A boy of the name of Phipps was inoculated in the arm from the pustule on the hand of a young woman who was infected by her master’s cows. Having never seen the disease but in its casual way before, that is when communicated from the cow to the hand of the milker, I was astonished at the close resemblance of the pustules, in some of their stages, to the variolous pustules.
But now listen to the most delightful part of my story. The boy has since been inoculated for the smallpox, which, as I ventured to predict, produced no effect. I shall now pursue my experiments with redoubled ardour.
But the experiments could _not_ be pursued, for, from July, 1796 till the spring of 1798, Cowpox disappeared from the dairies around Berkeley, and, as we have seen, horsegrease was also unattainable. Jenner had, however, resolved on publication. Life was advancing; he had made no mark in the world; and, as he wrote to Gardner--
Added to all my other cares, I am touched hard with the reigning epidemic--Impecuniosity.
At first he proposed to embody his views in a paper for the Royal Society, but on second thoughts determined to issue a pamphlet. Having read his manuscript to Dr. Worthington, Mr. Paytherus, and Mr. H. Hicks, assembled round the table of Mr. Thomas Westfaling, at Rudhall, near Ross, Herefordshire, and having secured their approval, the matter was put to press, and about the end of June, 1798, appeared--
AN INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE VARIOLÆ VACCINÆ, A DISEASE DISCOVERED IN SOME OF THE WESTERN COUNTIES OF ENGLAND, PARTICULARLY GLOUCESTERSHIRE, AND KNOWN BY THE NAME OF THE COW POX.
[85] _Autobiography of Sir B. C. Brodie_, p. 38.
[86] Simon’s _Papers on Vaccination_, p. xii.
[87] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. i. pp. 48 and 126.
[89] Thus described by Gardner. Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, p. 15.
[90] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. i., pp. 127-129.
[92] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. i., p. 131.
[94] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. i., p. 297.
[95] Baron’s _Life of Jenner_, vol. i, p. 136.
[97] _Study of Medicine_, vol. iii. p. 59, 3rd ed. London, 1829.
The curious tradition among the dairy folk of Gloucestershire, that persons who had suffered from Cowpox were thereby rendered insusceptible of Smallpox, was made known to Edward Jenner when a doctor’s apprentice, _and was never afterwards absent from his mind_. Thirty years elapsed before the fruit was borne to the public; _but incessantly he thought, and watched, and experimented on the subject_, and the work in which at length he recorded the incomparable results of his labour may well have commanded the confidence of reflecting persons.