[95] Baron’s Life of Jenner, vol. i, p. 136.
[96] Ibid. p. 141.
[97] Study of Medicine, vol. iii. p. 59, 3rd ed. London, 1829.
[CHAPTER II.]
JENNER’S INQUIRY, 1798.
The curious tradition among the dairy folk of Gloucestershire, that persons who had suffered from Cowpox were thereby rendered insusceptible of Smallpox, was made known to Edward Jenner when a doctor’s apprentice, and was never afterwards absent from his mind. Thirty years elapsed before the fruit was borne to the public; but incessantly he thought, and watched, and experimented on the subject, and the work in which at length he recorded the incomparable results of his labour may well have commanded the confidence of reflecting persons.
Little would ever be heard of objections to Vaccination, if all who undertake the responsibility of its performance, and all who feel disposed to resist its adoption, would but thoroughly study that masterpiece of medical induction, and imitate the patience and caution and modesty with which Jenner laid the foundations of every statement he advanced.
In the first Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ, Jenner set on a scientific basis the popular belief to which I have referred; and the close of the 18th Century, which had much to darken it, will be remembered till the end of human history for the greatest physical good ever yet given by science to the world.—Papers relating to the History and Practice of Vaccination. Pp. xi. and xii. London, 1857.
These are the words of Mr. John Simon, and in them we have the Jennerian legend with the morsel of fact to the mass of fable which characterises legendary matter, ancient and modern. The recommendation to “study thoroughly that master-piece of medical induction,” Jenner’s Inquiry, is a mere flourish of panegyric; for, as Mr. Simon was well aware, the book had been out of print for half a century, and was practically inaccessible; whilst its reproduction has usually been considered undesirable in the interests of Vaccination, inasmuch as it reveals more than is expedient for common knowledge. An idol that is good to swear by is always fortified by a convenient obscurity.