Early Life
Edward Jenner was born on 17 May 1749 (6 May Old Style) in Berkeley, as the eighth of nine children. His father was the vicar of Berkeley, so Jenner received a strong basic education. Jenner trained from the age of 17 for eight years in Chipping Sodbury,South Gloucestershire, as an apprentice to Daniel Ludlow, a surgeon. In 1770 Jenner became apprenticed in surgery and anatomy under surgeon John Hunter and others at St George's Hospital.
William Osler records that Hunter gave Jenner William Harvey's advice, very famous in medical circles (and characteristic of the Age of Enlightenment), "Don't think; try." Hunter remained in correspondence with Jenner over natural history and proposed him for the Royal Society. Returning to his native countryside by 1773, Jenner became a successful family doctor and surgeon, practicing on dedicated premises at Berkeley.
Jenner and others formed the Fleece Medical Society or Gloucestershire Medical Society, so called because it met in the parlor of the Fleece Inn, Rodborough, in Rodborough, Gloucestershire, meeting to dine together and read papers on medical subjects. Jenner contributed papers on angina pectoris, ophthalmia, and cardiac valvular disease and commented on cowpox. He also belonged to a similar society that met in Alveston, near Bristol.
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