entioned, upon which she observed, "I cannot take that disease, for I
have had the cowpox." This was sufficient to excite the attention of
Jenner, and the incident never escaped his recollection. It is easier to
conceive than to express the emotions which would naturally spring from
reflection on such a subject; his benevolent feelings were at once
aroused to full activity; he pictured to himself all the horrors of that
pestilential and most loathsome disease, disfiguring Nature's greatest
work, slaying thousands upon thousands, and he was yet sufficiently
young to recollect the severity of discipline to which he had himself
submitted in the process preparatory to the practice of inoculation,
which, to use his own words, in that day was no less than that of
"bleeding till the blood was thin; purging till the body was wasted to a
skeleton; and starving on vegetable diet to keep it so."

The patience manifested by Jenner in the prosecution of his inquiry into
the cowpox, the scrutiny to which he subjected every appearance that
presented itself, and the fortitude with which he withstood every
untoward circumstance entitle him to all praise and show forth his
great capabilities for conducting a philosophical investigation. He
divested the subject of all its difficulties and obscurities, and gave
to "vague, inapplicable and useless rumor the certainty and precision of
scientific knowledge." The extent of his anticipations upon this truly
momentous subject do not appear to have been fully stated until 1780,
ten years subsequent to his mention of it to John Hunter. He then
confidentially disclosed to his intimate friend, Edward Gardner--who
gave evidence upon the subject before the committee of the House of
Commons--the opinions he entertained upon the natural history of the
cowpox; dated its origin from the diseased heel of a horse; alluded to
the different diseases with which the hands of the milkers became
affected from handling the infected cows; distinguished that which was
calculated to afford security against the smallpox; and divulged the
hope he entertained of being able finally to eradicate that disease from
the face of the globe. Doctor Baron has recorded the remarkable words
with which this important communication was made:

"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