JENNER, EDWARD, an English surgeon and physician, and the discoverer of vaccination, was born in the vicarage house of Berkeley in Gloucestershire, on the 17th May 1749. He was the third son of the Reverend Stephen Jenner, A.M., Oxon, rector of Rockhampton and vicar of Berkeley. His mother was the daughter of an English clergyman, the Reverend Henry Head, of an ancient Berkshire family, who also at one time held the living of Berkeley, and was a prebend of Bristol.

The family of Jenner was of some standing and antiquity in the counties of Gloucester and Worcester. It has produced several eminent men besides Jenner. Among these may be mentioned, Dr Thomas Jenner, president of Magdalen College, Oxford. Jenner's father possessed considerable estates in Gloucestershire in addition to his church preferments. He was also tutor to the late Earl of Berkeley, and was highly esteemed by the whole of that noble house, which equally gave its friendship to the son.

Jenner's father died when Jenner was only five years old; his elder brother Stephen, a beneficed clergyman and fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, took charge of his education. At about the age of eight, when at school at Wotton-under-Edge, Jenner first displayed that taste for natural history which was so prominent and eventually so important a point in his character.

His education for the medical profession commenced, as was then usual, with an apprenticeship to a medical practitioner. Mr Ludlow, an eminent surgeon of Sodbury (or Sudbury), near Bristol, was Jenner's master. In his twenty-first year he went to London and became a private pupil of John Hunter, with whom he resided for two years. The community of their tastes and the mutual esteem and regard which arose out of this connexion laid the foundation for a lasting friendship between these two great men, which was broken only by Hunter's death. In after life Jenner never failed to speak in the warmest terms of Hunter.

Under so distinguished an anatomist, Jenner acquired an almost unrivalled skill in minute dissections and delicate injections of parts. When in 1771, Cook, the great oceanic explorer, returned from his first voyage of discovery, Jenner was recommended to Sir Joseph Banks as a fit person to assist in putting up and arranging the valuable specimens of natural history which were collected during that voyage. This task he accomplished, and exhibited at the same time so much dexterity and knowledge, that he was offered the appointment of naturalist to the next expedition, which sailed in 1772. Jenner refused the offer, preferring to return to Berkeley where he commenced practice as a country surgeon. His first attempts were very successful, for although so young his practice rapidly increased. Adding to professional skill the manners of a thorough gentleman, and the information of a scholar, he was a welcome guest in the most distinguished families.

A mind so genial as Jenner's, and with so quick a perception of the Beautiful, could not fail to have a tinge of the Ideal. It is not remarkable, therefore, that he cultivated occasionally the art of poetry. He would read his compositions at convivial meetings, or send them to friends in the ordinary interchange of literary correspondence. One of these has long been popular, and has been read by many without a suspicion that the author of them was the discoverer of vaccination. The Signs of Rain, in metrical verse, commencing—

"The hollow winds begin to blow, The clouds look black, the glass is low,"

was sent by Jenner as an excuse for not accepting the invitation of a friend to make a country excursion. It is remarkable for its combination of the minute accuracy of the naturalist with an easy versification not unworthy Crabbe. He was a good hand too at an epigram or a ballad, and he could sing his own verses in good taste. He was particularly fond of music, and could play on the violin and flute, as well as sing.

It was not until the year 1795, at the age of fifty, that he published to the world the results of his researches into vaccination, and announced the discovery that has immortalized his name. But previously to this date he laboured much at various scientific subjects as well as at experiments on the cowpox. He corresponded regularly with John Hunter on questions of natural history, comparative anatomy, physiology, and pathology, sending him specimens of all kinds, giving him hints and facts, and instituting and carrying out observations and experiments suggested by Hunter. The results of some of these latter were published in Hunter's paper on the Heat of Animals and Vegetables, printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1778, and of others in Hunter's Observations on some Parts of the Animal Economy, published in 1792. He dissected many "free-martins," as he himself states in a letter to Dr Worthington, dated 1810; adding that he was the first (some thirty years ago) who made known to John Hunter the condition of the sexual organs in these animals; and so laid the foundation for Hunter's paper on the subject published in the Philosophical Transactions. He first communicated the results of his researches in pathology to two small medical societies of the district. His essay on Angina pectoris which forms the ground-work of his friend Dr Parry's work, was one of these. Another communication contained observations on a disease of the heart, which frequently comes on during attacks of rheumatism, and leads to enlargement and disorganization of the viscera. This (like others) fell into the hands of members of those societies, and was lost. It would have constituted a most important contribution to the literature of practical medicine, as it was doubtless an anticipation of the subsequent researches of Watson and Bouillaud on the same subject. He also wrote an essay on Ophthalmia.

At a later period (1790) he inquired very carefully into the nature of tubercular deposits, which he believed to be allied or analogous to hydatid formations. He also investigated the anatomy and pathology of the lymphatic system. In reference to this subject, and further to elucidate it, he had recourse to comparative anatomy and pathology. Some of his earliest views on the formation of tubercles in the lungs, were communicated to Dr Beddoes, and were published by the latter in his work on Fucititious Airs. They were also made public in a more mature form by Dr Baron, his intimate friend and biographer, in his two works, the one On the nature of Tubercular Accretions on Serous Membranes (1819), and the other, Illustrations of the Inquiry respecting Tuberculous Diseases, published in 1822.

Perhaps this is the best place to mention another question in practical medicine which occupied Jenner's attention, although at a later period. A curious custom, apparently indigenous, has been noticed in various districts of Great Britain and Ireland—namely, the dipping or immersion in water, by a regular "professor," of a person attacked with hydrophobia, with a view to cure. The vale of Gloucester was a "dipping country;" and, as Jenner remarks in one of his letters, Pyrton Passage, four miles from Berkeley, has been noted for the practice for time immemorial. His thoughts, therefore, had not been idle, and he wished to see how far the practice could be supported by analogy, by getting some vaccinated person dipped within a few days after the insertion of the lymph.

It was at the medical societies just referred to that Jenner was accustomed to bring forward the reported prophylactic virtues of cow-pox, and to strenuously recommend the subject as one well deserving inquiry. Although he received no encouragement from his medical friends, he often recurred to the subject, until at last he was threatened with expulsion as an impudicible bore.

The vale of Gloucester was favourable to geological research, and Jenner was not the man to neglect the advantages it offered. His correspondence with John Hunter often refers to organic remains. He was within reach of the principal oolitic series and the lias formation, both rich in fossils. Of these he made a large collection. But he was also busy at the same time with pharmaceutical chemistry, and in particular he instituted experiments with the view of producing tartar emetic more uniform in its composition, and, therefore, in its medicinal action, than that which commerce supplied. The description of his process is published in the first volume (1793) of the Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Medical Knowledge, having been communicated to that society by John Hunter.

In 1783 Montgolfier made public the result of his first experiment in aerostation. Jenner was much interested in it, and having constructed a balloon, had it filled with hydrogen gas in the hall of Berkeley Castle.

This was not the only instance of the versatility of his studies, for, in 1787, we find him writing to Sir Joseph Banks a letter in which, amongst other matters, he gives a detailed account of his experiments with artificial manures. Agricultural pursuits occupied his attention from time to time during the rest of his life.

His paper on the Cuckoo was one of his most carefully elaborated essays, and was finally read to the Royal Society 10th March 1788, and printed in the Philosophical Trans-

Jenner had spent portions of several years and much labour in the collection of the facts contained in it. It explained the habits of the cuckoo very satisfactorily, and has always been considered as a model of accurate investigation. His Observations on the Migrations of Birds, read to the Royal Society, Nov. 27, 1823, may be classed with this paper on the cuckoo.

The domestic incidents of Jenner's life at this period were important to him and to his future career; but not otherwise remarkable. In 1778 he experienced a disappointment in his affections. For several years after he still felt mortified and miserable on account of it, for, in one of his letters dated 1783, he complains that still the same dead weight hangs upon his heart, and expresses the pleasure with which he could "see an end of this silly dream of life." On the 6th March 1788, ten years after his disappointment, he was married to Catherine Kingscote, of an ancient Gloucestershire family.

In 1793 Jenner was deeply affected by the death of John Hunter. Already in 1777 Hunter had had an attack of the disease that was ultimately to destroy him; but it was Jenner's affectionate and anxious attention to his symptoms which at that time enabled him to detect its true nature. In 1778 he wrote out, but did not send, a letter to Dr Heberden, giving his opinion as to the nature of John Hunter's illness (Angina pectoris) and his reasons for entertaining it. The examination after death fully established the correctness of Jenner's views.

In 1792 Jenner determined to give up the general practice of his profession, and practise as a physician only. With this view he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from St Andrew's.

In 1795 he commenced his professional visits to Cheltenham (which he continued for many years), it being obvious that Berkeley could never support a physician. In the spring of this year he had performed his first vaccination, and was preparing to bring the results of his investigation before the public. In the year 1798 he published the Inquiry, being his first work on the subject. Henceforth the immortal name of Jenner was to be identified with vaccination. It will be necessary, however, to return to the earlier years of Jenner's life if we would trace the gradual development of the idea which was ultimately to confer such incalculable benefits upon the whole human race for so long as variola, or small-pox, shall infest it.

It was while Jenner was yet an apprentice at Sudbury that his mind was first directed to the study of cow-pox. A young countrywoman came one day to his master's house to seek advice; small-pox happened to be mentioned in her hearing, and she remarked, "I cannot take that disease, for I have had cow-pox." It was the first time that the popular notion had been fairly brought before Jenner's mind, and it rivetted his attention. He resolved to let no opportunity of acquiring knowledge on so interesting a subject escape him. When, in 1770, he went to London, he repeatedly mentioned the circumstance to John Hunter, who made Jenner's opinions, and the popular notions of Gloucestershire, known both to his class and in conversation. Other lecturers made mention of them also.

About 1775 Jenner began to examine more particularly into the truth of the popular notions; but it was not until 1780 that he could report satisfactory progress. He had first to get at the natural history of the various forms of varioloid eruptions, such as swine-pox, chicken-pox, and spurious cow-pox, and to determine the distinguishing characteristics of each. Both numerous experiments and extended observations were required, with few opportunities for either; he did not, therefore, hesitate to experiment on his own and only son. When the child was a year and a half old he inoculated him for swine-pox successfully, and at six different periods shortly after he inocu- Jenner lated him with variola, without the slightest inflammation resulting. It was only after repeated experiments that he ascertained it was only in a certain state of the pustule that the virus of the cow-pox imparted a protecting condition; taken otherwise, there might be local inflammation of a peculiar character induced, but it gave no protection. In 1787 he had already come to the conclusion that the vesicular inflammation of the horse's heel, termed "grease," was varioloid. In 1788 he took with him to London a drawing of the casual vaccination as seen on the hands of the milker, and showed it to Sir Everard Home, Mr Clive, and others. Hitherto, however, he had only observed the casual disease, and the various epizootic forms; he had not communicated it from human being to human being.

The 14th of May 1796 is the date given by Jenner as that on which he vaccinated James Phipps, a healthy boy about eight years old, with lymph taken from the hand of Sarah Nelmes, a maid-servant who had been infected by her master's cow. On July 19th following, he announced the success of the experiment to his friend Gardiner, adding, "But now listen to the most delightful part of my story,—the boy has since been inoculated for the smallpox, which, as I ventured to predict, produced no effect." Phipps lived to be inoculated twenty times for small-pox, and equally at each time without effect. In October 1818 Dr Baron found Jenner planning a cottage for Phipps (whose health was much impaired), which was built, and its little garden laid out and stocked with roses from his own shrubbery, under his personal superintendence.

It was not until the spring of 1790 that the opportunity was again afforded him of resuming his researches, for the cow-pox disappeared from the dairies. In the meanwhile (1787) he made many efforts to generate the virus from the heel of the horse, but in vain. He had also completed his Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variola Vaccine, which was published in the summer of 1798. The second edition came out in 1800, and the third in 1801.

Before he published his Inquiry, Jenner thought it prudent to go to London, and there demonstrate the truth of his delineations and assertions by performing vaccination himself. With all his efforts and the efforts of his friends, not one individual could be persuaded to submit to the operation; and, after a fruitless stay of three months in London, Jenner left it for Berkeley, his patience exhausted.

Jenner's announcement of his discovery was received as such announcements usually are. The sanguine and benevolent set no bound to their anticipations; the envious and narrow-minded did not fail to deride and condemn the practice. But, upon the whole, it had a favourable reception, and researches were instituted in various directions to confirm and develop it.

From the date of the publication of his Inquiry, Jenner may be said to have become a public character; for he was mixed up, more or less, with all the proceedings instituted in his own country to apply the discovery to practical uses, and had at the same time a world-wide correspondence with foreign lands. The history of vaccination will have a separate consideration (see Vaccination), so that the incidents in the life of Jenner need only be mentioned here.

Jenner soon had to meet his opponents in controversy. The earliest of these was Ingenhousz, a distinguished German physician, and the confidential adviser of the royal family of Austria. Jenner tried to meet his objections, but an imperial physician felt it rather humiliating to retract an error; so that, finding him altogether intractable, Jenner published, on April 5, 1799, the explanations he had given to him under the title of Further Observations on the Variola Vaccine.

Jenner's worst opponents were not, however, the avowed antagonists. Like all men in his position, he had secret foes acting the part of candid friends, or invidious men, covetous of his probable fame, and scheming to appropriate it to themselves. Such an one was Dr Pearson, who, so early as Nov. 8, 1798, published a pamphlet in defence of vaccination; in which, however, he undertook to set Jenner right by his "own reasoning;" while, diplomatically, he hinted to Jenner privately that the principal facts (which he acknowledged) would be better established by his not uniformly acceding to all Jenner's doctrine. Pearson cooperated with Dr Woodville, physician to the Small-pox Hospital; and when Jenner went to London, in March 1799, he found that they had already vaccinated 200 persons; but, unfortunately, they were ignorantly using a contaminated varioloid virus, and sending it about the country as the true vaccine lymph. These proceedings greatly discouraged Jenner. He therefore published, in this year (1800), a Continuation of Facts and Observations relative to the Variola Vaccine; in which, with much moderation and accuracy, he investigated the facts and arguments of Woodville and Pearson.

Pearson had soon thrown off the mask, for, hardly had Jenner left London (in the summer of 1799), than, without a word to the latter, he began to scheme the establishment of a Vaccine Institution, in which he, and not Jenner, was to occupy the most conspicuous position.

It was very obvious that the time had arrived for the establishment of some system of co-operation and mutual support amongst the true friends of vaccination. The whole weight of defending and extending the practice could no longer, with any propriety, be left wholly to Jenner, as hitherto. But Jenner felt that his experience was all important and ought to have a predominant influence in any public vaccine institution. We therefore find him in London in March 1800, communicating proposals to Lord Egremont for an institution of the kind. He at the same time secured the warm support of the Duke of York (who at first leaned to Pearson), in the first instance, and next of the Duke of Clarence, the King and Queen, the Prince of Wales, and other members of the royal family. Indeed, all his best friends rallied round him on this occasion. His scheme was not, however, carried into effect by the establishment of the Royal Jennerian Society until three years afterwards.

During this year the Count de la Roque translated the Inquiry into the French language, three editions of which translation were exhausted in less than seven months. On the 3d May 1801 the Madrid Gazette announced a translation into Spanish, and about the same time there appeared another by Dr Davids into the Dutch. Jenner's time was now wholly occupied with the correspondence which poured in upon him from all quarters, and with the arrangements necessary for transmitting lymph to the various countries from which he had applications for it. As he himself said, he was the vaccine clerk of the world. In five years from the date of his first public announcement of his discovery, vaccination had made its way into every civilized country, and was everywhere hailed as an inestimable blessing. Medals, diplomas, and complimentary verses and addresses poured in upon him from every side. He did not, however, neglect home duties, but offered gratuitous vaccination to all the poor who might think right to apply to him on certain fixed days. This practice he continued for the rest of his life. It proved to be particularly laborious whenever an alarm of small-pox took place; on such occasions he would have three hundred persons waiting at his door.

Early in 1801 Jenner published his Account of the Origin of the Vaccine Inoculation. About this time he began to investigate other diseases of animals, and in particular that of dogs known as "the distemper." He believed that vaccination rendered them less susceptible of the disease. In June 1801 he and his nephew, George Jenner, vaccinated about twenty of His Majesty's stag-hounds; and in consequence of this step it became a common practice (as it is JENNER.

Jenner still to vaccinate valuable sporting dogs. A paper by Jenner on the distemper, together with an account of two cases of small-pox communicated to the fetus in utero, was published in vol. i. of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions (1809).

In October of this year (1801) vaccine lymph reached Moscow at the time of the coronation of the Emperor Alexander. On the 10th August 1802, the Empress Dowager sent Jenner a most gracious and complimentary letter signed by herself, accompanying it with a valuable diamond ring. Towards the close of this year his friends in his native county of Gloucester, presented Jenner, in gratitude for his services, with a small service of plate bearing appropriate devices and inscription.

In the year 1802 the first parliamentary grant was made to Jenner. It was amply merited. He had spent much time as well as toil on his discovery; he had sacrificed great professional advantages; and he had disbursed largely and liberally from his own private fortune, in order to assist in conveying the vaccine lymph and the knowledge of its uses to the most distant countries. He was by no means in independent circumstances, and he had a family and many relatives who looked to him for support. His friends, therefore, warmly urged upon him the propriety of his petitioning Parliament for some remuneration for his services, which he accordingly did on 17th March. It was referred to a committee of which Admiral Berkeley was chairman.

Although Jenner's friends were active, his enemies were not idle. The opportunity now afforded to injure him was seized by Pearson, who endeavoured to lessen the weight of his claims to remuneration by insidiously attempting to show to the committee that vaccine inoculation had been practised before Jenner took it up; and that, although Jenner was the first to promulgate the practice, his opinions were erroneous, and had to be corrected by others, but especially by himself (Pearson) and Woodville. The grant was opposed in the House on very frivolous grounds. Mr Bankes of Corfe Castle thought its first duty was to guard the national purse, and that Jenner ought to have remunerated himself by making a secret of his discovery. The Chancellor of the Exchequer thought the "approbation" of the House was the highest reward that could be given him, inasmuch as it would lead to an extended and very lucrative practice. The proposition for the grant of L10,000 was carried, but only by the narrow majority of three.

Jenner's feelings were deeply wounded by the mode in which the grant was made. He would gladly have repudiated the whole affair. Nor did it add either to his wealth or professional success. It was still unpaid at the end of two years; he was loaded with additional taxation in consequence of it to the amount of L400 a-year; the expenses of his "petition" amounted to nearly L1,000; and when at last the money was paid to him, about L1,000 was withheld on the pretence of fees due. He had, therefore, no pecuniary remuneration for his labours, for the balance left hardly met his expenses out of pocket.

Jenner now thought, however, that he might venture to grapple with the risks and costs of practice in London. Elated and allured (as he himself states) by the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he took a house in Hertford Street, Mayfair, for ten years, at a high rent; but the result of his first year's practice sufficed to show the falsity of the minister's prediction.

His emoluments at this time from vaccination, were not more than L350 per annum. The year 1804 therefore finds Jenner at his own happy home at Berkeley and amongst his old friends at Cheltenham, a poorer man in pocket, but a richer man in this world's wisdom, although somewhat saddened by his disappointments.

It must not be concluded, however, that all was darkness while in London. Early in the year 1803 the Royal Jennerian Society was established, according to his own plan, under the most favourable circumstances, and in a way as flattering to himself as possible.

On the 3rd February Jenner took his seat for the first time as president of the society, and on the 2d March headed a deputation to the King, to return thanks to his majesty for his patronage of the institution. In order to render due honour to the man whose name it bore, the members resolved to celebrate the anniversary of the Royal Jennerian Society on Jenner's birth-day, May 17; and, accordingly, the first festival took place this year on that day,—Lord Egremont in the chair.

At the close of 1803 Jenner had the first opportunity of exercising that influence with foreign governments which his discoveries and character had secured him. The sudden breaking out of the war, after the peace of America, found many of our countrymen in France, who, as is well known, were most unjustly prevented leaving that country. Jenner applied to General Andreossi in favour of some of these, but he also tried his influence with the National Institute of France (with which he had already corresponded) on behalf of Lord Yarmouth as well as others. In February 1803 he addressed a letter to Napoleon himself, requesting permission for "two men of science and literature" (Dr Wickham, one of the Ratcliffe travelling Fellows of Oxford, and Mr Williams) to return to England. It was on this or some similar occasion that Napoleon, being about to reject the petition, heard Josephine utter the name of Jenner. The Emperor paused for an instant, and exclaimed, "Jenner! ah, we can refuse nothing to that man." He subsequently made other applications to Napoleon, each with the like success. In 1808 he interfered in a similar way, and as successfully, with the Spanish government for the release of an English gentleman from ten years' confinement in a Mexican fortress. By direct application to the Emperor of Austria, he served the son of Sir John Sinclair. In fact, about this time his name was so potent and his influence so well known, that persons left England with certificates signed by him, which had all the force and value of real passports. The document stated the objects of their travels, whether in pursuit of health, science, or other affairs not connected with war, and seems to have availed the bearer.

Jenner once or twice applied to the British government on behalf of French prisoners in England, but unhappily all his efforts were fruitless. He was not allowed to exercise any influence in that quarter. Nor was he permitted to share in the least degree in the vast patronage at the disposal of the government. He never succeeded in procuring an appointment for any of his relatives or friends. All his attempts to get a living for his nephew George had failed, although he applied where he was quite justified in thinking he should meet with attention and success. He felt this neglect acutely.

Jenner had derived little, if any, pecuniary benefit from the parliamentary grant of L10,000, and his friends became anxious about his private affairs, for he was not remarkable for worldly wisdom. At their instance, a subscription was set on foot in India, where the benefit of Jenner's discovery had been largely experienced and gratefully acknowledged. In 1806 he received L3000 from Calcutta as the result of this movement, with an intimation that L1000 more would shortly follow; but the full amount of the Eastern acknowledgment did not reach him until 1812. Bengal sent L4000, Bombay L2000, Madras L1383.

The Marquis of Lansdowne (then Lord Henry Petty), was a principal mover in Jenner's second parliamentary grant. Happily for Jenner, and the credit of Great Britain, that enlightened nobleman was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer at this juncture; and in the session of 1806 he brought the question of vaccination before the House of Commons. In the first instance, however, it was referred to the College of Physicians of London, who, having inquired into it, reported that a body of evidence so large, so temperate, and so consistent, such as was that collected in support of vaccination, was never before advanced in support of any medical question. In the following year (29th July 1807), Jenner's claims were brought forward in parliament by Mr Spencer Percival. The report of the College of Physicians afforded the grounds on which he moved that a sum not exceeding £10,000 be voted to Jenner, free of all fees and charges. Lord Henry Petty, Mr Windham, and Mr Whitbread, warmly advocated Jenner's claims; and Mr Edward Morris, member for Newport (Cornwall), influenced entirely by the weight of the evidence, moved that £20,000 be granted instead of £10,000. On a division, there were 60 for, and 43 against, the motion.

It could hardly be expected that no opposition whatever would be offered, and, accordingly, the dissentients found a mouth-piece in Mr Shaw Lefevre, who adopted the usual line of argument on occasions of the kind. He first attempted to depreciate the value of vaccination and the merit of the discovery, and next to depreciate Jenner's merit as the discoverer, arguing, in fact, that he was not the discoverer. Happily for the credit of the nation, these arguments failed in their intended effect.

Jenner did not cease his researches during this long period. In 1804 he published in the Medical and Physical Journal (vol. xii.), a paper on the Varieties and Modifications of the Vaccine Pustule; and, in 1805, his Facts on the Variolous Contagion. The progress of vaccination abroad was uninterrupted; at home, prejudices were active. Sir Isaac Pennington, the Reader in Physic at Cambridge, opposed it, and thus countenanced the unprincipled, rancorous, and ignorant opposition of practitioners like Moseley, Rowley, Squirrel, &c. These men pandered to and excited the popular feeling so much, that the question was seriously discussed in a popular debating society of the day. "Which has proved a more striking instance of public credulity—the Gas-lights of James Windsor, or the Cow-pox Inoculation?"

But petty feelings were operative also in higher quarters. The Royal Jennerian Society having failed to accomplish the objects for which it was founded, Jenner laboured hard to secure the national support to vaccination; and, in 1808, the National Vaccine Establishment was determined on. Its organization was entrusted to the College of Physicians of London; and, in the first instance, the propriety of Jenner exercising a predominant influence in the working of the institution was fully acknowledged by that corporation. After remaining in London for five months, with no other object than the efficient organization of the institution, family affairs obliged Jenner to go into Gloucestershire. Hardly had he departed when Sir Lucas Pepys, the president, formed the board out of officials of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. Jenner was altogether excluded. This was a hard trial to him.

The Royal College of Physicians of London has never been distinguished for its magnanimity. It could enter into the fruits of Jenner's labours without compunction; and, consistently with itself, it afterwards refused him the compliment of its honorary Fellowship. In 1813 Jenner was presented by the University of Oxford with the honorary degree of M.D., and his friends thought it a favourable occasion to confer upon him the title of Fellow of the College of Physicians. The Fellowship at that time could only be conferred on graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, while hitherto the only British diploma held by Jenner was the then not very distinguished diploma of M.D. of St Andrews, for at that time it was one of the most venal of the Scottish universities. Now, however, Oxford nobly did her duty, and, in confirming the degree of M.D. on Jenner, enhanced the greatness of the compliment by assuring him that it was an honour which had not been conferred on any man for nearly seventy years before. Jenner replied, that he was the first of a long line of ancestors who was not educated there. But he added, "It is better perhaps as it is, especially as I have arrived at your highest honours without complying with your ordinary rules and discipline." He then reluctantly put on the accustomed academic gown and cap.

The example of Oxford was wholly lost, however, upon the College of Physicians of London. Jenner was at this time a fellow or member of twenty-six medical or scientific societies, including the Royal Societies of London and Göttingen, the French Institute, the Royal Academies of Munich, Madrid, Stockholm, the University of Cambridge (Massachusetts), and of Wilna, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and the like. He had been formally presented with the freedom of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, and of various other towns and burghs; and the most distant nations and peoples venerated his name. He had, in short, won for himself the highest position ever attained in the medical profession, in any age or nation. But all this was of no account to the few individuals who constituted the governing body of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Edward Jenner could only be admitted into their body on undergoing the usual examination. This, however, was essentially classical; the examination, as to professional knowledge, was conducted in the Latin tongue, and was of a simply formal character; but, as a further test of sound knowledge, the candidate translated portions of Hippocrates and Arctaus out of the original Greek. It is doubtful whether half-a-dozen of the Fellows of the same age as Jenner, now sixty-four years old, could have passed this mere classical examination without going back to the studies of their boyhood; yet this was what, in effect, they required Jenner at that age to do. He, on his part, expressed his opinion very characteristically, "I would not do it for a dialeum," he said,—"that would be a bauble—I would not do it for John Hunter's museum!"

In April 1814 Jenner paid his last visit to London. He had several interviews with the Duchess of Oldenberg, who delighted him exceedingly. She was also present at his interview with her brother the Emperor of Russia. Most of the distinguished foreigners wished to know him personally. The King of Prussia was the first crowned head who adopted the practice of vaccination in his own family. Jenner having sent the lymph for that purpose in 1799; he sent a respectful intimation of the time he would see Jenner. He had interviews also with Blucher, Platoff, and most of the distinguished foreigners then in London.

In September 1815 his faithful and beloved wife died. This loss he felt most acutely. He retired immediately to Berkeley, and never again quitted it, except for a day or two. From 1815, the remaining years of Jenner's life were passed in such occupations as befitted a physician, a naturalist, a magistrate, and a man whose life was rapidly drawing to a close. Acknowledgments of his great services still, however, reached him from time to time. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Bavaria late in 1814. In 1818 it was proposed that a medal of him should be struck at Paris, as one of the series "Des hommes illustres de tous les Pays;" and in 1821 he was appointed physician-extraordinary to the king. During these later years he followed up the thoughts and views of his earlier lifetime. In 1817 he traced the equine virus experimentally for the last time, and demonstrated its prophylactic power against variola. In 1818, and following years, his thoughts were much occupied with an extensive epidemic of small-pox, often assuming a spurious or imperfect form. Numerous were the reported failures of vaccination in that and subsequent years, so that Jenner's attention was directed anew to the subject. For some time before his death he was employed in reviewing his opinions and comparing them with the numerous facts he had collected from all parts of the world, and it was his intention to have published a digest of the whole. It was probably with a view to the fulfillment of this plan that he sent out a Circular Letter early in 1821 to the most respectable practitioners in the kingdom, with questions as to the progress of the vaccine vesicle, the influence of herpetic and other eruptions upon it, and the number of cases of smallpox after vaccination. This circular was followed in 1822 by his last published essay, A Letter to Charles H. Parry, M.D., on the Influence of Artificial Eruptions in certain Diseases. His last scientific researches were read to the Royal Society 27th November 1823, being Observations on the Migrations of Birds.

During his later years, when resident at Berkeley, Jenner acted constantly as a magistrate. He could not but see that the peasantry were not fairly treated. They were oppressed by the poor-laws, and they were taught nothing—neither the laws of their country, nor of their God. The nature of his magisterial duties are shown in one of his letters written to Mr Moore (the brother of General Moore) of the date of 1813. He remarks—"How you would enjoy seeing me in the exercise of my magisterial powers, dealing out lessons of morality to the poor unfortunate daughters of vaccina, when exhibiting their untimely prominences. I bring them all to the altar with their swains if I can."

Jenner had had several attacks of illness during his life, but he attained to a good old age. On the 6th August 1820, when in his seventy-second year, while walking in his garden, he became suddenly faint and giddy, and appears to have lost his consciousness. It was a premonition of the disease that was to terminate his life; for, although there was no paralysis, and not much indication of serious mischief in the brain, the latter organ had evidently been the seat of the attack. On the 24th January 1823, he was busily engaged in his professional avocations and his customary acts of kindness and charity. On the 25th January he arose as usual, and went into his library. Not appearing at breakfast, the servant went to ascertain the cause of his delay, and found that his master had sunk from his couch and was lying on the floor insensible. The right side was paralysed, and he was in a state of apoplectic coma, in which he continued until his death, a few hours after, on January 26, 1823, at 3 o'clock in the morning.

A public subscription for a monument to Jenner was set on foot shortly after his death, but only two public bodies subscribed; the College of Physicians of Edinburgh gave L.50, and the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, L.10. After considerable difficulty there was raised sufficient to place a statue of Jenner by Sievier in the nave of the cathedral at Gloucester. Another attempt was made in the year 1850 to erect a monument by public subscription, but that seems to have failed also. The warmest interest was on this occasion shown by the United States.

The character of Edward Jenner is soon delineated. He was an English gentleman, with a liberal and professional education. Rural scenes and domestic life he loved best, and for these he repeatedly sacrificed wider fields of energy than a village in England afforded. And even when a world-wide fame became his, he wished that fame had been the lot of another man, because it deprived him of "his peace and quietness." The delight of his heart was ever his own village home, and the routine of his rural life. With a genial temper, high moral tone, cultivated tastes, a turn for poetry, and access to the best society, it was not surprising that he was likened to such English worthies, as honest Isaac Walton, the pious Evelyn, and the melancholy Cowper. But, perhaps, these qualities were not favourable to the full evolution of his intellectual powers or to grand labours. The discovery of vaccination was due, in the first instance, rather to an impulse of his youth than an effort of his intellect. Afterwards his large benevolence sustained his efforts, for he fully appreciated the great and enduring benefits that discovery would confer upon the whole human race. If he finally felt a pride and deep personal interest in its promulgation, as his own discovery, the feelings were just.

His large benevolence was constantly shown in various ways, and has been already illustrated in the preceding pages. He loved to gratify the lowly in rank by his personal attention, and especially by his grace and condescension; to seek out and help genius struggling with poverty; to set on foot or support any plan for advancing science; or any institution having good for its object. His affections were of the warmest; his sensibilities acute. Hence his ardent love of wife and child, and his sympathies with the suffering, the gentle, and the lowly. Hence, also, the peculiar delicacy of his perceptions in all that regarded the grace and dignity of the female character.

Jenner's intellect was hardly inferior in power to the intellect of his master, John Hunter. But there was this difference between the men, that Hunter had few of those graces of character which made Jenner so pleasing in society. Hunter devoted, therefore, less time to the pleasures of social intercourse, and became more and more an enthusiast in the study of life and organization. Jenner's position in a country village, and his pursuits as a country surgeon, did not favour this entire devotion; but, on the contrary, prevented it, inasmuch as it threw the temptation of social enjoyment in his way. As a naturalist, Jenner took a high rank, and he would have shone as a pathologist had a proper sphere of action been open to him. He had large powers of observation, but a peculiar horror of arithmetic, and no taste for any of the branches of pure science. The descendant of a line of English clergymen, a tinge of piety would seem to be almost of necessity a part of Jenner's character. But he had evidently more than this; a spirit of religion seemed to be infused into all he did. Piety was so much a part of his nature, that it was habitual with him—yet, unostentatiously, and especially without that loud and suspicious profession of religion so frequently associated with an imperfect manifestation of the Christian grace of charity. Jenner appears to have habitually and constantly felt that he was always in the presence of God.

Although Jenner's temper was genial and gay in society, he was subject through life to fits of melancholy; in this respect resembling men of similar organization. He seems, too, to have been somewhat sensitive as to his claims to distinction, and to have had an excessive love of approbation. Among the last words he addressed to Dr Baron, his biographer, were these, "I am not surprised that men are not thankful to me." And when at an earlier date the Emperor Alexander of Russia said to him, "I am happy to think that you have received the thanks, the applause, and the gratitude of the world;" Jenner said, "he had received the thanks and the applause, but not the gratitude." Undoubtedly, the practice of vaccination was opposed in the time of Jenner (as it is yet) by the perverse, the ignorant, and the prejudiced; equally certain is it, that the opposition to it was conducted as now in the vulgar and brutal manner which such a class of opponents would necessarily manifest. But, on the other hand, few of the good and great throughout the world withheld their support. No large work of humanity was indeed ever more universally appreciated and welcomed. The parliamentary grants were, certainly, by no means commensurate with the benefits the discovery of vaccination had conferred and would confer. Jenner ought to have had a larger professional recompense; and if he had aimed at wealth, he might undoubtedly have acquired it by his discovery. But then to this end he should have made the promulgation of it a commercial, and not a philanthro-