Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Discovery of the Smallpox Vaccine - Hardcover

Marrin, Albert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525469222 ISBN 13: 9780525469223

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 2002

Synopsis

In 1796, an unknown country doctor named Edward Jenner developed and administered the world's first vaccine-turning the tide in humanity's age-old war against disease.

Award-winning author Albert Marrin explains the significance of "immortal" Jenner's gift to mankind as he narrates the epic story of smallpox, a disease so contagious and deadly it has dramatically influenced the course of history. From the mummified remains of its first known victim to the sinister threat of the "frozen monster" that lurks in the vials of ultramodern laboratories, readers will be held spellbound by this readable and timely combination of science and history.

About this title

About the Author:

Albert Marrin is a much-decorated historian and writer whose most recent book, Terror of the Spanish Main, was called "addictive reading" in The Horn Book. He lives in Riverdale, New York.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-9-This is a fascinating, detailed history of the smallpox virus, beginning with its probable origins in a farm animal in Asia or the Middle East approximately 8000 years ago, continuing with its spread to Europe via trade routes, to the New World with the Spanish explorers, and concluding with the current concern that remaining stocks of variola may fall into the hands of terrorists intent on waging germ warfare. Intertwined with the disease's history is the biography of Edward Jenner, the 18th-century English surgeon whose observation that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox were immune to smallpox led him to conduct experiments that resulted in the perfection of the smallpox vaccination. Jenner is portrayed as a dedicated doctor devoted to what he considered a sacred mission, that of completely annihilating the "Speckled Monster" and demonstrating that science could ultimately triumph over disease. His dream appeared to have come true when the World Health Organization declared in 1980 that smallpox had been eradicated from Earth, but the continued existence in the U.S. and Russia of some 600 vials of frozen variola, originally slated to be destroyed by December 31, 1993, is at the center of an ongoing controversy among scientists, governments, and the military. Black-and-white photos appear throughout. This title updates James Cross Giblin's When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS (HarperCollins, 1995).
Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0525469222
• ISBN 13: 9780525469223
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96