EDWARD JENNER AS NATURALIST* 
By H. R. STORER, M. D. 
Ladies anjj Gentlemen: — The festival, which we have 
met this evening to close, marks an exceptional centennial. 
Ordinarily such a celebration commemorates a century, or 
even two centuries, or more, dating from a person's, a 
city’s, or a nation’s birth, and is comparatively of local 
interest. This, however, is in remembrance of an isolated 
act, or rather of an incalculably great discovery; for not 
only is vaccination in itself a priceless blessing, but we are 
only beginning to appreciate, and that but very faintly, to 
what it will eventually lead. The suppression of small-pox 
is something wonderful, but upon it, and as a direct conse¬ 
quence, has followed the virtual control of hydrophobia and 
diphtheria, hitherto considered absolutely incurable diseases, 
and other similar victories are quite sure to ensue. The 
act, moreover, that we commemorate, did not affect a city, 
or a country, or a hemisphere merely, but the whole world. 
It was to have been expected that the discoverer should 
have been somewhat lost sight of in the great result that 
he accomplished. It is partly the object of this festival to 
show you not merely what Jenner effected, but what he 
was. As Virgil began his biography of yEneas with the 
•Upon }Iay 14, 1896,—being the one-hundredth anniversary of Jenner’s announce¬ 
ment of his discovery of vaccination,—the Newport Historical Society, the Newport 
Medical Society and the Newport Natural History Society held, conjointly, a special 
Jennerian Centennial meeting at the Museum of the last named organization. 
Addresses were expected from the three Presidents, and two of these, by Dr. 
Henry E. Turner and Dr. Francis H. Rankin, were delivered. The following paper 
was prepared as the third address by Dr. Storer, but its reading was unavoidably 
deferred until June 8, at an adjourned meeting of the three Societies. It has 
since been published in the S+nitarian of August, 1896, but is here reproduced, by 
the kind permission of Dr. A. N. Bell, Editor of that publication, as being one of 
the Natural History Society’s most noteworthy communications. 
