38 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



vicar there. His first school was at Wotton-under- 

 Edge, and later he was removed to Cirencester. 

 There he developed an active taste for natural his- 

 tory.collecting plants, insects and fossils. On leaving 

 school he was apprenticed to a surgeon at Sodbury ; 

 and in 1770 he joined the famed medical school of 

 Dr. John Hunter, in London. There he showed 

 his considerable capacity for true scientific investi- 

 gation, apart from collecting. Hunter took much 

 interest in his pupil, and carefully directed his 

 studies ; he introduced him to Sir Joseph Banks, 

 whose material, collected on Cook's voyage, 

 Jenner overhauled and assisted in preparing for 

 museum purposes. In 1773 he returned to 

 Berkeley and commenced practice as a surgeon. 

 There he continued his studies of the local natural 

 history. In 1788 he was elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society. He became locally fashionable, 

 partly on account of the care bestowed on his 

 personal appearance, as well as for his professional 

 ability ; so in 1792 he took his M.D. degree at 

 St. Andrew's, and gave up surgery. 



About the end of the eighteenth century, Jenner 

 continued his investigations systematically into the 

 influence of cow-pox upon smallpox in human 

 beings. After much correspondence with Dr. 

 John Hunter, he, on May 14th, 1796, vaccinated 

 James Phipps, a boy of eight years old, with 

 lymph taken from a pustule of cow-pox on the 

 hand of Sarah Nelmes. The boy had cow-pox, 

 and on the ist July following, the boy was inocu- 

 lated with the virus of smallpox, which did not 

 take. Jenner's notes and manuscript description 

 of this experiment, though never published, is 

 treasured at the Royal College of Surgeons. 



Dr. Jenner spent some months of the summer of 

 1798 in London, where he tried in vain to get some 

 one to be vaccinated. A month or so after he left, 

 however, Dr. Cline, of St. Thomas's Hospital, 

 vaccinated several patients with lymph given him 

 by Jenner. Then followed much opposition from 

 the medical profession, and a long course of 

 further experiments by Jenner. The practice 

 slowly made its own way. To read of its tardy 

 but steady adoption by the people and the medical 

 profession is most instructive in view of what is 

 taking place in other directions at the present 

 time — the mistakes that were made, the ignorant 

 and wilful misapplication of smallpox virus to 

 bring discredit on the new discovery ; then the 

 period of success, the honours and presents 

 showered upon Jenner, including a grant from 

 Parliament of no less than /'lo.ooo, which was 

 followed by another grant of ^20,000 in 1806. His 

 wife died in 1815 at Cheltenham, where he 

 practised as well as at Berkeley ; but he soon after 

 retired to the latter village, where he resided until 

 he died on 25th January, 1823, in a fit of apoplexy. 

 Jenner was buried in the chancel of the parish 



church, his house having adjoined the cliurch- 

 yard. 



Sir Thomas Lawrence painted a portrait of 

 Dr. Jenner ; but that in the Gallery, of which a 

 sketch is given here, is by James Northcote. It 

 was engraved in stipple by Ridley in 1804. A 

 marble statue is his memorial in Gloucester 

 Cathedral ; one in bronze is in Kensington Gar- 

 dens, whither it was removed from Trafalgar 

 Square, whilst portraits of him on the Continent 

 include a statue in bronze at Boulogne-sur- 

 Mer. 



Sir John Richardson (1787-1865). 



The present generation of biologists is apt to 



forget the services of their ancestors in the world 



of science. Few people are heard to discuss such 



men as Dr. John Richardson, who in his time 



Sir John Richardson. 



added much to the knowledge of the animals and 

 plants of Arctic regions. He was an eminent 

 voyager, physician and naturalist, who was born at 

 Dumfries in 1787. 



After passing a medical course at Edinburgh, he 

 joined the Navy as ship^s doctor, and saw service 

 at Copenhagen, and other engagements. He then 

 returned to his medical studies, and in 1816 

 graduated M.D. at Edinburgh. In 1819, he volun- 

 teered into the service of Captain John Franklin 

 as surgeon and naturalist on Sir John Franklin's 

 first overland expedition. He again sailed with Sir 

 John in 1825 in the same capacity, and conducted 

 a separate exploring party on that occasion along 

 the coast of the Arctic Sea, between the Mackenzie 

 and Coppermine Rivers. On his return he con- 

 tributed much valuable scientific information on 

 subjects which were little understood. He was one 



