H2 DR. LETTSOM 



CHAP. 



When Jenner discovered the protective value of the 

 cowpox, Lettsom was entering on his later decades. He 

 had been a champion of Inoculation all his life, but he 

 saw quickly that the new method was a great advance 

 upon the old, and he threw the whole force of his influence 

 on the side of Vaccination. He was in close touch with 

 Jenner, who treated him with respect and confidence ; 

 " he fought his battles " in the metropolis, " and often 

 signally vanquished his opponents," and he took a leading 

 part in founding the Royal Jennerian Society in 1803. 

 Lettsom gave evidence before the House of Commons 

 Committee on Vaccination, and he used his pen to persuade 

 a divided profession and a puzzled public, with all the 

 rhetoric he could command. The cow, that " salutiferous 

 animal " whose " lactarial fountains " nourish our little 

 ones, was described, figured and extolled. He called 

 upon all classes of the community to claim their complete 

 deliverance from the ravages of the most fatal malady 

 under heaven. Mothers, he cried, shield the endearing 

 features of your infants under the cegis of Jenner ! If the 

 smallpox was a devouring river and Inoculation a boat 

 on which to cross it, surely Vaccination was " an 

 adamantine bridge." Saul and David had slain their 

 ten thousands, but how many had Jenner saved ! The 

 final establishment of Vaccination, after years of hard 

 fighting, both in Great Britain and in America, owes 

 something to the medical insight and the strong human 

 instincts of Lettsom. 1 



In his later years Lettsom encountered many troubles. 

 His eldest daughter, two sons one in the medical and 

 one in the legal profession and both the widows of these 



a fine horse-chestnut, mulberry, medlar and wych elm no doubt date from 

 Lettsom's period. A view of the Fountain and Thatched Cottage adjacent 

 to it is in Beauties of England and Wales, by Gastineau ; both remained until 

 within living memory. There is still a thatched cottage near by, in Camberwell 

 Grove. An account of a rural fete at Lettsom's villa, May 22, 1801, when 

 five hundred talented and elegant guests were entertained, is given in Gent. 

 Mag. 1 80 1, i. 476. See also Circuit of London, vol. v. 



1 Lettsom, Expositions on the Inoculation of the Smallpox and of the Cowpock, 

 and ed. 1806 ; Hints, iii. ; Memoirs, iii. 402, etc. ; J. Baron, Life of Jenner, i. 517, 

 569, 576, 586 ; ii. 31, 69. 



