Orthodoxy and Knowledge

It is often inconceivable that a small bird of the warbler family can play host to the Cuckoo, which obviously outsizes it by at least three to four times.

Collared Redstart
(This picture was taken in Panama, famed for the abundance of different bird species and as far as I know there are 14 species of Cuckoos in the country.)

I mentioned in passing in my book “The Cockroach Catcher” Jenner’s observation and the stir it caused. When I visited his home in Glouscestershire, the curator of the small museum, who was extremely knowledgeable, took pride in telling us how Jenner’s great work on Cowpox vaccination upset the medical establishment on the one hand, and how his observation on the murderous ways of the Cuckoo newborns upset the gentlemanly world of the Ornithologists on the other. It was the Royal Society that awarded him a Fellowship for his keen observation.

His work on Cowpox vaccination in the prevention of Smallpox was met with hostile responses. The medical world that was dominated by London at the time could not accept that a country doctor had made such an important discovery. Jenner was publicly humiliated when he brought his findings to London. However, what he discovered could not be denied and eventually his discovery was accepted – a discovery that was to change the world. Such discovery was due mainly to his keen power of observation, observation without pre-conceived ideas or moral judgment. He now has the last laugh in London as his statue stands in a quiet part of Hyde Park.

Brian Martin said in his book “Dissent and heresy in medicine: models, methods and strategies”:

“An orthodoxy that draws on the full range of resources, namely which exercises unified domination, is incredibly difficult to challenge. Many challengers subscribe to the myth of scientific medicine as being based on open-minded examination of evidence, and thus handicap themselves, since in practice they are ignored or attacked”.

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