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 Clarence, 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 converted into scientific demonstration a tradition of
the peasantry. Two parliamentary grants, of L10,000 and L20,000,
were voted to him. In 1808 the National Vaccine Establishment was
formed by Government, and placed under his direction. 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.

[Illustration: The First Vaccination--Dr. Jenner.]

Dr. Jenner was endowed with a rare quality of mind, which it may be
both interesting and beneficial to sketch.