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--
If patriot Grattan gets £50,000 for his patriotism, the true
patriot Jenner deserves more: I am sure not less; and less would
be perfectly shabby to think of. I perfectly recollect Grattan’s
business. It was settled among his friends to propose £100,000
for him, determining to ask enough; and fearing that sum would
not be granted, one of his particular friends was to get up
afterwards and propose £50,000, which was immediately granted,
and he took £47,500 for prompt payment.
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.
The humble Petition of EDWARD JENNER, Doctor of Physic,
SHEWETH,
That your Petitioner having discovered that a disease which
occasionally exists in a particular form among cattle, known by
the name of the Cowpox, admits of being inoculated on the human
frame with the most perfect ease and safety, and is attended with
the singularly beneficial effect of rendering through life the
persons so inoculated perfectly secure from the infection of the
Smallpox.
That your Petitioner after a most attentive and laborious
investigation of the subject, setting aside considerations of
private and personal advantage, and anxious to promote the
safety and welfare of his Countrymen and of Mankind in general,
did not wish to conceal the Discovery he so made of the mode
of conducting this new species of Inoculation, but immediately
disclosed the whole to the public; and by communication with
medical men in all parts of this Kingdom, and in Foreign
Countries, sedulously endeavoured to spread the knowledge of his
discovery and the benefit of his labours as widely as possible.
That in this latter respect the views and wishes of your
Petitioner have been completely fulfilled; for to his high
gratification he has to say that this Inoculation is in practice
throughout a great proportion of the civilised world, and has in
particular been productive of great advantage to these Kingdoms,
in consequence of its being introduced, under authority, into the
Army and Navy.
That the said Inoculation hath already checked the progress of
the Smallpox, and from its nature must finally annihilate that
dreadful disorder.
That the series of experiments by which this discovery was
developed and completed have not only occupied a considerable
portion of your Petitioner’s life, and have not merely been
a cause of great expense and anxiety to him, but have so
interrupted him in the ordinary exercise of his profession as
materially to abridge its pecuniary advantages without their
being counter balanced by those derived from the new practice.
Your Petitioner, therefore, with the full persuasion that
he shall meet with that attention and indulgence of which
this Honourable House may deem him worthy, humbly prays this
Honourable House to take the premises into consideration, and
to grant him such remuneration as to their wisdom shall seem
meet.
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--
The disorder itself, and its specific property of securing
against Smallpox infection, _was not a discovery of Dr.
Jenner’s_; for in various parts of England, in Gloucestershire
and Devonshire particularly, there was an opinion of that sort
current among the common people employed in dairies, which
the observations of the inoculators for the Smallpox tended
to confirm. It appears not improbable that in some very rare
instances this knowledge was carried one step farther, and that
the Cowpox was communicated either by handling the teat, or
by inoculation from the animal, for the purpose and with the
intention of securing against the danger of Smallpox; but the
practice of which Dr. Jenner asserts himself to be the original
Inventor is, the inoculation from one human being to another, and
the mode of transferring indefinitely, the vaccine matter without
any diminution of its specific power, to which it does not appear
that any person has ever alleged a title.
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--
With pride, with just and national pride, we boast a Newton and
a Harvey; posterity will boast a Jenner![126]
Considering the value set on “the great discovery,” the award of
£10,000 was not excessive. In the _Medical Journal_ it stands
recorded--
We have never witnessed a more unanimous and general
disappointment than that which has been expressed, not only by
the profession, but by the public at large, at the smallness of
the remuneration.[127]
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.
FOOTNOTES:
[126] _Medical Journal_, January, 1802.
[127] _Ib._ July, 1802.