Smallpox vaccination, 19th century illustration. At top is a cow's udder with cowpox pustules. Figures 2,3 and 4 show vaccine vesicles on a human arm. Figure 5 shows an eruption of papules, which sometimes occurs during vaccination and figure 6 shows smallpox and cowpox pustules on the same arm. The British physician Edward Jenner (1749-1823) performed the first vaccination in 1796 when he used fluid from a cowpox blister to inoculate a boy against the more dangerous smallpox. Smallpox is an often-fatal disease caused by the Variola virus. Prior to vaccination it killed millions of people each year. Engraving published in 1831.