An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae

The full title locates the inquiry in western England, especially Gloucestershire. Printed by Sampson Low for Jenner in 1798, it draws on dairy settings and people of varied occupations and ages. Named places, histories and intervals connect the argument with particular cases and show how local experience generated its questions.

References: [1]

Cases include recollections of earlier cowpox, observations after smallpox exposure and deliberately arranged inoculations. Their time spans and evidential origins differ. Jenner brought them together to argue for protection. Separating reported experience, memory and intervention records clarifies the argument’s components and the conditions available for investigation at that time.

References: [1]

Illustrations show appearances used to distinguish lesions, while the text compares sources of infection and subsequent outcomes. Descriptions coexist with conjectures about origins, which differ from modern virology. The work matters both for a testable protective claim and for records that allow historians to examine its selection and interpretation of evidence.

References: [1]

Wellcome’s archives preserve correspondence, institutional papers and an early draft of the Inquiry, documenting questions and continuing work after publication. A draft copied by an assistant and bearing annotations also reveals a process of composition. Books, letters and vaccination organizations performed different roles in recording, exchanging and organizing this medical history.

References: [2]