ABSTRACT
The history of immunization, from the earliest attempts to modern, genetically engineered vaccine candidates, represents a long road marked with many milestones. Extensive historical reviews document many of the cardinal achievements [1-4]; however, it is not the purpose of this chapter to recapitulate these events in any depth. Rather, a few of the most pivotal milestones will be mentioned briefly, such as variolation, Jenner’s experiments of inoculating subjects with cowpox to prevent smallpox, and the earliest live and inactivated bacterial and viral vaccines and toxoids. This chapter will emphasize the historical accounts of several aspects of vaccinology that heretofore have not generally been well described. These include some early attempts at eliciting local immunity via oral vaccines, attempts over the centuries at grappling with the problem of how to assess the safety and efficacy of candidate vaccines before their widespread use, and the evolution of controlled field trial methodology.
