Jenner provided for, his adherents had yet another end to achieve, namely, their own release from the burden of the Royal Jennerian Society, paralysed by the secession of Dr. Walker and the Friends and the establishment of the London Vaccine Institution. At first they had endeavoured to discredit the new Institution, even to the extent of distributing hand-bills like the following in the streets—
A Caution.
To persons desirous of obtaining Inoculation for the Cowpox Gratis under the sanction of
The Royal Jennerian Society.
Whereas, Doctor John Walker has, under various pretences, obstructed persons going to the Central House of this Society, the Public are hereby warned to be upon their guard against any insidious representations, the connection between Dr. Walker and the Society having ceased, and Dr. Knowles having been appointed the Resident Inoculator at the Society’s House, No. 14 Salisbury Square.
By Order of the Directors and Medical Council, 9th October, 1806.
It was all in vain. Walker was preferred to Sheridan Knowles backed by Jenner, whose friends had no liking for the support of the Society out of their own pockets. It was therefore planned to resort to Parliament for an annual subsidy so as dispense with the necessity of subscriptions. The managers of the London Vaccine Institution, learning what was on foot, naturally argued that if Government was to be thus propitious, it was they who had the better claim to assistance, and therefore prepared a petition setting forth their exertions in spreading Vaccine Inoculation. This interference with their scheme filled the Jennerians with fury, and Mr. John Fuller undertook to speak their mind in the House of Commons. When, therefore, on 2nd June, 1808, Sir Thomas Turton presented the petition, Fuller sprang to his feet and denounced it, saying a grosser forgery had never been submitted to the House.
The Speaker interposed. The petition had not been read. When it was, the House would be enabled to judge of its contents. Mr. Fuller resumed his seat amid general laughter. The petition having been read—
Mr. Fuller apologised for his abruptness. The petition was a gross cheat, a wicked trick to swindle the public; or, if it was not absolute swindling, it went very near the wind. When they came to solicit his subscription, he thought they represented some respectable corporation, but what did they turn out to be? A parcel of Quakers, or Presbyterians, or whatever else they were called. They had got five guineas from him, but the moment he detected them, he threatened them with a Bow Street officer and a charge of swindling, which soon frightened them into a re-delivery of his money. What a shame it was to see the cause of such fellows espoused by any man in that House! He did not suppose the Honourable Baronet shared in their gains, and he might laugh as he pleased, and spout like a lawyer, but it was a poor way to show himself off for the sake of a little notoriety among such despicable sectaries. He hoped the House would not lend any countenance to the imposture.
Sir Thomas Turton good humouredly replied, that the Jennerian Society, in whose interest the preceding speaker exhibited so much untempered zeal, was not instituted till 1803. The original Vaccine Pock Institution was established by Dr. Pearson in 1799. The Institution to which the petition referred was established in 1806, chiefly by members of the Society of Friends, a sect to whose virtuous principles and behaviour it was his privilege to bear testimony. Since 1806 the Institution had communicated the vaccine matter to 81,000 persons in every situation of life. The petitioners only desired to have the facts they adduced inquired into, and hoped for public aid only in the event of being entitled to it on public grounds.
This application for assistance by Walker’s Institution rendered its concession to the Jennerian Society impossible: it was not for the Government to get into hot water by showing favour to either; and as both could not be subsidised, it was determined to vary the application, and to ask the House of Commons to provide means for the maintenance of a new and independent institution from which “the Genuine Vaccine Virus could be distributed without expense throughout the British dominions.” Mr. George Rose, Treasurer to the Navy, took charge of the measure, which he introduced to the House on 9th June, 1808. After dealing with a notorious failure of Vaccination at Ringwood, he proceeded to observe, that whilst it could no longer be said that Vaccination was a certain security against Smallpox in all cases, yet the evidence showed that the failures were not one in 300. He would therefore move that the House having the testimony of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, that Vaccination was salutary and generally effective, it is desirable that a Central Institution be formed for the provision and distribution of Real Vaccine Matter, and that its administration be committed to the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in London. The expense would not be more than £2500 or £3000 per annum.
Mr. Davies Giddy said he should not oppose the resolution, but it would have been much better to have refrained from interference. The people would neglect inoculation, and then smallpox would break out with tenfold severity.
Mr. Fuller observed that Smallpox had been annihilated in Calcutta by systematic and enforced Vaccination, and he believed the same result was attainable in this country. He thought that even those who hesitated to resort to general compulsion, would not object to the Vaccination of all children in workhouses.
Sir T. Turton would have preferred a committee of investigation. There were already three Institutions in London for the express purpose of propagating cowpox, and the object Mr. Rose had in view was more likely to be attained by private subscriptions and by assistance from Government than by a special Institution formed and endowed by the State.
Lord Henry Petty contended that as the evidence was now confessedly incomplete as to the infallible efficacy of Vaccination, it was highly proper that investigation should be persevered in under the eye of the public instead of by a number of small institutions which were not perhaps altogether exempt from the imputation of being guided by mercenary motives.
Sir Francis Burdett said Vaccination appeared before them with a complexion widely differing from that originally assumed. A short time ago they were assured it was an infallible preventive of Smallpox, and that its practice was so simple that any old woman was equal to it. Now they were told that it was a very nice operation requiring great judgment and skill, the want of which was held to account for the many failures which had occurred. Thus there was neither that simplicity nor security which was originally asserted. Considering these manifest discrepancies between promise and practice, it was, he thought, most unwise for the House to intervene in order to help what appeared to be a failing experiment. They ought to be cautious—they ought not to prop up what might prove to be pernicious error. Government in this free country cannot compel people to submit to the prescriptions of physicians, or the operations of surgeons, or anything except the laws; and it was doubtful whether science itself would be benefitted if placed under Government direction. They were referred to the reports of the Medical Colleges, but as he read these reports he detected much hesitation and evasion, and anything but the assurance displayed on behalf of Vaccination by several members of the House. Many instances of failure were admitted, and such instances might safely be doubled. As for Spurious Cowpox he wished to know what it was. It was used to account for all mishaps, and it was, he suspected, a mere shift, shuffle, and get-off. [Sir Francis need not have spoken thus dubiously, for the Report of the Physicians admitted what he suspected.] He would much prefer a committee of investigation, and hoped the resolution would not be pressed.
Mr. Wilberforce brought up the foreign argument. There might be failures at home, but these could be satisfactorily accounted for. It was for them to consider the magnificent successes of Vaccination in other lands [Omne ignotum pro magnifico est], concerning which there was no room for doubt. He saw no surer method of inspiring the public with confidence in Vaccination than by the establishment of the proposed Institution.
Mr. Rose explained that he merely wished to bring the House to a resolution, leaving it to his Majesty [that was to say, himself for the Government] to give it effect.
Mr. George Canning, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, declared that though he considered the discovery of Vaccination to be of the greatest importance, yet he could not imagine any circumstances whatever that would induce him to follow up the most favourable report of its infallibility with any measure for its compulsory infliction.
This declaration of Canning is well worth attention and commemoration. It serves to mark the reverence for personal liberty, which was the fine distinction of the former order of English statesmen, and separated, when little else did, the English from the Continental Tory. The noble tradition of this liberty meets with scant favour in these times, and Canning’s avowal in the new House of Commons would be heard as an anachronism. Nearly every adventurer who has a prescription for the moral and physical welfare of his fellow creatures hopes to have it enforced by legislation; and since, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, our babes are cut and poisoned to save them from smallpox, there is no infraction of personal liberty, however outrageous, that can now be pronounced impossible.
When the House divided there were 60 for the motion and 5 against it—again a small House for so critical a matter.
With the permission to spend £3000 a year, the National Vaccine Establishment was constituted, Jenner being consulted in its organisation. A Board was formed, consisting of the President and four Censors of the Royal College of Physicians, and the Master and two senior Wardens of the College of Surgeons. The Board met on 8th December, 1808, and proceeded to business. Jenner, as was his fatality on important occasions, was absent, being detained at Berkeley by family affliction. He wrote to Moore—
I should be unworthy of the name of father were I to stir from my children. Indeed, nothing would make me, not even a royal mandate, unless accompanied by a troop of horse.
Jenner was elected Director, but not a member of the Board, and immediately began to protest that he was disregarded and subjected to indignity. “The Board,” he said, “appointed me Director, but they soon contrived to let me feel that I was to be a Director directed.” The arrangement he had made with Mr. Rose and Sir Lucas Pepys, the President of the College of Physicians, was, he held, altogether different—
It was stipulated between Mr. Rose, Sir Lucas, and myself, that no person should take any part in the Vaccinating Department who was not either nominated by me or submitted to my approbation. On my reminding Sir Lucas of this, he replied, “You, Sir, are to be whole and sole Director. We [meaning the Board] are to be considered as nothing. What do we know of Vaccination.”[139]
Sir Lucas of course was jeering, but Jenner’s head was so turned with vanity and flattery that he could not distinguish mockery from sincerity. He had constructed for himself a fool’s paradise, out of which the Board pitched him unceremoniously. He recommended his bludgeon bearer, John Ring, for Chief Vaccinator and Inspector of Stations, but the Board declined to have anything to do with him, and added insult to contempt; for in Jenner’s words, written in the third person—
They appointed a gentleman in his place who was taken from an Institution which had been personally hostile to Dr. Jenner on all occasions.
Subsequently he sent in a list of seven names for Sub-Vaccinators, of which the Board rejected five, which brought matters to a crisis, and he resigned. In the memorandum, from which I have quoted, he wrote—
By the whole of these circumstances, Dr. Jenner felt himself under the necessity of withdrawing from the establishment. He could take upon himself no responsibility where he had no power, not even a vote. He did not wish to control the establishment; nothing was further from his thoughts. But he expected that the practical part of its concerns would have been under his direction, as the title of his office implied; and he expected that those gentlemen whom, from a consciousness of their pre-eminent ability, he had so strongly recommended to conduct this practical part, would have been appointed. But as his recommendations have been disregarded—as arrangements and appointments have been made which are contrary to his judgment, and as he is informed by the Board that it was intended for them to use their own discretion, and that they alone are responsible for the conduct of the establishment, Dr. Jenner declined accepting the station of Director, to which they had nominated him, since he found that he was to have nothing to do in the establishment, and that his office was only a name.[140]
To those who did not know Jenner, or who accepted him at his own estimate, the treatment to which he was subjected might appear reprehensible; but the Board understood their man, and only cared to have the benefit of his name, for little else was worth having. What could be made of a character indolent and untrustworthy; who disliked London and was off to Gloucestershire on any pretext; whose sickly family had from him the supreme consideration of an affectionate mother! He wrote to Moore—
I agree with you that my not being a member of the British Vaccine Establishment will astonish the world; and no one in it can be more astonished than myself.
He was mistaken. The world, so far as it thought at all, considered he was handsomely rewarded with his £30,000, and with so much public money in his pocket might have looked for a better disposition on his part. When his nominations were disregarded, he declined even to come to London, and thus excused his sulking at Berkeley—
I was quite in earnest at the time I informed you of my intention to come to town, but while I was getting things in order there came a piece of information from a Right Hon. Gentleman which determined me to remain in my retirement. It was as follows—
That the Institution was formed for the purpose of a full and satisfactory investigation of the benefits or dangers of the Vaccine Practice, and that this was the reason why Dr. Jenner could not be admitted as one of the conductors of it, as the public would not have the same confidence in their proceedings as if the Board were left to their own judgment in doubtful cases.
This is the sum and substance of the communication—
What do we know of Vaccination?
We know nothing of Vaccination!
Alas! poor Vaccinia, how art thou degraded!
You intimated something of this sort to me some time since, and now I get it from the fountain head. An institution founded on the principle of inquiry seven or eight years ago, would have been worthy of the British nation; but now, after the whole world bears testimony to the safety and efficacy of the Vaccine Practice, I do think it a most extraordinary proceeding. It is one that must necessarily degrade me, and cannot exalt the framers of it in the eyes of common-sense. I shall now stick closely to my own Institution, which I have the pride and vanity to think is paramount to all others, as its extent and benefits are boundless. Of this I am the real and not the nominal Director. I have conducted the whole concern for no inconsiderable number of years, single-handed, and have spread Vaccination round the globe. This convinces me that simplicity in this, as in all effective machinery, is best.[141]
In the discussion in the House of Commons it was stated by his friend, Lord Henry Petty, that one of the objects of the Establishment would be investigation, and it was absurd for Jenner to pretend that the fact came upon him as a revelation; and, unless completely blinded by conceit, he must have recognised that the general faith in Vaccination exhibited in 1801 had been much shaken by the experience of the succeeding seven years. But it is idle to argue the matter. When Jenner could say that he single-handed had conducted the whole concern for years and spread Vaccination round the globe, he could assert anything. The letter is interesting chiefly as an exhibition of character.
We shall return to the National Vaccine Establishment and its management—a curious story. Suffice it for the present to observe, that its immediate effects were adverse to Vaccination. The annual endowment was consumed in salaries, and many ceased to subscribe to the Cowpox Societies since Vaccination was so well provided for. The essential mischief consisted in the recognition of the evil practice by the State, whereby it has been perpetuated to the common injury to our own day.
The national endowment of Vaccination afforded a convenient pretext for closing this Institution, founded by Dr. Pearson and his friends in 1799; but some said the true reason was involved in the following resolutions—
Vaccine Pock Institution,
Broad Street, Golden Square.
General Quarterly Court, Nov. 5, 1805.
Resolved—That according to the experience of the medical establishment of this Institution, it appears that the Inoculation for the Cowpock affords security against the Smallpox equally with Variolous Inoculation, and that the new practice possesses all the advantages already stated to the public.
Resolved—That, in order to give a further proof to the public, and to afford an inducement for information adverse to the new practice, the following proposal be made public, viz.:—That, in future, every patient who shall be vaccinated at this Institution, on discharge, shall receive a Certificate, stating that such patient has gone through the Cowpock, and engaging that if hereafter the said patient shall take the Smallpox, he or she shall be entitled to the sum of Five Guineas, to be paid from the funds of this Institution at the first General Court, after the proofs have been given, according to the rules of the medical establishment.
William Sancho, Secretary.
The offer attested the sincerity of the conductors of the Institution, but so many patients, it is said, laid claim to Five Guineas that it was not without satisfaction that a reasonable cause was afforded for shutting up.
Dr. Pearson held that it was impossible to be re-vaccinated. He argued that since no one could have Smallpox twice, no one could have the equivalent of Smallpox, namely Cowpox, twice. It was a logical contention; but facts did not correspond to the logic. Pearson also objected to the Variolous Test, or inoculation with Smallpox after inoculation with Cowpox to prove that the constitution was fortified against attack. He preferred Cowpox to Smallpox for the purpose, as milder and less liable to dangerous results. He found that after Cowpox it was impossible to have Cowpox—at least immediately. Hence he was confirmed in his opinion that Cowpox after Cowpox was impossible; just as others argued on the same grounds that Smallpox after Cowpox was impossible. Yet at this day none doubt that Pearson was in error; for all believe in the possibility of re-Vaccination, or Cowpox after Cowpox; likewise of Smallpox after Cowpox.