The existed from the remotest ages in China and Hindustan.' 3 Moore's History of the Small-pox. 2 Travels in the Island of Iceland, by Sir George Mackenzie. 1810. 3 Moore's Reply, pp. 64-66. come down to us as one of the demi-gods. But times are changed, and the life of this Englishman was sufficiently prosaic. Edward Jenner was the third son of a clergyman of the Church of England. He was born in May, 1749, at Berkeley, in Gloucestershire. It became a most important fact in the world's history that Jenner was born and reared in the vale of Gloucester, a district celebrated for cows. Had he been born in any other than a dairy county, it is very unlikely he would have made his great discovery; for he was a man of observation and induction, not of erudition and speculative genius. Whether anyone else would have occupied his niche in the Temple of Fame, is a question we need not entertain; certain it is, that the facts from which he started had been long known, and were as ready for others as for him. His discovery was one of those open secrets of nature which, when once announced, seem so obvious and simple, that the affronted world exclaims, "We knew it all before." At a very early age he showed a strong taste for natural history, collecting nests of the dormouse, fossils from the great oolitic formation on which he lived, and other objects of this kind. After the usual school-education of a boy in his circumstances, he was sent to the neighbourhood of Bristol, to be instructed in the practice of his future profession under the care of a Mr. Ludlow. Let us here remark, that two of the most celebrated British physicians, Cullen and Jenner, were both very early initiated in the practical part of their art; and without wishing to generalize from what some may consider cases of exceptional genius, let us suggest the question, whether the essential—that is, the practical-faculty would not be in danger of being sacrificed to the very important, but not quite essential element of medical education, if the student were obliged to go through a long general curriculum before being admitted to his professional studies? Of course, if it were possible to combine literature and science with technical instruction, it might be a great advantage. While engaged in assisting Mr. Ludlow, an incident occurred which gave rise to Jenner's first anticipation of his great discovery. A young countrywoman came for advice, and mentioned that she could not take small-pox, because she had had cow-pox. This was the local tradition, known as a tradition by many, and treated by the learned as a popular delusion. But the words sunk deep into the mind of young Jenner; and when he went to London, in 1770, one of the subjects on which he conversed with his teacher, John Hunter, was the possibility of substituting vaccination for inoculation. "Dont think, but try," was the characteristic reply of the great British physiologist and surgeon, who, when a youth, had been assisted by Cullen, and now in his turn befriended Jenner. In speaking of Hunter, Jenner always called him "the dear man," and preserved all his letters with venerating care. It seems to have been in the year 1773, or 1772 (for there is rather a confusion of dates in the life of Jenner), that he returned to his native county, and settled as a country surgeon in the small town of Berkeley. The following description of his personal appearance at that time, is given by his friend Edward Gardner :-" His height was rather under the middle size; his person was robust, but active, and well-formed; in his dress he was particularly neat; and everything about him showed the man intent and serious, and well-prepared to meet the duties of his calling. When I first saw him it was at Frampton Green. I was somewhat his junior in years, and had heard so much of Mr. Jenner, of Berkeley, that I had no small curiosity to see him. He was dressed in a blue coat and yellow buttons, buckskins, well-polished jockey-boots, with handsome silver spurs, and he carried a smart whip with a silver handle. His hair, after the fashion of the times, was done up in a club, and he wore a broad-brimmed hat. We were introduced on that occasion, and I was delighted and astonished. I was prepared to find an accomplished man, and all the country spoke of him as a skilful surgeon, and a great naturalist; but I did not expect to find him so much at home on other matters. I, who had been spending my time in cultivating my judgment by abstract study, and smit from my boyhood with the love of song, had sought my amusement in the rosy fields of imagination, was not less surprised than gratified to find that the ancient affinity between Apollo and Esculapius was so well-maintained in his person." Gardner, till his death, which occurred while he was yet a youth, remained Jenner's most intimate friend, and the one to whom he confided his first anticipations of future fame. It was in the year 1780, when riding on the road between Bristol and Gloucester, that Jenner, after going over the whole facts of the origin of cowpox in a disease of the horse, and of its communication to the milkers, to whom it gave security against small-pox, with deep and anxious emotion mentioned his hope of being able to propagate that variety from one human being to another, till he had disseminated the practice all over the globe, to the total extinction of the small-pox. "Gardner," he said, "I have entrusted a most important matter to you, which I firmly believe will prove of essential benefit to the human race. I know you, and should not wish what I have stated to be brought into conversation; for should anything untoward turn up in my experiments, I should be made, particularly by my medical brethren, the subject of ridicule, for I am a mark they all shoot at." We can hardly imagine any motive but envy, that could make Jenner a professional target; for a more purely inoffensive man did not exist,-nay, more, a man more overflowing with all kindly human sympathies. The follow ing description suggests a pastoral poem of the highest character: "In following the calls of his profession, through the 'alleys brown' and shady lanes of the beautiful vale where he resided, he kept a constant eye to the varying scenes which were passing before him he had the keenest relish for picturesque beauty, and in his excursions alike gratified his taste in this respect, and increased his knowledge by pursuing the details of natural history. He thus contrived to combine the labours of his profession with the truest pleasure and instruction. On such occasions, he encouraged his friends to join him in his rides. I have known, and do now know, those who have been favoured with such happiness, who have accompanied him for twenty or thirty miles in a morning, and listened with the highest interest at one time to the overflowing of his mind, while with a vivid and imaginative fervour he shadowed forth his own feelings, or with a painter's eye and poet's tongue delineated the beauties around him. He would then descend to less-impassioned themes, and explain, with the most captivating simplicity and ingenuity, the economy of vegetables and animals, or the various productions that came within observation."1 If Jenner had not happened to make his great discovery, which he would not have done had his lot been cast in a less-pastoral district, his name would now, almost certainly, be entirely unknown. Surely there is at this time many an “inglorious" Jenner going his daily round of usefulness, and as he passes from the mansion of the nobleman to the cottage of the labourer, leaving behind him a lesson of pure humanity, simple and elevating-a bond of true Christian union between classes which the harsh maxims of political economy, cheap selling, cheap production, and dear buying-organized selfishness—tend 1 Baron's Life of Jenner, pp. 13, 14. |