It is curious how evidence conforms to prepossession. Dr. Pearson and his associates were persuaded that as no one could have Smallpox twice, neither could any one have Cowpox twice. Jesty had Cowpox when young, and when at three score they found him insusceptible, they took it for granted that re-vaccination was impossible. Robert Jesty, who had Cowpox thirty-one years before was at the same time inoculated with Smallpox, and as that likewise failed to take, the experiment enforced the desired conclusion.
Having turned out so well, praise and portraiture were bestowed on Jesty—
The circumstances in which Mr. Jesty purposely instituted the Vaccine Pock Inoculation in his own family, namely, without any precedent, but merely from reasoning upon the nature of the affection among cows, and from knowing its effects in the casual way among men, his exemption from the prevailing popular prejudices, and his disregard of the clamorous reproaches of his neighbours, will entitle him, in our opinion, to the respect of the public for his superior strength of mind. Further, his conduct in again furnishing such decisive proofs of the permanent anti-variolous efficacy of the Cowpock, in the present [1805] discontented state of mind in many families, by submitting to Inoculation, justly claims at least the gratitude of the country.
As a testimony of our personal regard, and to commemorate so extraordinary a fact as that of preventing the Smallpox by inoculating for the Cowpock 31 years ago, at our request, a three-quarter length picture of Mr. Jesty is painted by that excellent artist, Mr. Sharp, to be preserved at the Original Vaccine Pock Institution.
| Geo. Pearson, | } | Physicians. | Fras. Rivers, | } | Visiting Apothecaries. |
| Law. Nihell, | } | Ev. A. Brande, | } | ||
| Thos. Nelson, | } | Ph. De Bruyn, | } | ||
| T. Keate, | } | Consulting Surgeons. | John Heaviside, | } | Treasurers. |
| T. Foster, | } | Thomas Payne, | } | ||
| J. C. Carpue, | } | Surgeons. | William Sancho, | Secretary. | |
| J. Doratt, | } |
6th September, 1805.
In the church-yard of Worth Matravers, Dorset, there is a grave-stone with this inscription—
Sacred to the Memory of
BENJAMIN JESTY, of Downshay,
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE