Lz/<? o/Dr. Jenner. 143 



We think it will be for the convenience of our readers, if 

 we separate the historical part of the work from the purely- 

 speculative and physiological discussions with which it 

 abounds. This arrangement will have the additional advan- 

 tage of enabling us to ofter, hereafter, a few criticisms on the 

 principal topics connected with vaccination, on which the 

 judgment of the world is now, in some measure, divided. 

 Dr. Edward Jenner, born at Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, 

 on the 17th May, 1749, was the third son of the Rev. 

 Stephen Jenner, A.M., the vicar of the parish. His mother 

 was the daughter of the Rev. H. Head, a former vicar of 

 Berkeley. Jenner's father possessed, besides his church 

 preferments, considerable landed property. He did not 

 long survive the birth of his son Edward, whose early years 

 were passed under the roof and guidance of his elder brother. 

 His instructors in classical literature were the Rev. Mr. 

 Clissold of Wootton-under-Edge, and the Rev. Dr. Wash- 

 bourn of Cirencester. In the elements of surgery and phar- 

 macy he was instructed by Mr. Ludlow, an eminent surgeon 

 of Sodbury, near Bristol. At the age of twenty-one he went 

 to London, where his professional studies were completed 

 under the direction and instruction of the celebrated John 

 Hunter, in whose family he resided for two years. We are 

 not favoured with any anecdotes of the early years of Jenner ; 

 but it is clear, from the whole tenor of his correspondence, 

 that he early imbibed a keen relish for a country life, which, 

 ere his arrival in London, had given a tone to his thoughts 

 and studies. John Hunter seems fully to have appreciated 

 the peculiar merits of his pupil. Through his recommen- 

 dation, Jenner was appointed to arrange the cabinet of natu- 

 ral history, the fruits of Captain Cook's first voyage, and 

 was even offered the situation of naturalist to the second 

 expedition. When he returned to Berkeley, and entered 

 upon the active duties of his profession, John Hunter em- 

 ployed him in making a variety of experiments, for which his 

 rural predilections especially fitted him. We must extract 

 one of John Hunter's letters to Jenner, w^hich, while it 

 evinces the confidence he placed in the talents and accurate 

 observation of his young friend, places also, in a strong 

 point of view, the extraordinary powers of the writer's mind, 

 which seems to have grasped, at once, the whole extent of 

 animated nature. 



** Mr. Hunter to E. Jenner. 

 "Dear Jenner, — I received your salmon and very fresh, and just ex- 

 amined enough to want another, but will wait till another season. If I 



