his lordship has great weight and authority, because his speeches are known and felt to be the lessons of experience and wisdom. DR. JENNER. "Te mater omnis, te lachrymabilis Orba virum, puerosque plorét. Seu confluentes forte timet notas Delicias juvenum futuras." OF all public characters, he justly claims the first honours, and the first rank, in biography, who by the diligent and successful exertion of his talents, most effectually promotes the public good. We are therefore secure of the approbation of our readers, in assigning a place in this volume to Dr. Jenner, It is with peculiar pleasure the mind, satiated and disgusted with the contemplation of the political world, with the continual revolutions of empires, the inordinate ambition of potentates, the sanguinary deeds of heroes, and the artful machinations of statesmen, turns to an object where it can find reposc. On such a theme, the pen of panegyric dwells with delight. Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Let others celebrate their triumphs: while we offer the humble tribute of our applause at the shrine of Jenner,-a shrine not polluted with blood! 1802-3. C The The discovery we celebrate, is the pride of Britain, the boast of science, and the glory of the healing art. The victory we commemorate, is a victory of man,-not over man, but over a cruel and unrelenting disease. It is a victory, over which humanity will never mourn. Vaccine Inoculation is, beyond all comparison, the most valuable, and the most important discovery, ever made. It is a discovery, to which even that of Harvey must yield the palm. It strikes one out of the catalogue of human evils: it annihilates a disease, which has ever been considered as the most dreadful scourge of mankind. A Roman who preserved the life of one citizen, was rewarded with a civic crown. What crown shall be presented to him, who preserves the lives of millions? Divine honours were paid to Hippocrates, for exterminating the plague from Athens for a season. What honours shall be paid to him, who exterminates a more destructive pestilence for ever, from the face of the whole earth? Wealth and titles are the recompense for desert in arms; for the desolation of provinces, and the destruction of human kind. In a more enlightened age, and a more advanced state of civilization, similar encouragement will be held forth, for those who excel in peaceful pursuits, and meliorate the condition of man: Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes, Dr. Edward Jenner is the youngest son of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, M. A. of the University of Oxford, rector 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 pursuits C 2 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 1 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 may 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 anginy pectoris, originated with Dr. Jenner. Strong as was the attachment of Dr. Jenner to his |