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CHAPTER X.

JENNER BEFORE PARLIAMENT, 1802.

Jenner was timid and indolent, and, though eager for reward, required much prompting to use the means to the end on which his heart was set. He wrote to Lord Sherborne to speak for him to Prime Minister Addington; but Sherborne replied, 23rd April, 1801, that he did not know Addington even by sight. He would however try to see Mr. Pitt, adding for encouragement and direction—

Action had to be taken, and on 9th December, 1801, Jenner went to London to prepare a petition to the House of Commons and to canvass for support. Even at the last moment, Wilberforce had to warn him, 24th February, 1802, that no time was to be lost, or he would lose his chance for the year. After prolonged consultation with those accustomed to such business, the petition was got ready, and on 17th March, 1802, it was presented to the House of Commons.

Patriot Grattan asked for £100,000, was awarded £50,000, and took £47,500: “true patriot Jenner deserves more,” said Lord Sherborne; but Jenner had not courage for the demand. What, however, was undefined in cash was made up for in pretension.

As we read Jenner’s petition we note (1) the Discovery; (2) its Disclosure and Diffusion; (3) the Expense thereby incurred; and (4) the Prophecies; and under these heads it is to be observed—

1.—It was no discovery of Jenner’s that cowpox was inoculable and preventive of smallpox. That was a rural superstition. Nor, be it again repeated, did he ever become responsible for that rural superstition. Recognising its futility, he deliberately set it aside, and recommended a disease of the horse, transmitted through the cow, for inoculation. It was Pearson, who disliking Jenner’s prescription, brought cowpox into vogue; whereon Jenner, fearing that he might be cut out of the enterprise, dropped his specific, adopted the cowpox he had rejected, and claimed Pearson’s work as the development of his own.

2.—That he disclosed his discovery was true, but it was not the discovery set forth in the petition. Moreover the merit of disclosure in such a case is measured by the advantage of concealment; and what could Jenner have taken by concealment? The conditions of successful quackery were not present in the secret practice of inoculation with horsegrease cowpox.

3.—That the discovery occupied a considerable portion of Jenner’s life, and was attended with great expense and loss of practice, is answered by reference to his Inquiry. With what loss of time, loss of money, and loss of practice could the series of cases therein set forth have been attended? And after 1798, he confessed he was able to achieve little further.

4.—As for the prophecies about the absolute security afforded by cowpox with the final extermination of smallpox, we may estimate the worth of such vapouring by the asserted check at that time, 1801, administered to the disease, when as yet an insignificant fraction of the population had been subjected to the New Inoculation, and a fraction, too, least likely to suffer from smallpox.

Petitions are petitions, and not designed for over-much scrutiny. In them truth is rarely to be looked for otherwise than warped to personal ends. The policy of a petition is to claim in excess with a view to obtain a larger concession. Jenner’s petition was a more than usually flagrant instance of this policy, with the disadvantage that much of its untruth passed into currency as matter of fact.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Addington (afterwards Viscount Sidmouth), informed the House that he had taken the King’s pleasure on the contents of the petition, and that his Majesty recommended it strongly to the consideration of Parliament. It was referred to a committee, of which Admiral Berkeley, a zealous believer in Jenner, was appointed chairman. The points to which the committee chiefly directed their inquiries were—

I.—The utility of the discovery itself.

II.—The right of the petitioner to the discovery.

III.—The sacrifices of the petitioner in making the discovery.

As an investigation the work of the Committee was illusory. The points were decided in the petitioner’s favour from the outset. There was no opposition. Dr. Moseley, Mr. Birch, and Dr. Rowley, who became active opponents of the New Inoculation, were summoned, but the matter was new to them; they had not had time to collect evidence and formulate conclusions: a rite that was to protect for a lifetime and to annihilate smallpox, announced in 1798, was to be adjudicated upon in 1802! On the other hand, Jenner’s friends were influential and active, and used the opportunity to parade their whole strength in his favour. The medical testimony especially was unreserved and enthusiastic.

Dr. James Sims, president of the London Medical Society, laid before the Committee a unanimous resolution of the Society in Jenner’s favour. He said he was at first adverse to Vaccine Inoculation, but his confidence in it was increasing every hour. It introduced no other disease to the human frame, whilst it made an end of the possibility of smallpox, a disease that proved fatal to one in six of those it attacked. He had never heard of Cowpox before the publication of The Inquiry, and regarded the discovery therein communicated as the most useful ever made in medicine. If Jenner had kept and traded on his secret, he might have become the richest man in the kingdom.

Sir Gilbert Blane related how the New Inoculation had been introduced to the Navy. He had had the men on board the Kent, man-of-war, inoculated with cowpox, and then with smallpox, and not one took the latter disease. Of every thousand deaths in the country, smallpox was accountable for ninety-five. Taking London as the standard, 45,000 must perish annually from smallpox in the United Kingdom. As soon as the preventive discovered by Jenner became universal that large mortality would cease.

Dr. Lettsom, a popular physician, a member of the Society of Friends, and an enthusiastic supporter of Jenner, said he had paid much attention to smallpox statistics. Taking London and the out-parishes as containing nearly 1,000,000 inhabitants, he calculated that eight a day, or 3000 annually died of smallpox. Allowing Great Britain and Ireland to have a population of 12,000,000, that would give a mortality of not less than 36,000 per annum from smallpox. He had reason to conclude that about 60,000 persons had undergone the New Inoculation up to date. He did not think that the genuine cowpox when inoculated could ever prove fatal. Had Jenner kept his remedy secret he might have derived immense pecuniary profits from it, as did the Suttons by their improved practice of variolous inoculation.

Asked whether he had known any inoculated with smallpox subsequently contract smallpox, he replied that he had two relatives inoculated who afterwards had smallpox, and one of them died. He had recently attended two families, in each of which a child inoculated was laid up a year after the operation with smallpox.

Dr. Woodville, forgiving Jenner’s evil treatment, came, like a good Friend, to bear witness to the new practice. He had learnt to prefer vaccine to variolous inoculation at the Hospital. He had, up to January, 1802, operated with cowpox on 7,500 patients. About half of them had been subjected to the Variolous Test with satisfactory results.

Dr. Bradley, physician to the Westminster Hospital, said he looked on Jenner as the author of Vaccine Inoculation, and believed no medical man doubted it. As accidental inoculation with cowpox was proved to keep off smallpox for life, it was matter of course that intentional inoculation would do so also. Not less than 2,000,000 of persons had received Vaccine Inoculation, and he had never known an instance of any one dying of it. One in 300 died of smallpox inoculation in England, and not less than one in 150 throughout the rest of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Had Jenner settled in London he might have made £10,000 per annum for the first five years, and double that sum afterwards.

Sir Walter Farquhar, physician to the Prince of Wales, had told Jenner that if he had come to London and kept his secret, he would have ensured him £10,000 a year. He had however divulged his secret and lost all chance of emolument. His remedy was a permanent security against smallpox, and had never proved fatal; whilst variolous inoculation, performed in the best manner, cost one life in three hundred.

Mr. Cline, surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital, corroborated the opinion that Jenner could have earned £10,000 a year in London by means of his secret. As smallpox was the most destructive of all diseases, its suppression was the greatest discovery ever made in the practice of physic.

Mr. John Griffiths, surgeon to the Queen’s Household and St. George’s Hospital, had inoculated upwards of 1500 persons with cowpox without any untoward symptoms.

Mr. James Simpson, surgeon to the Surrey Dispensary, had inoculated between fifty and sixty without any injury. Considered them perfectly secure from smallpox. A child of nine months covered with crusta lactea resisted all the usual remedies, but on the tenth day after he had inoculated it with cowpox, the crust began to disappear, and the twelfth day was entirely gone.

Dr. Joseph Marshall related his experience as a vaccine inoculator in the Navy and at Gibraltar, Malta, Palermo, Naples, Rome and Genoa. Everywhere was successful. Believed he had operated on 10,000, and never witnessed any ill consequences whatever. On the contrary, children in a weak state of health, after passing through the vaccine infection, began to thrive and become vigorous.

Mr. John Addington, surgeon, had used Jenner’s remedy since 1799 in eighty-one cases. One third of these he had inoculated with smallpox, and subjected to every method of infection he could devise, but found them perfectly proof against the disease.

Dr. Skey, physician to the Worcester Hospital, testified that in the spring of 1801 smallpox was epidemic in Worcester. He inoculated a number of children with cowpox, and none of them took smallpox although constantly exposed to contagion.

Dr. Thornton, physician to the Marylebone Dispensary, had inoculated a patient with cowpox, and afterwards with smallpox at twelve different times during the past three years without effect. He had even slept with a person in natural smallpox, who died, but took no harm. When at Lord Lonsdale’s in the North he had operated on upwards of a thousand, and had completely satisfied himself, and all the medical practitioners in that part of England, that cowpox was a mild disease, hardly deserving the name of a disease. It was not contagious; it never disfigured the person, never produced blindness, nor excited other diseases. It was equally safe whether during the period of pregnancy, or the earliest infancy, or extreme old age.

Dr. Baillie then gave his influential judgment. He thought cowpox an extremely mild disease, and when a patient had properly undergone it, he was perfectly secure from the future infection of smallpox: and further, if Dr. Jenner had not chosen openly and honourably to explain to the public all he knew upon the subject, he might have acquired a considerable fortune. In his opinion it was the most important discovery ever made in medicine.

Mr. David Taylor, surgeon of Wootton-under-Edge, had inoculated about two thousand persons with cowpox without a single failure, nor had he met with any ulcerations, tumours, or other diseases following the operation. He knew Jenner’s practice in Gloucestershire. It was in a very populous neighbourhood where there was not another physician within sixteen miles. He had surrendered an income of £600 a year to devote himself to the public service.

As a final specimen of this medical evidence I may cite Mr. John Ring, the petitioner’s henchman. He considered Jenner the author of Vaccine Inoculation, a discovery the most valuable and important ever made by man. It was a perfect and permanent security against smallpox. He had himself inoculated about 1200, of whom a thousand had exposed themselves to smallpox infection with impunity. There was no danger whatever from the New Inoculation unless from ignorance and neglect. One in every hundred inoculated with smallpox in London died, owing to the unwholesome atmosphere and the necessity of operating on children at an improper age. If Jenner had kept his discovery to himself he might have made £10,000 a year by it; for others had got as much or more by the practice of physic.

This evidence, better than any secondary description, will enable the reader to appreciate the prevalent furore as it affected the leaders of the medical world. At the same time it is to be borne in mind that the craze was superficial. Any radical change in conviction or practice is never accomplished thus easily or thus rapidly. The medical men who bore witness for cowpox had been bred to inoculation with smallpox, for which cowpox was substituted. The change was essentially trivial. The trouble, the danger, and the uncertainty of variolous inoculation were generally recognised, and when cowpox was recommended as a mild form of smallpox, it was not difficult to appreciate the asserted advantage: for, as it was argued, no one can have smallpox twice, and as the mildest attack of smallpox is as prohibitive of a second attack as the severest, therefore cowpox (which is smallpox in mild form) must protect as effectually when inoculated. With logic so admirable, it was in nowise wonderful that so many were carried away; but unfortunately, as so often happens, matter-of-fact did not correspond to the admirable logic.

The Duke of Clarence testified that he had availed himself of Jenner’s discovery from the outset. His children, his household and farm servants were all protected. A postillion positively refused to be operated on, and eighteen months after he caught smallpox in the most virulent form. Children who had undergone cowpox were constantly in the room where the lad lay and suffered no harm.

The Earl of Berkeley had his son inoculated with cowpox by Dr. Jenner at the age of six months. One of his maid-servants took smallpox and died, and the effluvia during her illness was so offensive that his servants had to move to another part of the house. To test the reality of his son’s protection, he sent for Jenner, and got him to inoculate the boy with pox from the maid. The child was found to be proof, for the inoculation had no effect—To illustrate the validity of the Gloucestershire tradition, he related how a man of 72 in his service had caught cowpox when a boy of 15 whilst milking, and in consequence always reckoned himself secure from smallpox, exposing himself to the disease with complete indifference.

Lord Rous gave similar evidence. His child had been inoculated with cowpox at the age of three months, and he was perfectly satisfied that he could never have smallpox.

Then there were lay practitioners, of whom Jenner’s nephew, the Rev. G. C. Jenner, may be taken as an example. He bore witness that he had inoculated 3000 with cowpox without a single unfavourable case, from the earliest infancy to eighty years of age, and under circumstances in which it would not be prudent to use variolous virus; as, for example, children during teething and women in every stage of pregnancy. Upwards of two hundred of his patients had been afterwards inoculated with smallpox matter, and an equal number exposed to variolous effluvia, and in no instance did smallpox ensue. He was satisfied that as soon as the new practice became universal, smallpox would be annihilated.

An early date being wanted for “the discovery,” Edward Gardner, wine and spirit dealer, was brought from Gloucester to affirm that he had known Jenner for more than twenty-two years, and had been in the constant habit of hearing his medical opinions and discoveries. It was in the month of May, 1780, that Jenner first informed him concerning the nature of cowpox as a sure preventive of smallpox, and of the theory he had formed on the subject; declaring his full and perfect confidence that the virus might be continued in perpetuity from one human being to another until smallpox was extinguished.

It is needless to stigmatise Gardner’s testimony afresh. It possibly had its foundation in Jenner discussing the familiar rural faith in cowpox. Sir Everard Home mentioned to the Committee that Jenner had brought a drawing to London in 1788 of Variolæ Vaccinæ as it appeared on the finger of a milker, and had shown it to John Hunter, who advised him to look further into the matter; but it was not pretended that he spoke to Hunter of the matured conviction revealed to Gardner eight years before.

The Committee heard evidence as to the knowledge and use of cowpox apart from Jenner, and their verdict was given as follows—

Thus the Committee disallowed Jenner’s claim, whilst indicating the only colourable point of novelty, namely, the transfer from arm to arm of virus. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that inoculation from arm to arm with “mild kinds of smallpox” was an existing practice, and there was little merit to speak of in Jenner doing the same thing with horse or cowpox.

There was no opposition—no devil’s advocate; but it may be held that Dr. Pearson assumed that office. He was heard with impatience, and afterwards delivered his mind in An Examination, to which we shall presently refer.

The Report to the House was brought up on the 2nd of June, 1802, and was conclusive as to the utility of the discovery. Indeed, the evidence on that head was only cut short because it threatened to be interminable. The judgment of the Committee reiterated the common persuasion—“As soon as the New Inoculation becomes universal, it must absolutely extinguish one of the most destructive disorders by which the human race has been visited.”

Admiral Berkeley, chairman of the Committee, commended the Report to the House. He considered the discovery as unquestionably the greatest ever made for the preservation of the human species. It was proved that in the United Kingdom 45,000 perished annually from smallpox; but throughout the world what was the desolation! Not a second struck but a victim was sacrificed at the altar of that most horrible of diseases. He should therefore move that a sum of not less than £10,000 be granted to the Petitioner, but if the House thought fit to adopt any larger sum, he should hold himself free to vote for it. Why, Dr. Jenner’s expenses in postage alone had been from 25s. to 30s. a day!

Sir Henry Mildmay did not think £10,000 at all adequate. Had Jenner kept his secret he might have made at least £100,000. He moved that he should have £20,000.

Mr. Windham said the petitioner had surrendered his discovery to his country, and was therefore entitled to remuneration. The discovery had been the labour of years and the fruit of extensive practice.

Sir James Sinclair Erskine was assured that Jenner had expended £6000 in the propagation of his discovery, and if he had £10,000, he would be left with no more than £4000. Besides, he had given up a practice of £600 a year to benefit his fellow-creatures.

Mr. Courtney observed that the evidence showed that 40,000 men would be annually preserved to the State by the New Inoculation. These would return £200,000 a year to the Exchequer, and if the Petitioner had only a tithe of that sum for one year, he was entitled to £20,000.

Mr. Wilberforce stated that Jenner had spent upwards of twenty years in completing his discovery. He was no adventurer seeking to push himself before the world. He had already attained to great celebrity in his profession, and had sacrificed his practice for the public good. In every view he thought the larger sum ought to be granted.

Mr. Grey thought £10,000 would be no more than an indemnity for expenses. He hoped the House would vote for £20,000.

Mr. Banks said there was no question as to the utility of the discovery. If he felt more niggardly than other members, it was because his paramount duty consisted in guarding the public purse. That purse was a large one, but it was not to be dipped into at pleasure. The strength of the country lay in economy and sound finance. He did not see that a case had been made out for so large a sum as £10,000. The discovery itself might be trusted to pay its author. He always looked on a Report of a Committee with jealousy, for it was controlled by the friends of the Petitioner, and there was no one with sufficient motive to provide the correctives required in the public interest.

Mr. Addington, Chancellor of the Exchequer, held that the value of the discovery was without example, and beyond calculation. So much, indeed, was not contested. The Petitioner had received the highest reward in the approbation, the unanimous approbation of the House; an approbation richly deserved, since it was the result of the greatest discovery since the creation of man. Whatever money the House might see fit to vote on some future occasion, his present duty was to recommend the smaller sum of £10,000. In doing so, he admitted, he surrendered his private inclination to his sense of public duty. He had, however, the satisfaction in knowing that this discussion had conferred on Dr. Jenner a reward that would endure for ever, whilst the comfort of his family would be amply ensured in the extension of practice that would follow the approbation of the House.

The question was then put that the words £10,000 do stand part of the resolution; when the Committee divided—Ayes 59, Noes 56, Majority 3.

The discussion in the House of Commons shows how wide was the general craze. Facts and figures were evolved at discretion and repeated indiscriminately. To rave about Jenner, the saviour from smallpox, was the mode. It was as if all had consented to go mad together. Mr. Dunning, a surgeon, otherwise rational, broke into prophetic fury—

Considering the value set on “the great discovery,” the award of £10,000 was not excessive. In the Medical Journal it stands recorded—

On the other hand, it is to be remembered that the times were dark and hard, cruelly hard, through war and scanty harvests; the quartern loaf selling at 1s. 11d., a significant index of the people’s misery.