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Edward Jenner Museum

It was in medicine that science as it is known today became common practice. Following the fifteenth century rediscovery of the learning of the ancient world, doctors and surgeons started drawing their conclusions from observing the world directly. Edward Jenner (1749 - 1823), a doctor from Berkeley in Gloucestershire, worked in this new tradition. He famously conducted an experiment based on folk wisdom that people who caught the mild disease cowpox were immune to the deadly small pox. In May 1496 Jenner took some material taken from the pock marked hand of one of his patients with cowpox, and rubbed it into a few scratches made in the arm of James Phipps. James was the eight year old son of Jenner's gardener. An attempt was then made to infect the boy with smallpox, using the "mild" strains employed in those days to try and confer immunity without killing the patient. James proved immune to the virus. Many other experiments followed, the research published in 1798 as An Inquiry Into The Causes And Effects Of The Variolae Vaccine; A Disease Discovered In Some Of The Western Counties Of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, And Known As Cow Pox. With this paper the modern practice of immunisation began.

Immunisation using Jenner's new method took time to become accepted. Many patients objected on religious grounds, saying they did not want to be treated with medicine from God's lowlier creatures. Jenner's wider interests reflected the developing change in this kind of world view. He had always been interested in fossils, hunting for fossils as a boy along the banks of the river Severn near his home in Berkeley. In 1819 Jenner made his most important discovery, finding the fossilised remains of a plesiosaur at the bottom of Stinchcombe Hill. The received wisdom had it that fossils were either ordinary rocks that somehow mimicked living things, or were the remains of contemporary animals. In 1816 Jenner wrote: "Fossils are monuments...to departed worlds." It was this independence of mind that allowed Jenner to create the process of vaccination, which has saved million of lives.

Opening Times: Beginning of April to end of September, Tuesday to Friday 12.30pm - 5.30pm. In October there is opening only on Sunday 1pm - 5.30pm. Also open Bank Holiday Mondays, 12.30pm - 5.30pm.

Directions: Berkeley is near junction 14 of the M5 in Gloucestershire. The Museum is just off Berkeley High Street, close to Berkeley Castle. Click here for an interactive map centred on the Jenner Museum.

Access: Only the ground floor is accessible to wheelchair users. There are adapted toilet facilities available.

Contact:

phone: 01453 810631

web site: http://www.jennermuseum.com/