The quest to eliminate smallpox through vaccination: Jenner, a student of John Hunter, knowing that milkmaids who contracted cowpox became immune to smallpox, surmised that pus from cowpox blisters could be used to vaccinate anyone against smallpox. Jenner employed an arm-to-arm method of administration to transfer cowpox from one person to another. He coined the term vaccination, meaning “from the cow.”