Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Vaccination Burke'd. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![& Cox [turn Reprinted from St. George’s Hospital Gazette, January, 1899.] /. “ The age of compulsion is gone: the scruples of conscience are allowed: and the glory of Jenner has departed for—five years at least. It is 1798. The Irish Rebellion is over : “ Vinegar Hill ” has been fought and won : and—we have just received a copy of “An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolce Vaccince,” by one Edward Jenner. A Prophet is said to have no honour in his own country, and Jenner was a Prophet. His friend Cline says to him : “ Come to London and pocket the ten thousand a year which is awaiting^ you.” Says Jenner : “ Shall I, who even in the morning of my days sought the lowly and sequestered paths of life—the valley and not the mountain ; shall I, now my evening is fast approaching, hold myself up as an object for fortune and for fame? Ad- mitting it as a certainty that I obtain both, what stock should I add to my little fund of happiness ? My fortune, with what flows in from my pro- fession, is sufficient to gratify my wishes ; indeed, so limited is my ambition and that of my nearest connexions, that were I precluded from future practice, I should be enabled to obtain all I want. And as for fame, ivhat is it ? A gilded butt, for ever pierced with the arrows of malignancy.” #•#*#*** A century has passed. Mr. Speaker has just declared that the “Ayes have it, and the Bill before the House needs only the Royal Assent to become the Vaccination Act of 1898. Exit Common-Sense : enter the Conscientious Objector. If you believe in “spooks,” come with me to Norfolk Street and we will see if the genial editor of Borderland can put us in communication with the spirit of Edward Jenner, erstwhile of Berkeley in the county of Gloucester. We send up our card, in response to which the medium promises to see what he can do and, taking a seat, we silently await the spook’s reply. Suddenly there is a shuffle and a voice says : “ Are you there ” ? We venture an affirmative. The voice proceeds : “ Dr. Jenner left home on August 12th* and has not been, heard of since. He talked of going to Germany,”t We recognise * The date of the passing of the Vaccination Act, 1898. f In which country both vaccination and re-vaccination are compulsory.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22378261_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
