James Smith (1771 - June 12, 1841), was a Maryland physician serving Baltimore City as a medical practitioner in 1797. In 1801, Smith, advocate for smallpox vaccination, established the Baltimore General Dispensary as a vaccine clinic for the impoverished administering the first smallpox vaccinations in Baltimore County, Maryland. Smith served as a vaccination agent for the states of Maryland and Virginia during the War of 1812.
In 1813, Smith, who acquired the identity Jenner of America recognizing Edward Jenner preliminary discoveries of vaccination methods, emerged as the United States vaccination agent. The Vaccine Act of 1813 enacted into law by President James Madison authorized a vaccination agent to preserve genuine vaccine matter. The Act of Congress endorsed a provision for genuine vaccine matter to be circulated by postal mail distinguished by franking while registering an authenticity certificate or oath statement by governance of the Postal Service Act of 1792;
I, A.B. do swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will faithfully use my best exertions to preserve the genuine vaccine matter, and to furnish the same to the citizens of the United States; and also, that I will abstain from every thing prohibited in relation to the establishment of the post office of the United States.
The National Vaccine Institute was established in Baltimore City, Maryland as authorized by the Vaccine Act of 1813. Smith appointed as the United States vaccination agent provided accountability for the National Vaccine Institute as an endeavor to eradicate the vaccinia virus;
Nationwide coordination of twenty vaccine agents who inoculated approximately 100,000 people from 1813 to 1822
In 1821, the National Vaccine Institute discovered an immunization physician in Tarboro, North Carolina conducted ten innoculations in the Tarboro settlement with the actual human pathogen – variola virus. Smith had unintentionally furnished bona fide smallpox matter by United States mail mistakenly in error for kinepox. In 1822, the 17th United States Congress repealed the Vaccine Act of 1813 debasing the medical practices of the National Vaccine Institute and United States Vaccine Agent.[1]
