Editing Cowpox (section)

==Historical use==
[[File:The cow pock.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|In ''The Cow-Pock—or—the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!'' (1802), [[James Gillray]] caricatured recipients of the vaccine developing cow-like appendages.]]
After inoculation, vaccination using the cowpox virus became the primary defense against smallpox. After infection by the cowpox virus, the body (usually) gains the ability to recognize the similar smallpox virus from its [[antigens]] and is able to fight the smallpox disease much more efficiently.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

The cowpox virus contains 222 thousand base pairs of DNA, which contains the information for about 203-204 genes. This makes cowpox one of the most complicated viruses known. A significant number of these genes give instructions for key parts of the human immune system, giving a clue as to why the closely related smallpox is so lethal.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Moore P |title=Killer Germs: Rogue Diseases of the Twenty-First Century |year=2001 |location=London |publisher=Carlton |isbn=978-1-84222-150-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/killergermsrogue00moor }}</ref> The vaccinia virus now used for smallpox vaccination is sufficiently different from the cowpox virus found in the wild as to be considered a separate virus.<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Yuan J | url = http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/pox/history.html | title = The Small Pox Story | work = Human Biology, Class of 1998 | publisher = Stanford University | location = Stanford, CA | date = 17 February 1999 }}</ref>

===British Parliament===
While the vaccination's popularity increased exponentially, so did its monetary value. This was realized by the British Parliament, which compensated Jenner 10,000 pounds for the vaccination. In addition, they later compensated Jenner an additional 20,000 pounds. In the coming years, Jenner continued advocacy for his vaccination over the still popular inoculation. Eventually, in 1840, the inoculation became banned in England and was replaced with the cowpox vaccination as the main medical solution to combat smallpox. The cowpox vaccination saved the British Army thousands of soldiers, by making them immune to the effects of smallpox in upcoming wars. The cowpox also saved the United Kingdom thousands of pounds.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Riedel S | title = Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination | journal = Proceedings | volume = 18 | issue = 1 | pages = 21–25 | date = January 2005 | pmid = 16200144 | pmc = 1200696 | doi = 10.1080/08998280.2005.11928028 }}</ref>

===Kinepox===
Kinepox is an alternative term for the [[smallpox vaccine]] used in early 19th-century America. Popularized by Jenner in the late 1790s, kinepox was a far safer method for inoculating people against smallpox than the previous method, [[variolation]], which had a 3% fatality rate.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

In a famous letter to [[Meriwether Lewis]] in 1803, [[Thomas Jefferson]] instructed the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] to "carry with you some matter of the kine-pox; inform those of them with whom you may be, of its efficacy as a preservative from the smallpox; & encourage them in the use of it..."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/jefflett.html | title = Jefferson's Instructions to Lewis and Clark (1803) | access-date = 2007-08-10 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070807100953/http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/jefflett.html | archive-date = 2007-08-07 }}</ref> Jefferson had developed an interest in protecting [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indians]] from smallpox, having been aware of [[epidemic]]s along the [[Missouri River]] during the previous century. A year before his special instructions to Lewis, Jefferson had persuaded a visiting [[delegation]] of North American Indian chieftains to be vaccinated with kinepox during the winter of 1801–1802. Unfortunately, Lewis never got the opportunity to use kinepox during the pair's expedition, as it had become inadvertently inactive—a common occurrence in a time before vaccines were [[stabilizer (chemistry)|stabilized]] with [[preservatives]] such as [[glycerol]] or kept at refrigeration temperatures.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}