Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 30, 2026

Vaccinia Reporter Viruses for Quantifying Viral Function at All Stages of Gene Expression
Published on: May 15, 2014
Smallpox and its control in Canada
1University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta.
Abstract:
Edward Jenner's first treatise in 1798 described how he used cowpox material to provide immunity to the related smallpox virus. He sent this treatise and some cowpox material to his classmate John Clinch in Trinity, Nfld., who gave the first smallpox vaccinations in North America. Dissemination of the new technique, despite violent criticism, was rapid throughout Europe and the United States. Within a few years of its discovery, vaccination was instrumental in controlling smallpox epidemics among aboriginal people at remote trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company. Arm-to-arm transfer at 8-day intervals was common through most of the 19th century. Vaccination and quarantine eliminated endemic smallpox throughout Canada by 1946. The last case, in Toronto in 1962, came from Brazil.
Related Concept Videos
Conservation of Small Populations
Standard Precaution
Hand hygiene is the most crucial means to prevent the transmission of disease. Employers are legally required to provide their workers with personal protective equipment (PPE) to minimize exposure or contact with...
Investigation of Disease Outbreaks
Smallpox
Chickenpox
American Trypanosomiasis

