Public health : a popular introduction to sanitary sicence. : Being a history of the prevalent and fatal diseases of the English population from the earliest times to the end of the eighteenth century / By William A. Guy, M.B. Cantab., F.R.S. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

  • Guy, William A. (William Augustus), 1810-1885.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Public health : a popular introduction to sanitary sicence. : Being a history of the prevalent and fatal diseases of the English population from the earliest times to the end of the eighteenth century / By William A. Guy, M.B. Cantab., F.R.S. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    come widiin the scope of these lectures; and I shall refer to it, therefore, only as far as may be necessary to prove its value. The history of Vaccination is, to a degree quite unusual with great discoveries, that of the discoverer himself. I shall, therefore, treat Jenner in this lecture as I did Howard in my last. I shall blend the history of the dis- covery with the life of the man. These are the leading facts of Jenner's history. He was born May 17, 1749; the son of a clergyman. He was apprenticed, at the usual age, to a surgeon at Sodbury, near Bristol. On the expiration of his articles, he came to London to finish his studies, and lived in the house of the celebrated John Hunter two years, with my grandfather as fellow-pupil. He then established himself in practice in his native town—Berkeley, in Gloucestershire; took the degree of M.D. at St. Andrews in 1792; made his first experiment in 1795; published the results of his experi- ments in 17985 received, in two Parliamentary grants, the sum of 30,000/., in 1802 and 18073 lived to see the triumph of vaccination, and died in 1823, 74 years of age. And now as to the discovery itself. Jenner was born, apprenticed, and settled in practice in a county in which the cow-pox prevailed. It does not occur in all the coun- ties of England. Fortunately, during his apprenticeship, a young woman came into his master's surgery, and hap- pening to speak about small-pox and its dangers, said, I cannot take the disease, for I have had the cow-pox. This remark, coinciding as it did with the popular belief, made a strong impression on his mind. Other medical pupils and other medical men must have heard the same remark, and known of this popular belief; but Jenner alone stored it up as matter for thought and further inquiry. He spoke about it to John Hunter, and, on settling at Berkeley, often talked of it at his medical club, till his brethren