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JEN
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JEN

has escaped the small-pox; and not on any efficacy of that disorder which they may have received from the cow. In short, the evidence is altogether so inconclusive and unsatisfactory that we put no value on it, and cannot think that it will lead to anything but uncertainty and disappointment." It is related that at the meetings of the Alveston Medical Club, he frequently introduced the subject as a topic of discussion, but he failed to communicate his own enthusiasm to his hearers, who at last became so bored with his constant recurrence to what they considered a vague notion, that they sportively threatened to expel him if he continued to harass them with so unprofitable a subject. Determination of purpose was, however, a leading characteristic in Jenner, and regardless of the arguments and ridicule of his friends, he continued to prosecute his inquiries. He discovered that cows were the subjects of at least two eruptive diseases which were capable of producing sores on the hands of those employed in milking, and that to both these affections the name of cow-pox was applied. It was only one of these diseases, however, which gave immunity from small-pox. He ascertained also another most important fact, that in the case of the true cow-pox, it was only in a certain state of the pustule that virus was yielded capable of affording a protective power. He found that matter taken at a later period might induce a local sore, but that it failed in bestowing any safety from variolous contagion. It was in the year 1780 that he first disclosed the result of his inquiries to his friend Edward Gardner. He was riding with him on the road between Gloucester and Bristol, near Newport, when he turned the conversation upon the natural history of the cow-pox; he stated that it was his opinion that the disease in question had its origin in a malady, known as the grease, affecting the heels of horses; he specified the different communicated sores to which the hands of milkers were liable, and dwelt upon the true variety and its prophylactic power. He concluded in the following words:—"Gardner, I have intrusted a most important matter to you, which I firmly believe will prove of essential benefit to the human race. I know you, and should not wish what I have stated to be brought into conversation; for should anything untoward turn up in my experiments, I should be made, particularly by my medical brethren, the subject of ridicule, for I am the mark they all shoot at." In the year 1788 he took a drawing of the casual disease as it occurs on the hands of milkers to London, and showed it to Sir Everard Home and others. The subject attracted some attention; and Dr. Adams, who had heard of it from Mr. Cline, mentioned it in his work on Morbid Poisons, which appeared in 1795. It was not until a year later, 1796, that Jenner was able to institute the first experiment, which proved that the disease might be communicated by artificial inoculation. The following is Jenner's own report of the experiment, extracted from one of his letters to Edward Gardner:—"As I promised to let you know how I proceeded in my inquiry into the nature of that singular disease, the cow-pox, and being fully satisfied how much you feel interested in its success, you will be gratified in hearing that I have at length accomplished what I have been so long waiting for, the passing of the vaccine virus from one human being to another by the ordinary mode of inoculation. A boy of the name of Phipps was inoculated in the arm from a pustule on the hand of a young woman (Sarah Nelmes) who was infected by her master's cows. Having never seen the disease but in its casual way before, that is, when communicated from the cow to the hand of the milker, I was astonished at the close resemblance of the pustules, in some of their stages, to the variolous pustules. But now listen to the most delightful part of my story. The boy has since been inoculated for the smallpox, which, as I ventured to predict, produced no effect. I shall now pursue my experiments with redoubled ardour." The experiment above referred to was performed on the 14th May, 1796, a day still celebrated as an annual festival at Berlin. After multiplying his experiments, Jenner published his first Memoir in June, 1798. Originally he had intended that it should appear in the Transactions of the Royal Society, but he was admonished by his friends to publish it separately, lest it should injure the position he had obtained amongst men of science by his paper on the cuckoo. The progress of vaccination was darkened at the outset by various disappointments and obstacles. Objectors were numerous, and rival claims to the merit of the discovery were set up. But a high tribute to Jenner was paid as early as the year 1799, when a large number of leading physicians and surgeons signed an earnest expression of their confidence in the efficacy of the cow-pox. The discovery was soon afterwards promulgated throughout civilized Europe and America, and it was introduced into Asia by Dr. De Carro, at that time a physician of Vienna. Honours were showered on Jenner by foreign princes, and by the principal learned societies of Europe; the royal family of England exerted themselves to promote the cause of vaccination; and parliament voted to its discoverer, in the year 1802, a grant of £10,000, and in the year 1807 an additional grant of £20,000. The latter days of Jenner's life were passed principally at Berkeley and Cheltenham, and were occupied in the dissemination and elucidation of his great discovery. He died of apoplexy at Berkeley in February, 1823, and left behind him a fame and reputation that may be well summed up in the sentence which Professor Rudolphi affixed to the name of Jenner in his catalogue of the medals of men of science—"Dear to the human race."—F. C. W.

JENNINGS, David, an eminent dissenting minister of last century, was born at Kibworth in Leicestershire in 1691. His father had been one of the ejected nonconformists. He finished his studies in one of the dissenting academies of London, under the care of Dr. Chauncey, was appointed one of the preachers at an evening lecture at Rotherhithe, and in 1716 was chosen assistant preacher at the meeting assembling near Haberdashers' hall. Two years later he received a call to become pastor of the Congregational church of Old Gravel Lane, Wapping, and in this office he continued for the long period of forty-four years. He was one of those ministers who refused to sign certain articles relating to the doctrine of the Trinity proposed by an influential party of the nonconformist ministers assembling at Salters' hall. But this refusal in his case did not spring from any unsoundness in his own theological views. In 1740 he wrote against Dr. John Taylor in defence of the doctrine of original sin. In 1743 he was elected a trustee of Mr. Coward's charities, and in the following year he was appointed under the same trust a theological tutor in Coward's academy or college. In this office he attained great distinction by his proficiency in some branches of theological learning, and also by his tutorial skill and success. In 1747 he published "An Introduction to the use of the Globes," &c., which continued to be a popular book for many years. In 1749 the university of St. Andrews conferred upon him the degree of D.D. He died in 1762, after having educated many men for the ministry who afterwards became distinguished in their sacred calling. His principal work was a "Treatise on Jewish Antiquities," consisting of lectures on the first three books of Goodwin's Moses and Aaron, in 2 vols. 8vo. This was a work of considerable merit, and continued long in use, though now superseded by more recent publications on the same subject. He also published "An Appeal to Reason and Common Sense for the Truth of the Holy Scriptures."—P. L.

JENNINGS, Henry Constantine, an antiquary and virtuoso, distinguished by his extravagance, his eccentricities, and the singular vicissitudes of his fortunes, was born in 1731 at his father's mansion of Shiplake in the county of Oxford. He was educated at Westminster school, and in 1748 obtained a commission in the 1st regiment of foot guards, with which he served for a short time on the continent; but soon becoming tired of the army, he threw up his commission, and continued his continental travels as a private gentleman. After spending eight years in Italy he returned to England, and by his losses on the turf and his extravagance in purchasing objects of vertu at enormous prices, he soon squandered the fine patrimonial property. He eluded his creditors for some years, but in 1777 was thrown into the king's bench, where Horne Tooke was his companion. He recovered himself by marrying a lady with some money, and settled in Essex, where he again commenced collecting antiquities, masterpieces of art, medals, books, manuscripts, and rare specimens of natural history. This involved him a second time in debt; his fine collection was brought to the hammer, and he became an inmate of Chelmsford jail. When liberated, his wife's fortune enabled him to settle at Chelsea, and he again collected a valuable museum, which was a third time sold by auction in 1816; and the owner died within the rules of the king's bench in 1819, leaving directions that his body should be burned, and his ashes deposited in an urn. He wrote "An endeavour to prove that Reason is alone sufficient for the firm establishment of Religion;" "Physical Enquiries into the Powers and Properties of Spirit;" and some other treatises, which were printed for private circulation.—G. BL.