Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Edward Jenner to Thomas Charles Morgan, 1 March 1809
Berkeley,
March 1st, 1809.
My dear Sir,
I ought to make a thousand apologies to you for suffering
your last obliging letter to remain so long unanswered. Did my friends whom I
serve in this manner but know the worrying kind of life I lead, they would soon
seal my pardon. However, I feel myself now more at ease than for some time
past, having crept from under the thick, heavy Board, which so unexpectedly
fell upon me and crashed me so sorely. To speak more plainly, I have informed
the gentlemen in Leicester Square, that I cannot accept of the office to which
they nominated me. Should the business come before the public, as I suppose it
will. I am not afraid of an honourable acquittal. Never was ![]()
| DR. MORGAN AND DR. JENNER. | 377 |
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anything so clumsily managed. If Sir
Isaac himself, instead of Sir
Lucas, had taken the lead, it could not have been worse, as I
shall convince you when we come to talk the matter over. By the way, what is
become of this right valiant knight? Thackeray, I hope, has not done exchanging lances with him,
unless he is ashamed of the contest. I was glad to see your pamphlet advertised on the yellow cover. Give it as much publicity as you please,
and remember, you are to draw on me for all costs. Does it go off, or sleep
with the pages of Moseley? Opposition to
vaccination seems dead—at least in this part of the world we hear nothing
of it. Through a vast district around me, I don’t know a man who now ever
unsheaths that most venomous of all weapons—the variolus lancet; and the
small-pox, if it now and then seizes upon some deluded infidel, soon dies away
for want of more prey.
I have not written to my friend Dr. Saunders a long time, but if you see him,
assure him he shall hear soon from me. If he considers the business between me
and the Board, and looks steadfastly on all its bearings, I am confident he
will not condemn my conduct. If it should be thought of consequence enough for
an inquiry, I shall meet it with pleasure; but, though I say “with
pleasure,” I had much rather they would let me alone, and suffer me to
smoke my cigar in peace and quietness in my cottage.
My boys are better. How is your little cherub?
Adieu, my dear Sir,
Most truly yours,
Edward Jenner (1749-1823)
After studying medicine with John Hunter (1728-1793) he developed the use of cowpox
vaccination against the small pox.
Benjamin Moseley (1742-1819)
Surgeon-general in Jamaica, and from 1788 a fashionable physician in London; he opposed
vaccination in his
Treatise on Sugar (1799).
Sir Isaac Pennington (1745-1817)
English physician, educated at St John's College, Cambridge where he was Regius Professor
of Physic (1794-1817).
Sir Lucas Pepys, first baronet (1742-1830)
English physician educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; he attended George III and
was president of the Royal College of Physicians (1804-10).
William Saunders (1743-1817)
Scottish physician who was physician to Guy's Hospital in London and published
A Treatise on the Structure, Economy, and Diseases of the Liver
(1793).
Frederick Thackeray (1774-1852)
Son of Thomas Thackeray, surgeon, he was educated at Emmanuel College Cambridge and
practiced medicine in that city. He quarrelled with Sir Isaac Pennington over whether
surgeons were eligible for medical degrees.
