LADY MONTAGU AND MODERN BACTERIOLOGY. 367 



nicate your ideas to each other." On these occasions he would 

 often bring forward his suspicions on the subject of the relations 

 of small-pox and cow-pox a theme that was taking commanding 

 possession of his mind. His medical friends treated his ideas with 

 indifference, or brought forward instances that militated against 

 his theory ; called him a " dreamer " how often " Behold this 

 dreamer cometh " greets advanced ideas! and finally they began 

 to consider him a bore, and threatened to expel him if he did not 

 cease to trot out his hobby. Meantime, while not neglecting his 

 practice, and while following up many lines of physiological and 

 pathological investigation, he continued to collect all the facts 

 and observations, and what other people thought counter facts, 

 that had a bearing on the relation between cow-pox and small- 

 pox ; and in 1788 carried a drawing of the cow-pox, as seen on the 

 hands of a milkmaid, to London, and showed it to Sir Everard 

 Home, the President of the College of Surgeons, to convince him 

 of the identity of the two diseases. Sir Everard condescended to 

 assure him that " it was a curious and interesting subject." 



Owing to the rarity of the disease in the dairies, or to its con- 

 cealment, for which there was a strong motive, it was a long time 

 before he found an opportunity of testing his theories by experi- 

 ment. On the 14th of May, 1796, he took lymph from the hand of 

 a dairymaid who had caught the disease in milking, and inserted 

 it by two superficial incisions in the arms of James Phipps, a 

 healthy boy about eight years old. He passed through the dis- 

 ease in a regular and satisfactory manner, but the most anxious 

 time was yet to come ; it was necessary to show that the boy was 

 proof against the contagium of smallpox. In the following July 

 this was settled, for variolous matter taken directly from the pus- 

 tule was inserted by several incisions, but no disease followed. 

 He wrote to the friend, Mr. Gardner, in whom he had always con- 

 fided his hopes, " You will be gratified in hearing that I have at 

 length accomplished what I have been so long waiting for: the 

 passing of the vaccine virus from one human being to another by 

 the ordinary mode of inoculation." After minutely detailing the 

 process, he adds, " I shall now pursue my experiments with re- 

 doubled ardor." It was now twenty-five years since he had men- 

 tioned his " suspicions " to Hunter, a fact to be remembered when, 

 afterward, he was rebuked by pompous arrogance in the person 

 of Dr. Ingenhousz, for too hastily rushing into print, which he 

 did not do till he had collected twenty-three cases, all of whom 

 had passed through vaccination successfully, and had been tested 

 subsequently by the inoculation of variolous virus and shown to 

 be proof against it. 



This was the high tide of happiness in Jenner's life he was 

 under a great degree of mental exaltation, although he maintained 



