Illustration taken from "La vaccine combattue dans le pays" published in Paris in 1807, showing the development of smallpox after a poorly administered inoculation with the vaccine. Until the beginning of the 19th century smallpox was one of the most dreaded diseases resulting in fatality in one case out of three. The survivors were usually pockmarked and in the worst cases disfigured. It was the English physician Jenner (1749-1823) who obtained the first vaccine from people affected by cowpox, a cattle disease. After two successful experiments in 1796 and 1798, vaccination spread to all parts of Europe and eradicated this terrible disease.