Forgetful that it was from St. Andrews that Jenner purchased his M.D.!
With equal recklessness, he denounced Walker as a vaccinator, saying—
He tells the public in his Address that “Vaccination will shed consolation into the bosom of every family;” but alas! I have known many a family that has had reason to rue the day in which they believed him, when he told them this flattering tale.... It is very necessary that his followers pray that the Lord have mercy on them, if they have no other director than Dr. Walker.
Concerning the consequences of Walker’s operations, Ring, no doubt, testified truly. Many continue to rue the day when they listen to the flattering tale of the vaccinator. But the testimony came strangely from a Jennerite, who was ready to swear that any abatement of smallpox in London was due to the vaccinations effected in great part by “that desperate adventurer,” Walker!
Ring was implacable, the more so, perhaps, as Walker and his friends were apparently indifferent to his abuse. He burst forth afresh in the London Medical Repository for 1821, where among much else we find the following—
Hanover Street, 11th October, 1821.
The mock Royal Jennerian Society is extending its impositions and depredations. The emissaries of this bastard institution, as well as the principals, should suffer transportation if there be any public spirit among us.
I beg leave to add that the present Society is disclaimed by Dr. Jenner, who cautioned the Emperor of Russia against it when his Majesty was in London in 1814.
In my Caution against Vaccine Swindlers and Imposters, published in 1816, I related several instances of the ill effects of Dr. Walker’s practice, and some in which it had proved fatal. It was partly for his mal-practice, and partly for his mis-conduct, that he was about to be expelled from the Royal Jennerian Society; and, after his artful and wicked stratagems, was permitted to resign; yet now he has the arrogance to call himself Director of that Society, and to issue his venal diplomas in its name. If Dr. Walker must imitate the universities of St. Andrews and Aberdeen, let him at least have like them some certificate of qualification. If he is determined to grow rich by degrees, let him also endeavour to grow wise and honest.
The diplomas which thus moved Ring’s wrath were imposing documents, certifying that the holder was authorised to vaccinate, intended to be framed and exhibited in the shop or parlour. There was a picture of something like an arch of Waterloo Bridge with London in the background and the Royal Arms overhead; Jenner standing on a pier with a dead serpent hanging in limp folds over his arm, with the inscription, Per omnia littora vincitur variola; a woman milking a cow with a group of children around her, drinking milk out of porringers, as if milk were cowpox; whilst the bed of the Thames was blocked with the names of the great and good who had testified in favour of vaccination—an allegorical style of representation then much in vogue and considered impressive.