Edward Jenner's Inquiry after 200 years

Christie's New York sale of the late Haskell Norman's magnificent medical library included a first, second, third, and first American edition of Edward Jenner's famous Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae. This reminds us that it is 200 years since Jenner published his initial evidence that inoculated cowpox was a safe alternative to inoculated smallpox (variolation) for the prevention of smallpox. The Inquiry is regularly included in summaries of the most important medical books and in histories and encyclopaedias of medicine. That it transcends subject boundaries is shown by its inclusion in Printing and …