208 



DISCOVERY 



CH. 



Jenner continued his experiments for another sixteen 

 years before he performed his first inoculation with 

 cow-pox on May 14th, 1796, the subject being a boy, 

 about eight years of age. The boy was afterwards 

 inoculated for the smallpox, and as Jenner predicted, 

 no disease followed. A means of protecting the human 

 race against its greatest scourge had been discovered, 

 and Jenner redoubled his efforts to establish its efficacy. 

 He vaccinated all the poor in the neighbourhood of 

 Berkeley gratuitously, and the success of the method 

 of inoculation soon became widely known. He vacci- 

 nated his own son on three separate occasions, and 

 prejudice against inoculation with cow-pox began to be 

 overcome when two ladies of title Lady Ducie and the 

 Countess of Berkeley submitted their children to it. 



If Jenner had kept the secret of his discovery to him- 

 self, he could have made an immense fortune from it, 

 but he imparted it to the public, and suffered great loss 

 of time and money in answering inquiries which reached 

 him from all parts of the world. He made known his 

 discovery as soon as he had convinced himself of its 

 value, and never for a moment did he hesitate as to 

 whether he might not be a richer man by keeping his 

 information to himself. 



It is scarcely necessary to add that the discovery did 

 not escape the fate which commonly awaits originality. 

 Jenner's views were opposed and misrepresented, the 

 caricaturists of the period drew persons with horns and 

 cows' heads to suggest what might be expected from 

 vaccination, and sermons were preached to show its 

 wickedness. Nothing could, however, prevent the 

 spread of a method which relieved every household of 

 its greatest terror. Marks of distinction soon began to 

 be showered upon the scientific St. George who had rid 



