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smallpox

(Encyclopedia)smallpox, acute, highly contagious disease causing a high fever and successive stages of severe skin eruptions. Occurring worldwide in epidemics, it killed up to 40% of those who contracted it and acc...

cowpox

(Encyclopedia)cowpox, infectious disease of cows caused by a virus related to the virus of smallpox. Also called variola, it is characterized by pustular lesions on the teats and udder. Cowpox is transmitted by con...

Henderson, Donald Ainslie

(Encyclopedia)Henderson, Donald Ainslie, 1928–2016, American physician instrumental in eradicating smallpox, b. Lakewood, Ohio, M.D. Univ. of Rochester, 1954, M.P.H. Johns Hopkins, 1960. He joined (1955) the Epid...

Boylston, Zabdiel

(Encyclopedia)Boylston, Zabdiel, 1679–1766, American physician, b. Brookline, Mass. He was privately educated in medicine and settled in Boston. In an epidemic of smallpox in 1721 he was persuaded by Cotton Mathe...

Rhazes

(Encyclopedia)Rhazes rāˈsĭs, –zĭs [key], 860–932, Persian physician. He was chief physician at the Baghdad hospital. An observant clinician, he formulated the first known description of smallpox as distingu...

monkeypox

(Encyclopedia)monkeypox, rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus, which is related to the viruses that cause smallpox and cowpox. The symptoms of monkeypox, which typically take 1 to 2 weeks to ap...

Ingenhousz, Jan

(Encyclopedia)Ingenhousz, Jan yän ĭngˈənhous [key], 1730–99, Dutch scientist. He practiced medicine in Holland, England, and Vienna and was noted for his skillful inoculations against smallpox. He demonstrate...

Jenner, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Jenner, Edward, 1749–1823, English physician; pupil of John Hunter. His invaluable experiments beginning in 1796 with the vaccination of eight-year-old James Phipps proved that cowpox provided immun...

Landini, Francesco

(Encyclopedia)Landini, Francesco fränchāsˈkō ländēˈnē [key], c.1325–97, Italian composer. Although Landini was blinded from smallpox in childhood, he learned to play the lute, guitar, flute, and organ. Hi...

biological warfare

(Encyclopedia)biological warfare, employment in war of microorganisms to injure or destroy people, animals, or crops; also called germ or bacteriological warfare. Limited attempts have been made in the past to spre...

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