EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MEDICINE 



cinated in Russia was named " Vaccinov" and educated 

 at public expense. In six years the discovery had 

 penetrated to the most remote corners of civilization ; 

 it had even reached some savage nations. And in a 

 few years small-pox had fallen from the position of 

 the most dreaded of all diseases to that of being prac- 

 tically the only disease for which a sure and easy pre- 

 ventive was known. 



Honors were showered upon Jenner from the Old 

 and the New World, and even Napoleon, the bitter 

 hater of the English, was among the others who hon- 

 ored his name. On one occasion Jenner applied to 

 the Emperor for the release of certain Englishmen de- 

 tained in France. The petition was about to be re- 

 jected when the name of the petitioner was mentioned. 

 "Ah," said Napoleon, "we can refuse nothing to that 

 name!" 



It is difficult for us of to-day clearly to conceive the 

 greatness of Jenner 's triumph, for we can only vaguely 

 realize what a ruthless and ever-present scourge small- 

 pox had been to all previous generations of men since 

 history began. Despite all efforts to check it by medi- 

 cation and by direct inoculation, it swept now and then 

 over the earth as an all-devastating pestilence, and year 

 by year it claimed one-tenth of all the beings in Chris- 

 tendom by death as its average quota of victims. 

 "From small-pox and love but few remain free," ran 

 the old saw/ A pitted face was almost as much a 

 matter of course a hundred years ago as a smooth one 

 is to-day. 



Little wonder, then, that the world gave eager ac- 

 ceptance to Jenner's discovery. No urging was needed 



197 



