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has created an impression so general or profound. People
living at the latter end of the nineteenth century, unacquainted
with small pox in its eighteenth century dress,
find a difficulty in comprehending the magnitude of the
service rendered, or the display of gratitude with which that
service was received. To understand the nature of the
benefit conferred upon the human race by Edward Jenner,
I we should acquaint ourselves with the condition under which
I the people of his day lived. Small pox was then the scourge
of mankind. Dreaded alike by all classes of men, no age or
condition in life was exempt from attack. A number probably
exceeding three-fourths of the population had already
suffered.* The remainder hourly awaited an attack. Fully
one-tenth of the people bore upon their faces the imprint of
the disease. Blindness and a repulsive distortion of feature
were common characteristics. The disease when acquired
by artificial means was generally believed to be milder in
type than when introduced by the ordinary channels of infection.
But disfigurement and death sometimes succeeded
inoculation, and those who submitted themselves to the
operation were aware of the danger to which they were
exposed. Nevertheless, in order that they might escape from
a position rendered unbearable through the terror of suspense,
many were found who voluntarily sought a condition
of immunity through suffering. The practice of inoculation
became popular. Hospitals that should receive within their
walls these voluntary sufferers were established and
endowed. But, notwithstanding the amount of suffering,
notwithstanding the immunity purchased by that suffering,
inflammable material was always present among the
population in a sufficient quantity to maintain a perennial
conilagration.
* In Chester, in the year 1775, a population existed of 14,713, of whom
only 1060, or seven per cent., had not passod through an attack.—McVail-