Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/287

 JENNER. 265 experienced by Harvey, when he published his views of the eircidation of the blood. Let no one hereafter abate the honest zeal of useful pursuit, because his ideas are chilled at first by an uni- versal frigid sneer, or by careless ridicule ; such has ever been the fate of those who labour for the benefit of mankind : even the v/isest among us oppose innumerable prejudices to the acknow- ledgm.ent of a new truth ; and happy are those who, like Jenner, survive to witness the triumph of their painful struggles in its promulgation. In 1788 he carried to London a dra wing of the casual disease, as seen on the hands of the milkers, and sliowed it to Sir Everard Home, and to others. John Hunter had alluded frequently to the fact in his lectures ; Dr. Adams had heard of the cow- pox both from Hunter and Chae, and mentions it in his Treatise on Morbid Poisons, printed in 1795, three years previously to Jenner's own publication. Still no one had the courage or the penetration to prosecute the inquiry except Jenner. A noble but modest spirit animated him amidst the doubts of all ; he has left us an interesting picture of his feelings. " While the vaccine dis- covery was progressive, the joy I felt at the pro- spect before me of being the instrument destined to take away from the world one of its greatest calamities, blended with the fond hope of enjoying independence, and domestic peace and happiness, were often so excessive, that, in pursuing my favourite subject among the meadows, I have sometimes found myself in a kind of reverie. It is pleasant to me to recollect that those reflections always ended in devout acknowledgments to that