Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman
Yes, the doctor scene was an early method of vaccination against small pox. Vaccinations (even today) contain a small amount of the virus itself...enough for your body to create antibodies and fight it off. (Louis Pasture came up with this right around that time I think...it was kind of new then.) The doctor scraped tissue off an active pox and put it in an opened wound on a healthy person...it was crude but the principles are the same today.
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The smallpox vaccine was originally developed in England by a scientist named Jenner. He noticed that milkmaids were seldom, if ever, smallpox victims. Most milkmaids contracted a mild disease called "cow pox" which was not fatal. He theorized that the antibodies that developed in the body to ward off a cow pox infection gave the milkmaids immunity to smallpox. He found a courageous milkmaid who had cow pox in the recent past, who agreed to be infected with active smallpox. She didn't develop the disease. Further tests with her and other volunteers confirmed Jenner's theory. The first smallpox vaccine was made with active cow pox tissue.
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