When it was further said, that experiments in Vaccine Inoculation had occupied twenty years of Jenner’s life, that they had cost him £6000, and that he had surrendered a practice of £600 a year in the populous neighbourhood of Berkeley for the public benefit—he would not trust himself to characterise the allegations.
His own position, Pearson thus defined—
I have admitted that Dr. Jenner first set on foot the inquiry into the advantages of Vaccine Inoculation; but I apprehend that the practice has been established almost entirely by other practitioners; and that his new facts, or which I consider to be new, have been, in my opinion, disproved by subsequent observers; and that in consequence of those facts being disproved, together with the very ample experiences of other persons, we owe the present extensive practice of the Vaccine Inoculation.
Pearson further indicated on what conditions he would have been satisfied to see Jenner rewarded—
A much more dignified and more just ground of claim, and an equally favourable one for remuneration, would have been in terms denoting that the Petitioner had proposed a new kind of Inoculation, and actually furnished some instances of the success of it, founded upon facts; of which some were brought to light and use, which heretofore had only been locally known to a very small number of persons; and others were discoveries of the Author: further, that in consequence of considerable subsequent investigation, by the Author and others, such a body of evidence had been obtained, and such further facts had been discovered, as demonstrated the advantages of the new practice.
Whilst willing that Jenner should be rewarded, for Woodville and for himself, Pearson wanted nothing: he simply maintained that the judgment of the House of Commons Committee should have recognised the facts of the situation. He observed—
I have some authority for stating that the members of the Committee did not unanimously think such exclusive claims were just. I had some reason to expect that the representation of the Committee in their Report would have been such as to have satisfied the expectations, not exorbitant, of Dr. Woodville and myself; such as would have cost the Petitioner nothing, to wit, a mere acknowledgment of services. The most unqualified and exclusive claims having been decreed, this bounty of course has been withheld, either because it was judged to be not owing, or from some other motive which I will not name; but it is fitting that I disclaim any insinuation of unworthy motives actuating those with whom judgment was invested.
Considering the injustice to which Pearson had been subjected, and the provocation he had received, it is impossible to refrain from admiration of the serene and impartial temper in which he composed his Examination. Had he sat as judge between Jenner and himself, he could not have stated the case with greater accuracy and absence of bias. He fell into no exaggeration; he indulged in no sarcasm; he descended to no abuse. He set forth the incidents of the New Inoculation with the imperial simplicity and dignity of truth. Where others had gone crazed, he preserved some degree of sanity. He held it to be premature to proclaim the extinction of Smallpox, or to say with Jenner that reports of failure and injury from inoculated Cowpox were beneath contempt. It was only time and experience that could warrant such absolute assertion and prediction.
It is said that in hurricanes of panic or enthusiasm, wise men go home and keep quiet until the sky clears, resistance being folly. For immediate effect resistance may be folly, but the protest of truth is sometimes imperative, whatever the disposition of the mob. Pearson took little at the time by his Examination: it entered into far too many details for general apprehension; and it was convenient to account for his opposition as due to jealousy and envy. Jenner attempted no reply, and assumed profound disdain. His silence was judicious, but it was not from disdain.