Dr. Edward Jenner is the youngest son of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, M. A. of the University of Oxford, rector of of Rockhampton, and vicar of Berkeley in Gloucestershire; where the subject of this memoir was born, in, 1749.

Independent of church preferment, his father was poffeffed of considerable landed property in the same county. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Henry Head, of an ancient and respectable family in Berkshire; who also once held the living of Berkeley, and was at the same time a prebendary of Bristol.

Dr. Jenner had the misfortune to lose his father at a very early period of life; but this loss, which too frequently prevents the proper cultivation of the mental faculties, was fortunately supplied by the welldirected and affectionate attention of his elder brother, the Rev. Stephen Jenner; who brought him up with a tenderness truly parental. He had another brother, the Rev. Henry Jenner, many years domestic chaplain to the Earl of Aylesbury, and vicar of Great Bedwin, Wilts; father of the Rev. George Jenner, and of Mr. Henry Jenner, surgeon, of Berkeley; whose names so frequently appear in the history of Vaccine Inoculation.

After receiving a classical education at Cirencester, and learning the rudiments of surgery and pharmacy from Mr. Ludlow of Sodbury, a man of high professional eminence, he was placed under the immediate tuition of the late Mr. John Hunter; with whom he lived two years as a house pupil.

In liberal minds a congeniality of talent and pur

suits lays the foundation of sincere and lasting friendship. This observation is fully exemplified by that friendship which ever after subsisted between the celebrated preceptor and his pupil. A constant correspondence was kept up between them, which only ceased with the death of the former.

As a proof in what estimation Mr. Hunter held the abilities of Dr. Jenner, we may remark, that he offered him a partnership in his profession, which was extremely valuable. Mr. Hunter was desirous of giving lectures on natural history upon an extensive plan; and, justly appreciating the abilities of his pupil Jenner, and his ardour and perseverance in those enquiries, he well knew the ample support he should derive from the acquisition of his talents.

After finishing his studies in London, Dr. Jenner settled at Berkeley. His attachment to this situation was so strong, that nothing seemed capable of seducing him from it; neither the offers of a connection with Mr. Hunter, nor the allurements of the eastern world, though held up to him in the most dazzling point of view, could tempt him to desert it, for no mortal was ever more charmed with the place of his nativity than Dr. Jenner.

He continued the practice of physic and surgery at Berkeley, with increasing success and reputation; and, did the limits of our publication permit, we could enumerate many instances of his eminent skill and singular ingenuity in the healing art, during this period of his life.

From the extent of his practice, his professional

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duties

duties became extremely laborious; and, as it continued to increase, he was under the necessity of relinquishing the most fatiguing parts of his business. He therefore took out a diploma.

In 1788, Dr. Jenner married Miss Catherine Kingscote, sister to Colonel Robert Kingscote, of Kingscote in Gloucestershire; a family of the highest antiquity and respectability in the county, by whom he has three children, two sons and a daughter.

Having disengaged himself from surgery, he had leisure for the pursuit of other studies more congenial to his mind; physiology, and natural history. But, even previously to this event, notwithstanding the pressure of numerous avocations, he frequently found opportunities of indulging his favourite propensity. By the joint aid of actual observation, and apposite conjecture, he completely elucidated a very obscure and much disputed point in the natural history of the cuckoo. The originality of this disquisition excited much attention among naturalists. He was soon after elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

Among other discoveries in the early part of his life, we may notice a mode of producing pure emetic tartar by a new and easy process, which was published in some of the medical journals of that day. We inay also refer our readers to a late publication by the ingenious Dr. Parry, of Bath, wherein it appears, that the discovery of the cause of that dreadful malady, the anging pectoris, originated, with Dr. Jenner. Strong as was the attachment of Dr. Jenner to his

native valley, yet circumstances soon occurred, which rendered his presence in London absolutely necessary. We allude to his most happy discovery of Vaccine Inoculation; to the history of which we now hasten, as the most important part of this narrative.

For the discovery of the divine art of vaccination, we are indebted to a fortunate concurrence of circumstances; talents, education, and situation: to the talents of Dr. Jenner, his education under the celebrated Hunter, and his situation in the vale of Gloucester. His inquiry into the nature of the cow-pox commenced about the year 1776. His attention to this singular disease was first excited by observing, that among those whom he inoculated for the smallpox, many were insusceptible of that disorder. These persons, he was informed, had undergone the casual cow-pox, which had been known in the dairies from time immemorial, and a vague opinion had prevailed, that it was a preventive of the small-pox.

Dr. Jenner met with many apparent exceptions to this rule, which led him to ask the opinions of other medical practitioners in the neighbourhood, who all agreed, that the prophylactic power of the cow-pox was not to be relied on. This for a while damped, but did not extinguish his ardour; for he had the satisfaction to learn, that the cow was subject to various eruptions called the cow-pox, all of which were capable of infecting the hands of the milkers.

Having surmounted this obstacle, he formed a distinction between the different kinds of pustulous cruptions

eruptions to which the cow is liable; denominating one species the true, and all the others the spurious

cow-pox.

This impediment to his progress was not long rẻmoved, before another, of far greater magnitude in appearance, started up. Instances were not wanting to prove, that when the genuine cow-pox broke out in a dairy, some persons who had experienced the disease, resisted the small-pox; and others continued susceptible of that distemper.

This obstacle, as well as the former, gave a painful check to his fond aspiring hopes; but reflecting, that the operations of nature are for the most part uniform, and that when two persons have had the cow-pox, it is not probable one should be perfectly shielded from the small-pox, and the constitution of the other remain unprotected, he resumed his labours with redoubled ardour.

The result was fortunate; for he now discovered, that vaccine, as well as variolous matter, undergoes a change; and that when it has lost its specific property, it is still capable of communicating a pustulous cruption. Hence, a person who milks a cow one day, may receive the infection of the genuine cowpox, and be rendered for ever secure from the infec tion of the small-pox; while another, who milks the same cow the next day, may have a pustulous eruption, and perhaps a constitutional indisposition to a considerable extent, yet still remain susceptible of the varioious contagion.

While thus investigating the nature of the cow