DISCOVERY OF VACCINATION. 



07 



ECONOMY OP TIME. 



Dr. Bateman, the well-known 

 physician, and author of a number 

 of medical, works, was a great econo- 

 mist of time. In the intervals of 

 professional duty his pen was al- 

 AA ays in his hand, and he was accus- 

 tomed to write with great fluency. 

 In preparing his manuscript upon 

 any particular subject as, for in- 

 stance, more especially his articles 

 for the Cyclopaedia. he was in the 

 habit of noting down on a scrap 

 of paper the heads into which he 

 thought of dividing his subject, of 

 then reading all the books upon it 

 which he had occasion to consult, 

 after which he arranged in his mind 

 all he proposed to say, so that when 

 he began to write he considered his 

 labour done. He wrote, indeed, as 

 fast as his pen could move, and with 

 so little necessity of correction or 

 interlineation, that his first copy 

 always went to the printer. Neither 

 was any part of this process hastily 

 or inconsiderately performed. He 

 said that to prepare for the single 

 firl iele on " Imagination," in the 

 Edinburgh Ifncyctopcedia, he read 

 the greater part of one-and-twenty 

 volumes. 



DISCOVERT OF VACCINATION. 



It was long after Dr. Jenner first 

 conceived the idea of preventing 

 small-pox by vaccination that he 

 elaborated his great discovery, and 

 still longer before he durst promul- 

 gate it to the world. In 1780, he 

 divulged his views to a friend, ex- 

 piv.-isiug his confident conviction 

 that it was destined to benefit the 

 human race. It was not till after 

 en years of patient and search- 

 iiiL'; investigation that tho efficacy 

 of the discovery was effectually 

 d on the human subject. The 

 causes of failure, in the casual dis- 

 semination of the- disease, were next 

 ascertained, and his chief care was 

 to avoid them in attempting to pro- 



pagate it by artificial means. He 

 has left us an interesting picture of 

 his feelings during this eventful 

 period. " While the vaccine dis- 

 covery was progressive, the joy I 

 felt at the prospect before me, of 

 being the instrument destined to 

 take away from the world one of 

 its greatest calamities, blended with 

 the fond hope of enjoying independ- 

 ence, and domestic peace and hap- 

 piness, were often so excessive, that, 

 in pursuing my favourite subject 

 among the meadows, I have some- 

 times found myself in a kind of re- 

 verie. It is pleasant to me to re- 

 collect that those reflections always 

 ended in devout acknowledgments 

 to that Being from whom this and 

 all other blessings flow." 



At length, on the 14th of May, 

 1796, an opportunity occui'red of 

 making a decisive trial. (On the 

 annual occurrence of this day a fes- 

 tival is held at Berlin to commemo- 

 rate the event.) Matter was taken 

 from the hand of Sarah Nelmes, 

 who had been infected by her mas- 

 ter's cows, and inserted by two 

 superficial incisions into the arms 

 of James Phipps, a healthy boy of 

 about eight years of age. He went 

 through the disease apparently in 

 a very satisfactory manner, but the 

 most anxious part of the trial still 

 remained to be performed. Was 

 he secure against the contagion of 

 small-pox 1 This point was fully 

 put to issue. Variolous matter im- 

 mediately taken from a pustule was 

 carefully inserted by several inci- 

 sions, and the result is related by 

 Jenner to his friend Gardner in the 

 following language: "But now 

 listen to the most delightful part of 

 my story. The boy has since been 

 inoculated for the small-pox, which, 

 as I ventured to predict, produced 

 no effect. I shall now pursue my 

 studies with redoubled ardour." 



After zealously multiplying his 

 experiments, Jenner published his 

 first memoir in June, 1798. He 

 o 



