Edward Jenner as Naturalist. 
<>3 
long very eagerly to see your paper on the migration of 
birds, mentioned in your masterly observations on the 
cuckoo.” In his reply, Jenner confirms my opinion of the 
reason which was perhaps foremost in deciding him to in¬ 
vestigate cow-pox. “Latterly my attention,” he says, “has 
so incessantly been occupied by the cow-pox, I have found 
it impracticable to wander into other parts of natural history; 
a branch of science which, I know, is the delight of your 
heart as well as mine.” This request undoubtedly recalled 
his attention to bird-migration, and he prepared or finished 
the paper. It did not appear, however, until after his 
death, very shortly after which it was communicated to 
the Royal Society by his nephew, many long years subse¬ 
quent to its inception. It was published in the Philosophical 
Transactions for 1824, page 11, comprising thirty-three 
pages, and also appears in the Abstract of Transactions 
from 1800 to 1830, Vol. II., p. 204. It was not a general 
history of migration, but an investigation of its causes, 
based not merely upon observation of the times of arrival 
and departure of many species of birds, but upon anatom¬ 
ical dissections of the progressive and retrogressive condi¬ 
tions of their reproductive organs, comparison of their food 
while in England with what they found both to the north 
and south of it, the duration of time required for the de¬ 
velopment of their young before and after fledging, etc., 
etc. Some of his descriptions of birds and their song, and 
the sequences of this at different hours of the day, are 
very beautiful, alike inspired by scientific accuracy and 
poetical imagination. 
In 1818 he made some most interesting researches upon 
the night-blooming primrose, and its part in preserving, 
in the economy of nature, for the support of a delicate 
insect (the night-moth), what to superficial observers would 
seem wasted. 
Hence, to the close of his life, he was constantly oc¬ 
cupied in assisting the vaccine development, and was per¬ 
mitted to see his process adopted throughout the world. 
