Academic surgeons, take heart: the story of a student, his mentor, and the discovery of the etiology of angina pectoris.

Edward Jenner is renowned for developing a vaccination for smallpox. He trained as a surgeon and was an ardent anatomist and naturalist. Part of his formal training was directed by John Hunter, the father of scientific surgery. Jenner diagnosed Hunter as suffering from angina pectoris and correctly identified the cause of angina pectoris from a series of autopsies he conducted. After Hunter died during an altercation in committee, his postmortem examination proved Jenner correct. Jenner can be recognized as the first to correctly ascribe the etiology of angina pectoris to coronary atherosclerosis.