Published by JAsperne, at the Bible, Crown & Constitution Cornhill 1,0 1804.

THE

EUROPEAN MAGAZINE,

AND

LONDON REVIEW,

FOR SEPTEMBER 1804.

We have long been defirous of gratifying our readers with genuine Memoirs of Dr. JENNER, which an incident has now enabled us to do, in conieque ce ƒ a Refolution of the Medical Society of London to confer on him a Gold Menal in benour of his discovery of Vaccine Inoculation; and we have endeavoured to cole the fubftance of the public oration delivered on that occafion on the 8th of March last, by Dr. LETISOM, which includes Memoirs of that dylinguished Character, whofe Portrait, from an Original Painting by Northcote, is prefixed.

EDWARD JENNER, M.D.
[WITH A PORTRAIT.]

in recording events, and fo convenient in multiplying them, though afcribed to Lawrence Kofter, of Haerlem, in 1430, as well as to Mintel, of Strafburg, is fuppofed to have been difcovered at Mentz, in 1440, by Guttenburg, Fauftus, and Schaeffer, in conjun&tion.

If this art has not fixed the data of its own origin, and the progrefs of fcience that brought it to light, it has happily traced out and prelerved the æra of the difcovery of the circulation of the blood throughout the whole body. Mich. Servatus, a French phyfician, first published his difcovery of the circulation of the blood through the lungs in 1553. Cifalpinus communicated a vague account of the general circulation in 1569; but it was fully elucidated and confirmed by Harvey in 1619. By this brilliant difcovery, health and fickne's may be deferited in thefe few words :-"The one is a free, and the other an obstructed cir. culation." But whift the College of Physicians annually commemorate the memory of their deceased Collegian, may we never forget our Jenner; and if I am the fift thus publicly called to the grateful office of delineating his merits, I hope I shall not be the lift in a Society whofe leading principle is the promotion of medical icience.

To give faithful delineations of living characters are peculiarly difficult. Few admit of the ftern truth of accurate biography; and where friendtnip dirests the pen, a partiality, perhaps unconfcious to the writer, flides into unmerited panegyric. There are, however, individuals whofe luftre acquires no brilliancy from the warmth of public gratitude or the ardour of private efteem.-Such is our Jenner, "whom it can never be a degradation to praise, whom it is a degradation to praife without enthufafin," the youngest fon of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, M.A., of the University of Oxford, Rector of Rockhampton, and Vicar of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire; at which place Dr. Jenner was born on the 17th day of May 1749.

Befides thefe church preferments, the refpe&table parent poffcfled confiderable landed property in the fame county.

His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Henry Head, of an ancient family in Berkshire; who likewife once held the living of Berkeley, and was at the fame time a Prebendary of Bristol.

Young Jenner loft his father at 1 very early period of his life; a lofs in fome meature fupplied by the affectionate attentions of his elder brother, the Rev. John Jenner, B D., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, united with thefe of another brother, the Rev. Henry Jenner, Dometic Chaplain to the Earl of Aylesbury, and Vicar of Great Bedwin, Wilts, father of the Rev. George Jenner, and of Henry Jenner, Surgeon, at Berkeley.

Our Jenner received his clanical education at Cirenceder, and his medical under Daniel Ludlow, of Sedbury, 2 Gentleman of proteional eminence.

It 1770, he took up his refidence with the late John Hunter, Elq, of London, with whom he continued for about the

space of two years. I his celebrated Anatomit cultivated alfo the study of natu a hillory, which he delineated by dilection, and published in various effays, in many of which the name of Jenner is refpectfully introduceda and fo highly had he appreciated the radical powers of his pupil, as to propofe to him a liberal engagement to join him in delivering lectures upen natural history, which Hunter then had in contemplation.

At this period, the first voyage of Captain Cock with Sir Joseph Banks was proje&ed. A Gentleman killed in the knowledge of comparative anatomy was wanted for the purpose of examining and defcribing the new ani mais they might chance to find: Jenner was fixed upon as the beft calculated for fuch an office, and lucrative condi tions were propofed; but his affection for his brother already mentioned induced him to decline an offer fo feduc tive to a lover of natural history.

This fraternal attachment, which continued to the death of the latter, superfeded every prospect of emolument from diftant fources, and determined him to fettle in Berkeley, the place of his nativity, to cultivate the practice of furgery and the purfuits of natural history in the country; foon after which the degree of Doctor of Phytic was offered him by the Univerfity of Erlingen; an honour he declined, as incompatible with the profeshonal difcharge of furgery.

Soon afterwards an incident occurred which appeared much more likely to detach him from the immediate fociety of his beloved relative. He happened to dine with a large party at Bath: Something

Something was introduced at the table which required to be warmed by the application of the candle; and doubts were exprefled by feveral perfons prefent, whether the more fpeedy way would be, to keep the flame at a little distance under, or to im nerie the fubftance into it. Jenner defired the candle to be placed near him, and immediately put his finger into the flame, fuffering it to remain fome time; next he put his finger above it, but was obliged to fatch it away immediately.—“This, Gentlemen," faid be," is a fufficient teft." -The next day he received a note from General Smith, who had been of the party the preceding day, and who was before that time an utter (tranger, offering him an appointment in India, which would enfure him, in the courte of two or three years, an annuity of 30col. The offer was referred to his brother; and our jenner, from his attachment to him, declined it.

Some may, perhaps, be ready to con clude that fraternal affection was carried to a degree of weaknefs--But who can avoid admiring the heart that is fusceptible of fuch tender affections! Some might pioudly fugget, that in confequence of the latent definies of Heaven, he was happily prevented from engaging in didant purfuits, to announce fome grand difcovery, and eltablish a new era of medical fcience, which the event has for ever confirmed.

In tracing a character thus rendered illustrious, the mind dwells upon it with increased pleasure, in contemplating the combination of moral fentiment and p actical virtue-where the generous pallions are fubfervient to found reaton, which directs them to promote public good and private happinefs, as Fenelon well defines La vertu, en reglant les pagons, n'eteint point le fentiment."

My Leipetable auditory will permit me to illu trate this fentimear, by tracing the beneficence of our amiable and ablent affociate.

An ingenious but unfortunate member of this Society, after many ineffequal struggles to furmount pecuniary difficulties, fell a victim to dif eaf, and left a widow and children pennylefs. From early friendships, I was defirous of railing a fubfcription to enable them to put on a covering more defirable than fackcloth and afhes. I addreffed a letter to Dr. Jenner on the fubject, and fpecified the amount of

the donation I wished him to devote.
Suffice it to fay, that he thanked me
for affording him an opportunity of
amiting objects of diltres, and fent me
a fum exceeding my request.

A few days afterwards he intimated to me, that he feared that a refpectable Phylician, whofe name on this fubject thali never pats my lios, laboured under pecuniary embarralment; I exprelled my willingness to cher my mite in conjunction with his. We toon, however, turned the convertation to fome other fubject. Jenner has a heart not of tone or frigid clay; and I venture to fay, that the object of our converla tion was the companion of his couch, for early in the morning I received a letter, which is too laconic to fatigue you in hearing :

"I write this note just to propofe an amendment with retsest to the fum for the use of our friend. Will you let it be so intead of 30 guineas? Yes. E. JENNER."

I may here obferve, that not any part of thefe memons is immediately derived from our diftinguished aflociate. From his friends I have drawn my principal information. The lat to whom I ap plied on fuch an occation, though known to me merely by correfpondence, favoured me with tome traits of his beneficence in the following words: "As for his generosity, it is conftant and unbounded. It is not it were by like an intermitting fpring, which flows by tarts, and as caprice; but it refembles a perennial fountain, which ever gladdens the verdant plains, and never difappoints them of their expected refreshment. Yet, although his generofity never intermits, its aream is fometimes poured forth with an unusual flood; an inItance of which is, his offer of 1000l. to equip a veffel for the purpofe of introducing the vaccine inoculation into the Eaft Indies, when the parimony of Government neglected to do it."

During his refidence in the country, our affociate lightened the feverer duties of his profesion by the gratifying tudies of phyfiology and natural hiltory.

In 1788, his "Obfervations on the Natural Hiftory of the Cuckow," appeared in the Philofophical Transactions, which were admired and approved by the belt informed naturalits in this attempted department of fcience. He has fince

attempted to demonftrate, through the medium of comparative anatomy, that what exits in human lungs, in the form of tubercles, are really hydatids. To one attached to natural history, the delightful department of ornithology must confitute a prominent object, with which the emigration of birds is immediately connected. The outlines of a paper on this fubject has often been ipoken of by Jenner to the Members of the Royal Society, and which contains many interefting and novel obfervations, but which his numerous engagements have hitherto prevented him from communicating to the public.

nevertheless, on inoculation with the fmall pox, took this virulent disease.

This damed in fome degree his ardour; but the genius of Jenner triumphed over every obitacle: by accu rate investigation, he altertained that the cow was tuoject to fome varienes of fpontaneous eruption on her teats, all capable of communicating tores to the hands of the milkers, although not all the real cow pock. Thus he furmounted a prominent obstacle, which enabled him to form a distinction between thefe difeafes; only one of which he denominated the true, the others the purious cow pock, as they poffe's no fpecific power over the con

Thus early distinguished as a Natu-itution. ralift, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London; and in 1792, he took his diploma of Doctor of Phyfic.

We have ample reafon to conclude, that many important effays elicited from his pen. By a late publication of Dr. Parry's, of Bath, it appears that the discovery of the fuppofed · angina pectoris originated with him, whilft his modefty repels him from the jult claims of originality.

Of thefe, however, a tranfient view only is taken; the contemplation of the mind abforbed by mighty objects palles over inferior ores, as the stars are extinguifned by the brilliancy of the fun. Whilt it hails a new era of existence, the exuberance of gratification, the charms of health, the perfection of beauty, croud upon imagination, agitate every tender fympathy of the heart, and delight all the intellectual powers of the foul!

The mind repofing after ecftafies derived from the poffeffion of a blefling, the most prominent in utility within its conception, looks with a lively curio fity to fcrutinize into its origin, and the means that led to its difcovery, which I fhall now attempt to explain.

About the year 1775, inoculation of the final pox was much practifed in Gloucefter fire, after the Suttonian plan. Jenner, who then cultivated fur gery, obferved, that among thofe whom he was frequently called upon to inoculate, many relifted every effort to give the fmall pox, in confequence of having undergone the cow pock, contraded by milking cows affected with a peculiar eruption on the teats. He found, however, that fome of those who had undergone the cow pock,

Scarcely had this impediment been removed, before another of tar greater magnitude in its appearances started up; for it was found, that a perion who had milked a cow under the true cow pock, and had thereby apparently gone through the diteafe with others, was liable to receive the fmall pot afterwards. Which of us, Gentlemen, would have purfued the fubject a moment afterwards? Difappointed and thwarted in our hopes, we fhould have relinquished for ever a fubject that afforded no criterion of fuccefs or fecurity. Thanks to the genius of Jenner, or to that Power that inspired and del tined him to rank among the great benefactors of mankind, his energy fur mounted every obitacle, and led him to reflect, that the operations of Nature are generally uniform, and that it was not probable the human conftitution (having undergone the cow pock) fhould in fome inftances be perfectly fecured from the mall pox, and in many others remain unprotected, he refumed his labours with redoubled ardour. The refult was fortunate; for he now difcovered, that the virus of the cow pock was liable to undergo progreffive changes, from the fame caules precisely as that of the fmall pox; and that when it was applied to the human kin in its degenerated state, it would produce the ulcerative efects in as great a degree as when it was not decompofed, and fometimes far greater; but having loit its fpecific proper ties, it was incapable of producing that change upon the human frame which is requifite to render it unfufceptible of the variolous contagion: fo that it became evident, a perion might milk a cow one day, and, having caught the

difeafe,