccination was not a 'discovery' or a 'medical breakthrough', but a development from variolation, substituting cowpox as an inoculum instead of smallpox.Analysing relevant primary sources with an innovative approach, this book reveals the geographical extent of awareness of Jesty's endeavour in Georgian England, confirms his priority, and seeks to establish his Intellectual Property for the first use of an empirical vaccine.Jenner brought vaccination to the world. His achievement will always take precedence, but the findings of this new research suggest it is now time to honour Benjamin Jesty with the credit he deserves.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part One: Context

1: The 'Foul Disease'

2: 'Buying the Small Pox'

Part Two: Biography

3: The Yetminster Farmer

4: 'A Grain of New and Precious Quality'

5: Removal to Purbeck

6: The Gloucestershire Doctor

7: Jesty Reviewed by his Peers

8: The 'Lost' Portrait

9: Restoration

10: Exhibition

11: Other Jesty Portraits

12: The Jesty Headstone Memorials

Part Three: Recognition

13: Other 'Cowpoxers'

14: Awareness

15: Priority and Intellectual Property

Conclusions

Genealogical Note

References and Sources

Further Bibliography Resourced

Appendix 1: Vaccinology

Appendix 2: Jesty Genealogy - surnames

Appendix 3: Benjamin Jesty's Last Will

Appendix 4: The Search for the Portrait

Appendix 5: Michael William Sharp

Appendix 6: The Jesty Play

Appendix 7: Revision Notes

Index

The Author.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781527544659 (ebook)

9781527543829 (hb)

1-5275-4465-6

OCLC:

1134992162