As yet, Miss Owenson had not
met the man who was to win her from the vanities of her own fancy. At this date of 1809,
Thomas Charles Morgan, doctor of medicine, was
mourning over a dead wife, tenderly nursing a little girl, the child of his lost love,
helping Dr. Jenner to make people believe in
vaccination, struggling into London practice, and proceeding to his degree of doctor in
medicine. Morgan had been born in London, in 1783, being the son of
John Morgan, of that city, and his early life had been spent in
the neighbourhood of Smithfield. He was several years younger than Miss
Owenson; in later life Lady Morgan confessed to having
two years of disadvantage over Sir Charles: but the unromantic truth
may be set down without exaggeration at three or four. From the Charter House, he was sent
to Cambridge, where, in 1801, he graduated at St. Peter’s, and, in 1804, took his
degree of M.B.; thence he removed to London, set up in his
DR. MORGAN AND DR. JENNER. | 373 |
374 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
There is nothing enlivens a cottage fire-side, remote from the capital, so much as a newspaper. The Pilot of last night was particularly cheering, as it told me you had finished your academic labours and received your honours. Allow me to congratulate you, and to assure you how happy I shall ever be in hearing of anything that adds to your fame, your fortune, or to your general comforts.
The horrid fever ray eldest son has undergone, has left him quite a wreck; but I don’t despair of seeing him restored. I should be quite at ease on the subject, if a little cough did not still hang upon him, and too quick a pulse.
The Regius Professor of
Physic in the University of Cambridge, corresponding with the
contemptible editors of that miserable catch-penny Journal, the Medical Observer!!! What
phenomenon, I wonder, will vaccination next present to us? Atrocious and absurd
as this man’s conduct has been, there will be a difficulty in punishing
him, as he seems insensible to everything but his own conceit. However, he is
in able hands, and my excellent friend Thackeray (to
DR. MORGAN AND DR. JENNER. | 375 |
Sir Isaac has certainly out-blockheaded all his predecessors. Pray tell me what is going forward. Alas! poor thing! He has been too daring, and I tremble for his fate. The scourge is out, and I don’t see that he erased a single line that was pointed out to him as dangerous. This venomous sting will produce a most troublesome reaction, and injure the cause it was meant to support. You know the pains I took to suppress it; but all would not do.
I have not heard anything of the new Vaccine Institution since my arrival here, except a word or two from Lord Egremont, who says the Ministry are so incessantly occupied with the affairs of Spain, that matters of a minor consideration cannot at present be attended to. I shall thank my friend in Russell Square, for the communications which, through you, he was good enough to make to me, but am of opinion that the proper time to object will be when anything objectionable rises up. Whatever is going forward either in the College or out of it, is at present carefully concealed from me. The proposition hinted at by Dr. S——, respecting an equal number from both Colleges to form the Board, I mentioned to Sir Lucas as the certain means of keeping off those jealousies which otherwise I thought would show themselves.
It affords me great pleasure to assure you that your
pamphlet is much liked
by all who have read it in this part of the world, and by no one more than by
myself. A few trifling alterations will be necessary
376 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
With the best wishes of myself and family, believe me, dear Doctor,
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 |
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?
378 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
You have some heavy accusations I know to bring against me on the subject of my long silence. I have no other excuse to offer you than that of pecuniary bankrupts, who have so many debts, that they discharge none. However deficient I may have been in writing, I have not been so in thinking of you and your kind attentions. If you have seen your neighbour Blair lately, he must have told you so.
You supposed me at Cheltenham when you wrote last. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to quit this place, and have been detained by a sad business, the still existing illness of my eldest son, the young man who was so ill when I was in town. His appearance for some time past, flattered me with a hope that he was convalescent, but to my great affliction he was seized on Saturday last with haemorrhage from the lungs, which returned yesterday and to-day exactly at the same hour, and almost at the same minute—seven in the morning. This is a melancholy prospect for me, and I scarcely know how to boar it. The decrees of Heaven, however harsh they may seem, must be correct, and the grand lesson we have to learn is humility.
I wrote two long argumentative letters to Dr. Saunders soon after I received your hint,
on the sub-
DR. MORGAN AND DR. JENNER. | 379 |
You may easily guess what a state of mind I am in, by my
neglecting my friends. This I was not wont
380 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
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
DR. MORGAN AND DR. JENNER. | 381 |
382 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
We must leave the two doctors to their controversies and incriminations. The story of the introduction of vaccination into this country is one of deep interest, and especially to female readers; but that story is not the property of Lady Morgan’s biographer. We shall not see Mr. Morgan again for a year or more.
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