Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/96

 266 WORKMEN AND HEROES An opportunity occurred of making a trial of the latter on May 14, 1796 (a day still commemorated by the annual festival at Berlin), when a boy, aged eight years, was vaccinated with matter from the hands of a milkmaid ; the experiment succeeded, and he was inoculated for small-pox on July 1st following with- out the least effect. Dr. Jenner then extended his experiments, and in 1798 published his first memoir on the subject. He had originally intended to com- municate his results to the Royal Society, but was admonished not to do so, lest it should injure the character which he had previously acquired among scientific persons by his paper on the natural history of the cuckoo. In the above work Dr. Jenner announces the security against small-pox afforded by the true cow- pox, and also traces the origin of that disease in the cow to a similar affection of the heel of the horse. The method, however, met with much opposition, until, in the following year, thirty-three leading physicians and forty eminent surgeons of London signed an earnest expression of their confidence in the efficacy of the cow-pox. The royal family of England exerted themselves to encourage Jenner ; the Duke of Clar- ence, the Duke of York, the king, the Prince of Wales, and the queen bestowed great attention upon Jenner. The incalculable utility of cow-pox was at last evinced ; and observation and experience furnished evidence enough to satisfy the Baillies and Heberdens, the Monros and Gregorys of Britain, as well as the physicians of Europe, India, and America. The new practice now began to supersede the old plan pursued by the Small-pox Hospital, which had been founded for inoculation. The two systems were each pursued until 1808, when the hospital governors discontinued small-pox inoculation. A committee of Parliament was now appointed to consider the claims of Jenner upon the gratitude of his country. It was clearly proved that he had con- verted into scientific demonstration a tradition of the peasantry. Two parliamen- tary grants, of ,10,000 and ,20,000, were voted to him. In 1808 the National Vaccine Establishment was formed by Government, and placed under his direc- tion. Honors were profusely showered upon him by various foreign princes, as well as by the principal learned bodies of Europe. Dr. Jenner passed the remainder of his years principally at Berkeley and at Cheltenham, continuing to the last his inquiries on the great object of his life. He died at Berkeley, in February, 1823, at the green old age of seventy-four: his remains lie in the chancel of the parish church of Berkeley. A marble statue by Sievier has been erected to his memory in the nave of Gloucester Cathedral ; and another statue of him has been placed in a public building at Cheltenham. Five medals have been struck in honor of Jenner : three by the German nation ; one by the surgeons of the British navy ; and the fifth by the London Medical Society. Dr. Jenner was endowed with a rare quality of. mind, which it may be both interesting and beneficial to sketch. A singular originality of thought was his leading characteristic. He appeared to have naturally inherited what in others is the result of protracted study. He seemed to think from originality of per-