A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



soon made him a favorite both as a physician and in 

 society. He was a good singer, a fair violinist and 

 flute-player, and a very successful writer of prose and 

 verse. But with all his professional and social duties 

 he still kept up his scientific investigations, among 

 other things making some careful observations on the 

 hibernation of hedgehogs at the instigation of Hunter, 

 the results of which were laid before the Royal Society. 

 He also made quite extensive investigations as to the 

 geological formations and fossils found in his neigh- 

 borhood. 



Even during his student days with Hunter he had 

 been much interested in the belief, current in the rural 

 districts of Gloucestershire, of the antagonism between 

 cow-pox and small-pox, a person having suffered from 

 cow-pox being immuned to small-pox. At various 

 times Jenner had mentioned the subject to Hunter, 

 and he was constantly making inquiries of his fellow- 

 practitioners as to their observations and opinions on 

 the subject. Hunter was too fully engrossed in other 

 pursuits to give the matter much serious attention, 

 however, and Jenner' s brothers of the profession gave 

 scant credence to the rumors 4 although such rumors 

 were common enough. 



At this time the practice of inoculation for preventing 

 small-pox, or rather averting the severer forms of the 

 disease, was widely practised. It was customary, 

 when there was a mild case of the disease, to take some 

 of the virus from the patient and inoculate persons 

 who had never had the disease, producing a similar 

 attack in them. Unfortunately there were many ob- 

 jections to this practice. The inoculated patient fre- 



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