Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Edward Jenner to Thomas Charles Morgan, 9 October 1809
Berkeley,
9th
October, 1809.
My dear Sir,
You may easily guess what a state of mind I am in, by my
neglecting my friends. This I was not wont ![]()
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to do. I am
grown as moping as the owl, and all the day long sit brooding over melancholy.
My poor boy still exists, but is wasting inch by inch. The ray of hope is
denied only to a medical man when he sees his child dying of pulmonary
consumption; all other mortals enjoy its nattering light. You say nothing of
your little girl in your letter from Ramsgate. I hope she is well and will
prove a lasting comfort to you.
If Dr. Saunders is
displeased, his displeasure can have no other grounds than caprice. I never did
anything in my life that should have called it up. I wrote twice to him in the
spring, and since that time he has not written to me. Why, I am utterly at a
loss to know. In one of these letters I went fully into an explanation of my
conduct with regard to the National Vaccination establishment. Depend upon it
neither Mr. B. nor Sir
Lucas will ever make it the subject of public inquiry. They know
better. I have always treated the College with due respect. They made an
admirable report to Parliament of vaccination; but in doing this they showed me
no favour. It was founded on the general evidence sent in from every part of
the empire. I love to feel sensible of an obligation, where it is due, and to
show my gratitude. If the College had published the evidence, which they promised to do, then I should have been greatly obliged
to them. Why this was not done, I never could learn, but shall ever lament that
such valuable facts should lie mouldering on their shelves, as they must from
their weight have lain too heavy on ![]()
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the tongue of clamour
for it ever to have moved again. I wish you had been there, and that I had
first made my acquaintance with you. Our strenuous friend in Warwick Lane would
have effected everything by filling up this lamentable chasm. I enjoyed your
dialogue. Poor Sir
Isaac! Your pamphlet is highly spoken of, wherever it is read. After this spice of your talents in lashing the anti-vaccinists, I
hope you don’t mean to lay down the rod. Moseley, as far as I have seen has not taken the least notice
of it. A proof of his tremors; for he has not been sparing of his other
opponents. And now my good friend let me request you, without delay, to let me
know the expenses of printing, advertisements, &c., &c. I don’t
exactly know where this may find you, but shall get a cover for Ramsgate. If
you are not there it will pursue you. Dr. Saunders’s
throwing me off, I assure you, vexes me; but I have the consolation of knowing
that it was unmerited. Remember me kindly to our friend Harry. He will soon climb the hill, I
think. He may be assured of not reaching the top a day sooner than I wish him.
Will you have the goodness when in town to order Harward
to send the Annual Medical
Register with my next parcel of books? I have not seen it, but
shall, of course, turn to the article “Cow-pox” with peculiar
pleasure. Do you recollect my exhibiting some curious pebbles which I had
collected during my stay in town, to some friends of yours in your apartment?
By some mishap they were left behind me. They were good specimens of wood and
bone converted into silex. I don’t think ![]()
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there is a
corpuscle of the globe we inhabit that has not breathed in the form of an
animal or a vegetable. Adieu!
Believe me, with best wishes,
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).
