Edward Jenner Medal

The Jenner Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, formerly known as the Jenner Memorial Medal or the Jenner Medal of the Epidemiological Society of London, is awarded from time to time by the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), London, at the recommendation of its Epidemiology and Public Health Section, to individuals who have undertaken distinguished work in epidemiological research or made significant contributions in preventing and controlling epidemic disease. It is named in honour of Edward Jenner's discovery of a means of smallpox vaccination. The first Medal was awarded in 1898, presented by Sir Patrick Manson to Sir William Henry Power, the then Medical Officer of Health for London.

The Medal was designed in bronze by Allan Wyon. The date of the award and recipient's name is engraved on the rim. A three-quarter face of Jenner is engraved on the obverse, and on the reverse is depicted a globe. The original by-laws, published in 1898, stated that the medal should commonly be called the "Jenner Medal", the awardee not be confined to only the British, and that the Epidemiological Society Council would determine when and who receives it. The regulations were revised in 1951, with the recommendation that the Medal be awarded not more frequently than once in five years.

Foundation

The Jenner Medal was founded on 15 May 1896 at a meeting of the Epidemiological Society of London (1850–1907), during the presidency of Sir Shirley Murphy, to commemorate the centenary of Edward Jenner’s discovery of a means of smallpox vaccination.

The founding committee was made up of Murphy, Sir Richard Thorne Thorne, Theodore Preston, Frank Clemow, R. D. Sweeting, Bulstrode and Coupland. Appeals for funds were made through medical journals. Subscribers included the Epidemiological Society, Thorne, Murphy, John C. McVail, Thomas H. Wakley, Sir James Donnet, Sir William Broadbent, Robert Barnes, Andrew Davidson, Sir Edwin Saunders, Philip Pye-Smith, Joseph Frank Payne, Sir John Simon, and Sir James Paget. From outside the UK, subscribers included Kalman Muller from Budapest, Prospero Sonsino from Pisa, Rudolph H. Saltet from Amsterdam, and Joseph D. Tholozan from Teheran.

Design

The medal, a coin, was designed in bronze by Allan Wyon. The date of the award and recipient's name is engraved on the rim. A three-quarter face of Jenner is engraved on the obverse, and accompanied are the words:

Edward Jenner, M.D., F.R.S, born 1749, died 1823

The symbol of the Epidemiological Society, the Earth, is depicted on the reverse. Around the circumference are the words:

Centenary of Vaccination Celebrated 1896. For Work of Great Merit. Epidemiological Society of London. ''Venienti Occurrite Morbo''

Regulations

The by-laws, published in 1898, stated that the medal should commonly be called the "Jenner Medal", the awardee not be confined to only the British, and that the Epidemiological Society Council, via its Jenner Medal sub-committee consisting of its president, treasurer and honorary secretaries, would determine when and who receives it.

The medal was re-cast by Wyon following the merger of the Epidemiological Society with the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London in 1907, when it became the Section of Epidemiology and State Medicine of the RSM. The new Epidemiological Section then made their recommendation to the RSM Council, who were to bestow the Medal.

In 1951, a sub-committee was established to revise the by-laws, following the eleventh award to Glover.''Epidemiology Section Minutes'' (1951–1953), Royal Society of Medicine, London. p. 89 The Jenner Medal sub-committee consisted of Robert Cruickshank, then the Section president, W. Charles Cockburn and Ian Taylor, the two honorary secretaries, and Glover. After considering the notability of the former awardees, they recommended that the Medal be awarded not more frequently than once in five years, and that it be a standing item on the agenda of the Section Council meeting preceding their annual meeting each year. Awarding it too often was seen to diminish its value, and that it had not generally been awarded regularly highlighted that the Section Council were not always aware of its details.

Awards

The purpose of the award is to reward an individual for significant work in epidemiology or contributions in preventing and controlling epidemic disease. The Medal was first awarded on 24 June 1898 to Sir William Henry Power, who was the then Medical Officer of Health for London, and had chaired the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis. It was subsequently awarded to Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, for discovering the malaria parasite, and then Sir Patrick Manson, for showing that it was carried by a mosquito.

In 1923, the Medal featured at a RSM event to commemorate the centenary of Jenner's death. There, delegates passed anti-vaccinationists before entering the building. When James Alison Glover won the eleventh Medal in 1951, he mentioned that he had been acquainted with seven of the previous ten recipients. The 1962 award to Leonard Colebrook was timed with the centenary of the birth of Sidney Monckton Copeman, who had won it himself 37 years earlier. Donald Henderson received the Medal in 1996, the year of the Jenner's discovery's bicentenary.

Recipients

See also

* List of medicine awards
* List of awards named after people

Notes

References

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British science and technology awards
Medicine awards
Awards established in 1896
Royal Society of Medicine
Vaccination advocates