Talk:John Fewster

Fewster's "paper" of 1765 ?

At present this article states — as does almost every other source that mentions John Fewster — that: "In 1765 Fewster read a paper to the Medical Society of London entitled “Cow pox and its ability to prevent smallpox”, 31 years before Jenner’s experiment on James Phipps."

Problem: The Medical Society of London was founded in 1773. Therefore Fewster could not have read his paper to the Society 8 years before it came into existence.

Source:

• History of the Medical Society of London
• Wikipedia's article: "Medical Society of London"

According to this source — L. Thurston and G. Williams (2015) "An examination of John Fewster’s role in the discovery of smallpox vaccination," Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 45 : 173-179 ; see p. 174. — the "medical society" to which Fewster belonged, was the "Convivio-Medical Society": "Fewster was also an active member of the Convivio-Medical Society, a group of doctors who met once a month to discuss medical cases over a meal and drink."

This source states that Fewster's paper wasn't published: Ian & Jenifer Glynn, The Life and Death of Smallpox (New York, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 100.

Fewster's "paper" on smallpox wasn't published because he never wrote such a paper.

Note that according to Thurston and Williams, p. 177 (above), the earliest insinuation that Fewster had written a paper titled "Cow pox and its ability to prevent smallpox" appeared in 1886.

Fewster's own account appears here: George Pearson, ed., An inquiry concerning the history of the cowpox, principally with a view to supersede and extinguish the smallpox (London, England: J. Johnson, 1798), pp. 102-104.

According to Fewster himself (above), he merely "communicated this fact [that prior infection with cowpox provides immunity to smallpox] to a society, of which I was then a member, … " (p. 102).

Furthermore, note that according to Fewster's own account, he made his discovery in 1768 or later, not in 1765.

VexorAbVikipædia (talk) 18:47, 29 December 2015 (UTC)