narratives, and how a few hasty experiments enveloped in unverifiable conjecture and gossip, came to be magnified into years of arduous research. He wound up his statement with this flourish and prediction The distrust and scepticism which naturally arose in the minds of medical men, on my first announcing so unexpected a discovery, has now nearly disappeared. Many hundreds of them from actual experience, have given their attestations that the inoculated Cowpox proves a perfect security against the Smallpox; and I shall probably be within compass if I say thousands are ready to follow their example; for the scope that this Inoculation has now taken is immense. An hundred thousand persons, upon the smallest computation, have been inoculated in these realms. [May, 1801.] The numbers who have partaken of its benefits throughout Europe and other parts of the globe are incalculable; and it now becomes too manifest to admit of controversy, that the annihilation of the Smallpox, the most dreadful scourge of the human species, must be the final result of this practice. For the end designed to establish and exalt a claim with the purpose of exacting corresponding recompense, the Origin of the Vaccine Inoculation was an adroitly drawn document: its veracity is a different matter. A just man, not to say a generous, would have had some praise for Pearson, Woodville, and others to whom the extension of the New Inoculation was due; but Jenner was essentially a mean spirit; and for him to have stated his case truly would have been to jeopardise "the fond hope of enjoying independence." CHAPTER X. JENNER BEFORE PARLIAMENT, 1802. JENNER was timid and indolent, and, though eager for reward, required much prompting to use the means to the end on which his heart was set. He wrote to Lord Sherborne to speak for him to Prime Minister Addington; but Sherborne replied, 23rd April, 1801, that he did not assigning it to a season when he alone was in the field. Referring to his separation of true from spurious Cowpox, he thus prosecuted his raid This impediment to my progress was not long removed before another, of far greater magnitude in appearance, started up. There were not wanting instances to prove that when the true Cowpox broke out among the cattle at a dairy, the person who had milked an infected animal, and had thereby gone through the disease in common with others, was liable to receive the Smallpox afterwards. This, like the former obstacle, gave a painful check to my fond and aspiring hopes; but reflecting that the operations of Nature are generally uniform, and that it was not probable the human constitution (having undergone the Cowpox) should in some instances be perfectly shielded from the Smallpox, and in many others remain unprotected, I resumed my labours with redoubled ardour. The result was fortunate; for I now discovered that the virus of Cowpox was liable to undergo progressive changes from the same cause precisely as that of Smallpox, and that when it was applied to the human skin in its degenerated state, it would produce the ulcerated effects in as great a degree as when it was not decomposed, and sometimes far greater; but having lost its specific properties, it was incapable of producing that change upon the human frame which is requisite to render it insusceptible of the variolous contagion so that it became evident a person might milk a Cow one day, and having caught the disease, be for ever secure; while another person, milking the same Cow the next day, might feel the influence of the virus in such a way as to produce a sore, or sores, and, in consequence of this, might experience an indisposition to a considerable extent; yet, as has been observed, the specific quality being lost, the constitution would receive no peculiar impression. This observation will fully explain the source of those errors which have been committed by many inoculators of the Cowpox. Conceiving the whole process to be extremely simple, as not to admit of a mistake, they have been heedless about the state of the Vaccine Virus; and finding it limpid, as part of it will be, even in an advanced state of the pustule, they have felt an improper confidence, and sometimes mistaken a spurious pustule for that which possesses the perfect character. No one apparently thought it worth while to expose the fictitious character of these statements, invented by Jenner to justify his pretensions and to battle objections. Any careful reader of the Inquiry of 1798, and the Origin of Vaccine Inoculation of 1801, cannot fail to perceive the radical inconsistency of the earlier and later narratives, and how a few hasty experiments enveloped in unverifiable conjecture and gossip, came to be magnified into years of arduous research. He wound up his statement with this flourish and prediction The distrust and scepticism which naturally arose in the minds of medical men, on my first announcing so unexpected a discovery, has now nearly disappeared. Many hundreds of them from actual experience, have given their attestations that the inoculated Cowpox proves a perfect security against the Smallpox; and I shall probably be within compass if I say thousands are ready to follow their example; for the scope that this Inoculation has now taken is immense. An hundred thousand persons, upon the smallest computation, have been inoculated in these realms. [May, 1801.] The numbers who have partaken of its benefits throughout Europe and other parts of the globe are incalculable; and it now becomes too manifest to admit of controversy, that the annihilation of the Smallpox, the most dreadful scourge of the human species, must be the final result of this practice. For the end designed to establish and exalt a claim with the purpose of exacting corresponding recompense, the Origin of the Vaccine Inoculation was an adroitly drawn document: its veracity is a different matter. A just man, not to say a generous, would have had some praise for Pearson, Woodville, and others to whom the extension of the New Inoculation was due; but Jenner was essentially a mean spirit; and for him to have stated his case truly would have been to jeopardise "the fond hope of enjoying independence." CHAPTER X. JENNER BEFORE PARLIAMENT, 1802. JENNER was timid and indolent, and, though eager for reward, required much prompting to use the means to the end on which his heart was set. He wrote to Lord Sherborne to speak for him to Prime Minister Addington; but Sherborne replied, 23rd April, 1801, that he did not know Addington even by sight. He would however try to see Mr. Pitt, adding for encouragement and direction— If patriot Grattan gets £50,000 for his patriotism, the true patriot Jenner deserves more: I am sure not less; and less would be perfectly shabby to think of. I perfectly recollect Grattan's business. It was settled among his friends to propose £100,000 for him, determining to ask enough; and fearing that sum would not be granted, one of his particular friends was to get up afterwards and propose £50,000, which was immediately granted, and he took £47,500 for prompt payment. Action had to be taken, and on 9th December, 1801, Jenner went to London to prepare a petition_to_the House of Commons and to canvass for support. Even at the last moment, Wilberforce had to warn him, 24th February, 1802, that no time was to be lost, or he would lose his chance for the year. After prolonged consultation with those accustomed to such business, the petition was got ready, and on 17th March, 1802, it was presented to the House of Commons. The humble Petition of EDWARD JENNER, Doctor of Physic, SHEWETH, That your Petitioner having discovered that a disease which occasionally exists in a particular form among cattle, known by the name of the Cowpox, admits of being inoculated on the human frame with the most perfect ease and safety, and is attended with the singularly beneficial effect of rendering through life the persons so inoculated perfectly secure from the infection of the Smallpox. That your Petitioner after a most attentive and laborious investigation of the subject, setting aside considerations of private and personal advantage, and anxious to promote the safety and welfare of his Countrymen and of Mankind in general, did not wish to conceal the Discovery he so made of the mode of conducting this new species of Inoculation, but immediately disclosed the whole to the public; and by communication with medical men in all parts of this Kingdom, and in Foreign Countries, sedulously endeavoured to spread the knowledge of his discovery and the benefit of his labours as widely as possible. That in this latter respect the views and wishes of your Petitioner have been completely fulfilled; for to his high gratification he has to say that this Inoculation is in practice throughout a great proportion of the civilised world, and has in particular been productive of great advantage to these Kingdoms, in consequence of its being introduced, under authority, into the Army and Navy. That the said Inoculation hath already checked the progress of the Smallpox, and from its nature must finally annihilate that dreadful disorder. That the series of experiments by which this discovery was developed and completed have not only occupied a considerable portion of your Petitioner's life, and have not merely been a cause of great expense and anxiety to him, but have so interrupted him in the ordinary exercise of his profession as materially to abridge its pecuniary advantages without their being counter balanced by those derived from the new practice. Your Petitioner, therefore, with the full persuasion that he shall meet with that attention and indulgence of which this Honourable House may deem him worthy, humbly prays this Honourable House to take the premises into consideration, and to grant him such remuneration as to their wisdom shall seem meet. Patriot Grattan asked for £100,000, was awarded £50,000, and took £47,500: "true patriot Jenner deserves more," said Lord Sherborne; but Jenner had not courage for the demand. What, however, was undefined in cash was made up for in pretension. As we read Jenner's petition we note (1) the Discovery; (2) its Disclosure and Diffusion; (3) the Expense thereby incurred; and (4) the Prophecies; and under these heads it is to be observed 1. It was no discovery of Jenner's that cowpox was inoculable and preventive of smallpox. That was a rural superstition. Nor, be it again repeated, did he ever become responsible for that rural superstition. Recognising its futility, he deliberately set it aside, and recommended a disease of the horse, transmitted through the cow, for inoculation. It was Pearson, who disliking Jenner's prescription, brought cowpox into vogue; whereon Jenner, fearing that he might be cut out of the enterprise, dropped his specific, adopted the cowpox he had rejected, and claimed Pearson's work as the development of his own. 2. That he disclosed his discovery was true, but it was not the discovery set forth in the petition. Moreover the merit of disclosure in such a case is measured by the advantage of concealment; and what could Jenner have taken by concealment? The conditions of successful |