284 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



46. 

 Jenner. 



mist, acquired a world-wide reputation in the latter part 

 of the eighteenth century t 



Many other students of nature could be added to this 

 list. Perhaps none has acquired greater popular celebrity 

 than Jenner. 1 This he acquired through his extraordinary 

 discovery, by which he grappled successfully with one of 

 the most prevalent and distressing epidemics from which 

 47. former generations had to suffer. The study of animated 



English love 



of nature, nature, the observation of the sky and the heavens, have 

 always been favourite occupations of Englishmen. The 

 love of travels abroad and of the country at home has 

 favoured a close intercourse with nature. A fickle and 

 humid climate invited the superior skill of the agriculturist 

 and the gardener, and rewarded them with heavier crops 

 and more luxuriant verdure. 2 The chill of the long winter 



gical Reform" (1869. Reprinted 

 in ' Lay Sermons and Addresses,' 

 No. 11). He is there considered 

 as the first representative of " Uni- 

 formitarianism " against the older 

 " Catastrophism." Uniformitarian- 

 ism has been followed by " Evolu- 

 tionism." 



1 Edward Jenner (1749-1823), 

 one of the greatest benefactors of 

 mankind, spent twenty years on 

 the farms of Gloucestershire, fol- 

 lowing the advice of his friend and 

 master John Hunter, " Don't think, 

 but try," before he undertook the 

 first inoculation of cowpox on the 

 14th of May 1796. About the end 

 of the century the process of vacci- 

 nation, which dispelled the older 

 process of inoculation introduced 

 into England by Lady Mary W. 

 Montagu in 1721 had become 

 generally known in Europe. The 

 governments of the Revolution in 

 France and the Academy of Sci- 

 ences had at the end of the century 

 occupied themselves a good deal 



with the cure of smallpox, both Vol- 

 taire and d'Alembert having taken 

 great interest in the subject. 



2 The yield of an acre in wheat 

 is in England about 30 bushels or 

 one ton of grain ; next comes Bel- 

 gium, then Germany, then France ; 

 the average yield in the United 

 States of America is barely one-half 

 of that in England. The yield of 

 an acre in Scotland exceeds slightly 

 that in England. In Scotland farm- 

 ing is carried on with much skill 

 and enterprise, and, in spite of the 

 severe climate, gardening is prob- 

 ably further developed there than 

 in any other country. It appears 

 that the first voluntary organisa- 

 tion for the improvement of agri- 

 culture was the " Society of Im- 

 provers in the Knowledge of Agri- 

 culture in Scotland " formed in 

 1723, of which the Earl of Stair 

 was one of the leaders. Though it 

 counted 300 members, it was short- 

 lived : its ' Select Transactions ' 

 were published by Maxwell in 1743. 



