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252 J E N N E R.

Among all the names which ought to be consecrated by the gratitude of mankind, that of Jenner stands pre-eminent : it would be difficult, we are inclined to say impossible, to select from the catalogue of benefactors to human nature, an individual who has contributed so largely to the preservation of life, and to the alleviation of sufferings. Into what- ever corner of the world the blessing of printed knowledge has penetrated, there also will the name of Jenner be fam.ihar ; but the fruits of his discovery have ripened in barbarous soils, where books have never been opened, and where the savage does not pause to inquire from what source he has derived relief. No improvement in the physical sciences can bear a parallel with that which ministers, in every part of the globe, to the prevention of deformity, and, in a great propor- tion, to the exemption from actual destruction.

The ravages which the small-pox formerly com- mitted are scarcely conceived or recollected by the present generation ; and an instance of death occurring after vaccination is now eagerly seized and commented upon ; yet forty years have not elapsed since this disease might fairly be termed the scourge of mankind, and an enemy more ex- tensive and more insidious in its warfare than even the plague. A family blighted in its fairest