n unquestionable desire of knowledge, and a
congenial love of truth."

Jenner was remarkable for the neatness and precision with which he made
preparations of anatomy and natural history. His dissection of tender
and delicate organs, his success in minute injections, and the taste he
displayed in their arrangement are said to have been almost unrivalled.
Hunter recommended him to Sir Joseph Banks, to prepare and arrange the
various specimens brought home by the celebrated circumnavigator,
Captain Cook, in his first voyage of discovery in 1771, and he was
solicited to become the naturalist of the succeeding expedition in the
year following; but Jenner's partiality to his native soil, and his
desire of settling in the place of his birth, were too strong to admit
of his being allured into such an appointment. He preferred the
seclusion of a country village; and to this selection do we owe one of
the greatest blessings ever bestowed upon mankind. It is not
unreasonable to suppose that the subject by which he should afterward be
known to the whole world, dwelt upon his mind with considerable force
even at this early period, for the prophylactic powers of the cowpox
were known, or rather rumored of, in a few districts, and the subject
had been mentioned by Jenner to Hunter and others, though he had not
been successful in directing their attention sufficiently to the
importance of it. Indeed, he pressed this subject so much upon his
professional brethren, that, at a medical club at Redborough to which he
belonged, he was threatened to be expelled if he persisted in harassing
them with a proposition which they then conceived had no foundation but
in popular and idle rumor, and which had become so entirely distasteful
to them. It remained, therefore, to Jenner to pursue the inquiry and to
place the whole matter upon a proper physiological basis, by which it
might be rendered permanently beneficial. This inquiry was perfected
amid the labors and anxious toils attendant on the life of "a country
surgeon," with few books to consult, and little leisure to devote to
their perusal. Observation necessarily supplied the place of literary
research; the book of nature was open to his view, and it was one he was
well calculated to comprehend; it surpassed all others, and its
contemplation amply repaid the student.

Of all classes of men with whom it has been the fortune of the writer of
this sketch to associate, there is none, in his opin