The promoters of the Society, operating under the prestige of Jenner’s name, resolved to hold their annual festival on his birthday, the 17th of May; and at the first dinner in 1803 he was subjected to flatteries enough to turn any man’s head who does not know the reckless insincerity that prevails on such occasions. It was the adulation connected with the formation of this Society that as much as anything induced Jenner to set up as west-end physician. The attempt of the middle-aged country doctor was the occasion of much grim humour, and his consequent embarrassments were the concern of his friends for many a day. Apart from the inherent difficulties of the enterprise (social rather than medical) Jenner was constitutionally deficient in method and assiduity. Wrapped up in his wife and family, business was always set aside when they claimed his affectionate regard; and to leave London for Gloucestershire for some domestic cause was in his eyes procedure that required no defence--all which might be amiable, but it constantly annoyed and frustrated his associates; and it is not thus encumbered that any man can expect to make way in the world. When the anniversary in 1804 came round, Jenner was at Berkeley, and when pressed to attend he wrote--
Though a post-chaise might bring up my body, my mind would be left behind. One cause of my absence, among many others, is the sad state of Mrs. Jenner’s health. I cannot leave her even for a day with any comfort to my feelings. My friends, who honour the glorious cause of Vaccination by assembling on the 17th, will, I trust, admit my apology. It is my intention to collect a few staunch Vaccinists on that day at my cottage. I shall give them some roast beef, not forgetting a horn or two of good October. We shall close the day with bumpers of milk-punch to the health of the Friends of Humanity at the Crown and Anchor; and if it were not for the indisposition of my poor wife, we should roar like bulls.
If Jenner was idle and self-indulgent, Walker was the reverse. He was a fine specimen of the GENUS, _Fanatic_. Possessed with a lust for what he called Vacciolation, he had a brow of brass, nerves of steel, and habits like clockwork. Thirteen stations were opened in London where cowpox was inoculated gratis, and in eighteen months Walker was able to announce that 12,288 patients had been operated on, and that 19,352 charges of virus had been dispatched to the country and foreign parts; whereon Baron observes--