Smallpox Vaccine

factual friday

I’m sure you know that the first vaccine ever created was for smallpox by Edward Jenner (in 1796). He had realised that milk maids that had contracted cowpox appeared to be immune to smallpox and a bit of scientific genius later, the first vaccine was created.

What you may not know is that the Latin for cow is ‘vacca’. The word vaccine is derived from the Latin adjective vaccinus, meaning ‘of or from the cow’.