This is a story translated from a prewar Japanese textbook of morals. What do you think the moral of the story is?
The person who developed the vaccine was a doctor named Jenner. He spent long years of toil before being able to develop it. Jenner was born in England, about 190 years ago. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a certain doctor. One day, a milkmaid came in for an examination. The girl had terrible boils all over her face which was too pitiful behold. Jenner thought what a saddening illness it was. The doctor examined the girl and said, “It’s smallpox.”
The girl replied strangely. “I’ve had cowpox before, so I shouldn’t be able to catch smallpox…”
Jenner overhearing this, thought to himself, “That is a strange thing to say. But thinking about it, there might be something behind what this girl is saying. If that is so, I want to research and develop some treatment to help these poor patients.”
It was from this that he thought infecting people with cowpox might prevent them from catching smallpox. He discussed it with his friends, but they all laughed at him, even saying, “Give up on this.”
But Jenner didn’t mind them, and spent the next 20 years researching about cowpox and smallpox, and trying out different ideas. His efforts availed, and he developed a vaccine treatment he had confidence in. First, he inoculated his own son with cowpox. Then, he exposed him to smallpox. When his son did not get infected, he wrote a book to inform the society about it.
However, society did not believe this good discovery could be true. Instead, people badmouthed him, saying, “The faces of children who have been infected with cowpox begin to resemble cows, and their voices begin to sound like a cow’s voice.”
But Jenner believed that his discovery would help people and he continued his research with all his heart.
Eventually, it became widely accepted that the vaccine Jenner had discovered helped people, and it is now used all over the world. You and me, too, have been helped by it.
天地間に 