What Might Mr. Jesty Tell Stroke Survivors

Benjamin Jesty

Benjamin Jesty, the British farmer in Dorset tried “cowpox” to vaccinate his family in 1774. According to historical documents, Benjamin administered this “alternative care” to his wife Elizabeth and 2 sons by rubbing the cowpox pus onto their arms. 22 years later, Dr Edward Jenner repeated a similar approach on James Phipps, the son of Jenner's poor gardener on May 14th, 1796. Jenner later published his experiment and findings which earned him the reputation of the "Father of Immunology".

Unlike Jenner, Jesty did not receive any credit for his brave experiment. Instead, he was reviled by his neighbors and countrymen as a reckless Chicanery. People concluded that his dangerous adventure would turn his unfortunate family into cows, or at least lead them to grow horns. 

In contrast, Jenner was appointed Physician Extraordinary by King George IV in 1821. Jennerian Society was formed by his enthusiastic followers in the medical community. The report Jenner submitted to the Royal Society led the British Government to start providing free vaccination to the general public in 1840.

Jenner Inoculating Phipps

However, in the eyes of the die-hard scientists of his time, Edward Jenner’s mere contribution was to scientifically prove that vaccination could work. The mechanism underneath was left to debate and further investigation. Hence, vaccination was still a novel "alternative care" whose value should be taken with a grain of salt. By today's standard, Jenner's publications on vaccination was still full of misleading hypothesis and errors.

It was not until 1870s, the remarkable French biologist Louis Pasteur discover the mechanism of immunization. After that, this particular type of alternative care was improved over the time into a repeatable mainstream treatment process.

Edward Jenner

Jesty never regretted being “passed over” for credit despite his contribution:

1.  The experiment saved his family who survived the terrible Smallpox Outbreak that nearly wiped out all their neighbors. His wife lived another 50 some years after the inoculation.
2.  Jesty humbly admitted that he was not the inventor of this method. The Chinese farmers were inoculating their families since 1000 BC. Africans and Turks had been using this approach for centuries to prevent smallpox.

As Jesty’s story demonstrated, there are two ways to discover new “cures” :

1.       Turn a lab finding into a treatment, like penicillin and;
2.       Try an effective treatment first. Grasp the scientific mechanism underneath and turn it into a standardized approach, like vaccination.

Today, we still depend far more on the first approach. Although we no longer predict that alternative cares would result in people growing horns, we are still skeptical about anything not coming from a lab. 

Louis Pasteur

Let’s fast forward our imagination 200 years to a time when stroke is under total control. Our grand-grand children might read the following in their history books:

• Between 1970s and 1990s, neuroplasticity was discovered and proven in the lab;
•  Some time in the 21^st century, some stroke patients tried a novel method to engage neuroplasticity which dramatically improved their recovery;
• 2 decades later, lab scientists fully grasped the underlying mechanism that made the mechanism work;
•  In the following decade, this new finding turned the approach into a standardized treatment procedure for stroke;
• In 2016, the break through Stanford Stem Cell Trial indicated that the day might come when healing stroke is like healing a fractured bone.

If so, do survivors want to wait until the Pasteur for stroke is born or act like the Jesty family to adopt an experiment in a brave but informed manner? 

Maybe for survivors, the list comparable to Benjamin Jesty’s primitive “alternative care” should include Acupuncture, Yoga, Taich, meditation and Guided imagery etc.