This source analysis covers Source Analysis Practice within Jenner and Vaccination for GCSE History. Revise Jenner and Vaccination in Medicine Through Time for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 9 of 14 in this topic. Use this source analysis to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.

📜 Source Analysis Practice

"The more accurately to observe the progress of the infection I selected a healthy boy, about eight years old, for the purpose of inoculation for the Cow Pox. The matter was taken from a sore on the hand of a dairymaid, Sarah Nelmes... and it was inserted, on the 14th of May 1796, into the arm of the boy by means of two superficial incisions... [Six weeks later] I inoculated him with variolous matter... no disease followed."

— Edward Jenner, An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, 1798

Applying NOP Analysis:

Nature: Medical treatise — scientific publication presenting experimental findings

Origin: Edward Jenner, the doctor who conducted the experiment himself; published 1798, two years after the original trial

Purpose: To persuade the medical community that cowpox vaccination provided reliable protection against smallpox

Grade 9 Model Paragraph:

This source is useful for an enquiry into the development of vaccination because it provides Jenner's first-hand account of his 1796 experiment on James Phipps, the experiment that proved cowpox material could protect against smallpox. As the original scientific paper, it is the most direct record of the evidence on which vaccination was founded. However, its utility is limited in two ways: as the person who conducted the experiment, Jenner had a strong personal motive to present his results positively. Furthermore, the source reveals that Jenner could not explain the mechanism — he demonstrates that vaccination works empirically but offers no theory of why, which helps explain why scientific opponents, who required an explanation, remained unconvinced until Pasteur provided germ theory in 1861.

Source Analysis Practice