JENNER 



3138 



JEREMIAH 



1885, he studied law and was admitted to the 

 bar. After teaching at several colleges and 

 universities, the most important being Cornell, 

 where, for twenty-one years he held the chair 

 of political economy and social science, he was 

 appointed professor of government and director 

 of the division of public affairs in New York 

 University in 1912. For a time he was con- 

 sulting expert on trusts for the Department of 

 Labor, and he has made several trips to Egypt, 

 India, China and Mexico in connection with 

 currency reform. 



JENNER, jen'er, EDWARD (1749-1823), an 

 English physician, famous as the discoverer of 

 vaccination as a preventive of smallpox and 

 for his diagnosis of diseases of the heart. He 

 was born at Berkeley in Gloucestershire, stud- 

 ied medicine at Saint George's Hospital, Lon- 

 don, and afterwards practiced as a country 

 surgeon in Berkeley. His investigation of cow- 

 pox in 1776 was suggested by the local tradi- 

 tion that dairy maids who contracted the dis- 

 ease were immune from smallpox. To aid in 

 his research, Doctor Jenner's son was inocu- 

 lated with swinepox and proved to be immune 

 from the more serious disease. The theory of 

 vaccination was at first bitterly attacked by 

 physicians and clergymen, but gradually gained 

 ground until about the year 1800 the practice 

 was universally adopted in England, and soon 

 spread to other countries. Doctor Jenner re- 

 ceived many honors and rewards, and in 1802 

 and 1807 Parliamentary grants were made to 

 him aggregating 30,000. See VACCINATION. 



JERBOA, jerbo'a, a small rodent, closely 

 related to rats and mice and remarkable for its 

 kangaroolike traits. Its fore limbs, which are 



THE JERBOA 



very small and have five toes, are more used 

 as hands than as feet, while the hind legs are 

 exceedingly long and strong and have three 

 toes. Jerboas inhabit the sandy deserts and 

 grassy plains of Asia, Eastern Europe, and 

 North Africa. They are burrowing, night- 



roaming (nocturnal) animals; they feed upon 

 roots, seeds and birds' eggs, and in large num- 

 bers are a menace to grain crops. They hiber- 

 nate in the colder regions, but do not lay up 

 food for the winter (see HIBERNATION). When 

 menaced, they flee from danger in enormous 

 leaps; otherwise they walk upright, and do 

 not hop like a kangaroo. The best known is 

 the Egyptian species; other allied groups in- 

 clude the great Siberian jumping rabbit and 

 the American jumping, or deer, mouse. 



JEREMIAH, jeremi'ah, a Hebrew prophet 

 during the darkest period of the kingdom of 

 Judah, whose warnings and utterances were 

 disregarded, except by those who subjected 

 him to all sorts of persecution because of them. 

 He was the son of Hilkiah, a priest in Ana- 

 thoth, a village close to Jerusalem, and was 

 quite young when called to prophesy in 626 

 B. c., the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign. For 

 forty-one years, during the troubled times of 

 Babylonian invasions, he endeavored to root 

 out evil and warn his people against destruc- 

 tion, but the rulers regarded his sayings as 

 bad omens. He saw Jerusalem besieged, his 

 fellow citizens carried away as captives and the 

 city a heap of ruins. At the time of the 

 capture, Jeremiah was in prison, but Nebuchad- 

 nezzar, the Babylonian conqueror, released him 

 and in a cave near by he wrote the Lamenta- 

 tions (which see). During the rule of Geda>- 

 liah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had made gov- 

 ernor of Judah, Jeremiah was safe in Jerusalem, 

 but after Gedaliah was murdered a remnant 

 of the Jews fled to Egypt in spite of God's 

 command, "Go ye not into Egypt" (Jeremiah 

 XLII, 19), and forced him to go with them. I 

 There he delivered his last prophecies con- 

 cerning the conquest of Egypt by the Baby- 

 lonians. The time and place of his death 

 unknown, although tradition says .that he 

 stoned to death by his countrymen, who we 

 incensed at his rebukes. 



Book of Jeremiah. This book of the 01 

 Testament, written by Jeremiah near the close 

 of his ministry, is arranged not in the order 

 of events but according to subjects. After 

 the introduction there are three prophetic 

 tions: first, a prediction of the approachh 

 judgment upon Judah and the promise of 

 toration from exile; second, a history of 

 destruction of the nation; and third, predic- 

 tions concerning foreign nations. He foretold 

 the exact date of the Captivity, the fate of 

 Zedekiah, the return of the Jews and the future 

 decay of Babylon. The last chapter seems 



Uter 



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