Emma Leung

8a I&S
31st August, 2021

Which change brought about by industrialization had the biggest impact on society?
The most significant change brought about by industrialization is the development of
medicine, especially vaccines. It drastically helped the development of mankind, as many
were now immune to diseases that previously devastated man and was one of the main causes
of empires such as the Aztecs and the Inca Empire. The smallpox vaccine, developed by
Edward Jenner, was the first widespread vaccine and is now considered the birth of
immunology, vaccine therapy, and preventive health.1.
Smallpox is a natural disease that was recorded in China as early as the 16th Century2.
It was spread through smallpox scabs being blown up a recipient’s nostrils or scratched into
the recipient’s skin. On average, 3 out of every 10 people who got it died3. The early type of
vaccine or smallpox was called variolation, which was the act of blowing up dried smallpox
scabs up the nose of an individual who then contracted a mild form of the virus. Upon
recovery, they would be immune to smallpox4. But, this method had a 2-3% fatality rate, and
other outbreaks related to the method, namely tuberculosis and syphilis.
The first observation of smallpox immunity was made by Edward Jenner, who
realized that dairy farmers did not catch smallpox. He thought that the infection of cowpox,
which was mild, caused the immunization of smallpox5. He tested this theory on a small boy
by introducing him to lesions from a milkmaid's hands. Two months later, he introduced the
boy to a smallpox lesion. With no disease developed, he deemed the immunization complete
and successful6.
This type of vaccination quickly became popular and was mandatory in some
countries. In 1700-1797, there was roughly 300 deaths per million inhabitants in England due
to smallpox, but after smallpox vaccination was enforced 1889-1898, there was only only 10

1 (Keenan)
2 (Keenan)
3 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
4 (History of Medicine)
5 (Keenan)
6 (Riedel)
deaths7. This success led to the global eradication of smallpox and influenced the
development of many more life-saving vaccines, such as whooping cough and tetanus8.

7 (Keenan)
8 (Science Museum)
 Bibliography

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “History of Smallpox.” Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, 2021,

https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html. Accessed 31st August 2021.

History of Medicine. “Smallpox a Great and Terrible Scourge.” History of Medecine,

2021, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/smallpox/sp_variolation.html#:~:text=In

%20Asia%2C%20practitioners%20developed%20the,individual%20was%20immune

%20to%20smallpox. Accessed 31st August 2021.

Keenan, Greta. “A brief history of vaccines and how they changed the world.” World

Economic Forum, 9th April 2021, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/how-

vaccines-changed-the-world/. Accessed 31st August 2021.

Riedel, Stefan. “Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination.” US

National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, January 2005,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/. Accessed 31st August

2021.

Science Museum. “SMALLPOX AND THE STORY OF VACCINATION.” Science

Museum, 25th April 2019,

https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/smallpox-and-story-

vaccination. Accessed 31st August 2021.