ng had a very bad small-pox of the
confluent sort." This is the first use of the word _vaccination_, or,
more familiarly, cow-pox, which is an eruption arising from the
insertion into the system of matter obtained from the eruption on the
teats and udders of cows, and especially in Gloucestershire; it is
also frequently denominated _vaccine matter_; and the whole affair,
inoculation and its consequences, is called vaccination, from the
Latin _vacca_, a cow.

It is admitted that Jenner's merit lay in the scientific application
of his knowledge of the fact that the chapped hands of milkers of cows
sometimes proved a preventive of small-pox, and from those of them
whom he endeavored to inoculate resisting the infection. These results
were probably known far beyond Jenner's range, and long before his
time; for we have respectable testimony of their having come within
the observation of a Cheshire gentleman, who had been informed of them
shortly after settling on his estate in Prestbury parish, in or about
1740. This does not in the least detract from Jenner's merit, but
shows that to his genius for observation, analogy, and experiment, we
are indebted for this application of a simple fact, only incidentally
remarked by others, but by Jenner rendered the stepping-stone to his
great discovery--or, in other words, extending its benefits from a
single parish in Gloucestershire to the whole world.

We agree with a contemporary, that, "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 suffering. Into
whatever corner of the world the blessing of printed knowledge has
penetrated, there also will the name of Jenner be familiar; 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 proportion, to the exemption from actual destruction."

The ravages which the small-pox formerly committed are scarcely
conceived or recollected by the present generation. An instance of