They are then injected into our body making its natural defence system produce antibodies, which kill germs and the protective white blood cells combat that type of infection. Later on in life if the body is invaded by these germs it is ready to destroy them immediately. Thus these vaccinations prevent us from falling sick.
It was Dr, Edward Jenner, an Englishman, who began vaccinations. One day as a young medical student in London, he overheard a milkmaid saying that she had no fear of catching small-pox as she already had cow-pox. Smallpox was a very dreaded disease raging in the country then. Cowpox was a milder disease with similar symptoms. The remark of the milkmaid continued to stay in his mind for many years.
In 1773 he returned to his village in Gloucestershire. For the next 20 years he devoted his entire spare time in the investigation and research into the statement that continued to occupy his mind. After years of research he finally came to the conclusion that the milkmaid was right. There were very few people had caught smallpox after they had had cowpox.
Jenner started his first experiment in 1796. He gave a child a light dose of cowpox in order that he would not catch the wretched plague of smallpox. In 1798, he made an even more important experiment when he inoculated four children with small pox. They had been earlier inoculated with cowpox. His experiment proved very successful as neon of the four children caught the fatal disease.
Jenner's vaccinations helped wipe out this terrible disease which was extremely prevalent during that time. His method, the application of an infective agent to an abraded skin surface is still used in smallpox inoculation to this day.
