Henry Austin Martin (23 July 1824 – 7 December 1884) was an English-born American physician known for introducing the method of production and use of smallpox vaccine lymph from calves. He was the first American physician to experiment successfully with a vaccine for the bovine virus.[1]
Martin was a staff surgeon with the U. S. Vols and a Brevet Lieutenant Colonel "for gallant and meritorious services" in a wartime campaign.[2][3]
Martin is best known for standardizing a method of vaccine production from calves that had been used for at least a century, the technique of which was utilized by Aventis-Pasteur.[4] The vaccine was thought to have saved Boston from a potentially catastrophic 1873 epidemic, but he was widely criticized by medical peers and the general public.[4] Human lymph later became illegal in the United States since it no longer provided adequate immunity, and played a role in the 1905 Supreme Court case JACOBSON v. MASSACHUSETTS regarding compulsory vaccination.[4]
Vaccinia virus, a member of the poxvirus family, affected rodents and is believed to have become extinct in the late 1800s. It is a critical component of the modern smallpox vaccine. Survival of the vaccinia is credited to Martin, sons Francis and Stephen, and Martin's lineage of pupils who preserved the virus in a laboratory setting.[4]
Later in his career, Martin was an advocate for bovine vaccines which were thought to preserve potency and mitigate the risk of syphilis transmission.[4] He worked against anti-vaccination activists, and exposed fraudulent manufacturers whose vaccines were both unsafe and ineffective.[4]
He is the namesake of Martin's Bandage, as well as Martin's cartilage clamp, Martin incision, Martin vigorimeter, and Martin's Disease (periosteoarthritis of the foot from excessive walking).[5][6][7][8]
Martin's vaccine contribution was commemorated by a historical marker at 27 Dudley Street, in the Roxbury section of Boston
In 1991, John Joseph Buder's dissertation at the University of Texas was Letters of Henry Austin Martin: The Vaccination Correspondence to Thomas Fanning Wood, 1877-1883.
Selected publications
Hahnemann and Paracelsus. On Some Ancient Medical Delusions, and Their Connection with Errors Still Existing. An Address Delivered Before the Norfolk District Medical Society, November 11, 1857[10]
