Benjamin Waterhouse

Benjamin Waterhouse (born March 4, 1754, Newport, R.I. [U.S.]—died Oct. 2, 1846, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.) was an American physician and scientist, a pioneer in smallpox vaccination. Upon reading in 1799 of the work of Edward Jenner, the British surgeon and doctor who discovered vaccination, Waterhouse began a lifelong crusade for vaccination in the United States, beginning with his five-year-old son. Waterhouse was in his day perhaps the best-educated physician in North America, having studied for...