taste for music, being able to play on the flute and violin, and sing his own verses with considerable taste and feeling. Such was the attachment of Jenner's friends to him at this period of his career, and so highly did they value his amusing and interesting conversation, that, when he had called at their houses, either as a visitor or in his professional capacity, they would accompany him, on leaving, many miles on his way home, and this too, often at midnight, in order that they might prolong the pleasure derived from his company and conversation.

Although Jenner's time was chiefly occupied with his profess iona duties, he still kept up a constant and regular correspondence with his friend John Hunter on different scientific subjects. He managed also to find leisure to institute many experiments and observations in natural history, one of the results of which was his account of the Cuckoo, a most carefully elaborated essay, and which has always been considered as a model of accurate observation. This paper was read to the Royal Society on the 10th of March, 1788, and printed in their 'Transactions.' It explained the habits of this curious bird very satisfactorily, and its publication at once secured the author a considerable reputation as a Naturalist. As this paper appears not to be very generally known, the following account taken from it may be interesting

"The cuckoo furtively deposits her egg in the nest of another bird; it is done not that her offspring may be a sharer of the care of the foster-parent, but that it may engross it entirely to the total destruction of its own natural offspring. A perversion of all the maternal instincts is a most remarkable result of this vicarious incubation. The hedge-sparrow, or other birds whose nests have been visited by the cuckoo, actually sometimes eject their own eggs to make room for the new guest; but it occasionally happens that this is not done; the eggs are not disturbed, and the process of hatching is allowed to go on regularly, and the young sparrows and the cuckoo emerge from the shell about the same time. This event, when it is permitted to happen, does not at all improve the condition of the former; on the contrary, it only exposes them to greater sufferings. The size of the egg of the cuckoo does not vary much from that of the bird in whose nest it is deposited. When the young sparrow, therefore, and the intruder first come into life, they are pretty much on an equality; but unhappily for the fosterbrethren, this equality does not last long: the cuckoo's growth rapidly outstrips that of his companions, and he immediately exercises his new powers with abundant selfishness and cruelty. By a singular configuration of his own body he contrives to lodge his companions, one by one, upon his back, and then scrambling up the sides of the nest, he suddenly throws them from their seat, and completely ejects them from their own home to become food for worms. There is reason to believe that the unnatural parent is

often an unmoved witness of this atrocity. Her whole care and affection are absorbed by the intruder, and her own flesh and blood literally turned out to perish. It sometimes, though very rarely, happens that two cuckoo's eggs are deposited in the same nest. When this occurs, and they are both hatched together, a bitter feud arises, which is only terminated by the ejection of one or other from the nest."

All naturalists previous to Jenner were inclined to ascribe the peculiarity in the economy of the cuckoo to its structure; the largeness of the stomach, which is only protected by a thin covering, they asserted, rendered the pressure attendant upon incubation incompatible with health. This theory is incorrect, and was adopted without due examination.

Jenner observes, 66 May they not, be owing to the following circumstances ?—namely, the short residence this bird is allowed to make in this country, where it is destined to propagate its species, and the call that nature has upon it, during that short residence, to produce a numerous progeny. The cuckoo's first appearance here is about the middle of April. Its egg is not ready for incubation till some weeks after its arrival. A fortnight is taken up by the sitting bird in hatching the egg. The young bird generally continues three weeks in the nest before it flies, and the foster-parents feed it more than five weeks after this period: so that even if a cuckoo should be ready with an egg much sooner than the time pointed out, not a single nestling, would be fit to provide for itself, before its parent would be instinctively directed to seek a new residence, and be thus compelled to abandon its young; for the old cuckoos take their final leave of this country the first week in July."

The domestic incidents of Jenner's life during this period, although important to himself and his future career, were not otherwise remarkable. Having experienced a disappointment in his affections early in life, he continued for many years unmarried. Ultimately, however, on the 6th of March, 1788, he was married to Catherine Kingscote, a descendant of an ancient Gloucestershire family.

In 1793 John Hunter died, and Jenner was deeply affected by the loss of his esteemed friend. Many years previous to this sad event, Jenner's anxious and affectionate attention to the symptoms of the disease, which as early as 1777 had begun to attack Hunter, had enabled him to detect the true nature of his illness (Angina pectoris), and the result of the examination after death fully established the correctness of Jenner's views.

In 1792, having determined to give up the general practice of his profession, and practice as a physician only, Jenner obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from St. Andrews; and three years afterwards, on finding that Berkeley by itself could never support a physician, commenced making professional visits to Cheltenham, a practice which he continued for many years.

We now come to the important epoch in the life of this eminent man. On the 14th of May, 1796 (commemorated in Berlin as an annual festival), be made his first successful vaccination on a boy of the name of Phipps, eight years old, and announced the event in a letter to a friend named Gardner, in the following words: "But listen to the most delightful part of my story. The boy has since been inoculated for the small-pox, which, as I ventured to predict, produced no effect. I shall now pursue my experiments with redoubled ardour." In the year 1798 he made public the result of his continued observations and experiments, published during this year his work entitled an 'Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Varioloe Vaccine,' and henceforth the imperishable name of Jenner was to be identified with vaccination. Although Jenner announced his discovery thus late in life, his attention had been drawn forcibly towards the subject when quite a youth, while pursuing his professional education in the house of his master at Sudbury. During that time, a young countrywoman having come to seek advice, the subject of small-pox was mentioned in her presence; she immediately observed, "I cannot take that, for I have had the cow-pox." This incident rivetted the attention of Jenner, and he resolved to let no opportunity escape of procuring knowledge upon so interesting a subject. When, in 1770, he was prosecuting his studies in London, he mentioned the matter to Hunter, who told him not to think but try, and above all to be patient and accurate. Hunter, however, from the great number of original and important pursuits, which fully engrossed his attention, was never so greatly impressed, as Jenner, with the probable consequences of the successful elucidation of the subject of cow-pox; while other surgeons and scientific men, to whom the subject was mentioned, ridiculed the idea; and even when Jenner had drawn up his 'Inquiry,' he was recommended not to send it to the Royal Society, lest it should injure the scientific reputation which he had formerly acquired with that body by his paper on the 'Natural History of the Cuckoo.' Undeterred by this want of sympathy, Jenner, during the time of his practice at Berkeley, patiently continued his investigations as to the nature of cow-pox, and, gradually struggling through the difficulties which he had to encounter on his way, eliminated the following facts: that there were certain people to whom it was impossible to give the small-pox by inoculation, and that these had all had the cow-pox; but that there were also others who had had cow-pox, and who yet received small-pox. This, after much labour, led him to the discovery that the cow was subject to a variety of eruptions, of which one only had the power of guarding from small-pox, and that this, the true cow-pox, as he called it, could, at only one period of its course, produce, by inoculation, such an influence upon the constitution as to render the individual safe from further contagion. This was the basis upon which the fundamental rules for the practice of vaccination were

founded. The publication of his 'Inquiry' excited the greatest interest, for the evidence in it seemed conclusive; yet the practice of vaccination met with opposition, as severe as it was unfair, and its success seemed uncertain until a year had passed, when upwards of seventy of the principal physicians and surgeons in London signed a declaration of their entire confidence in it. An attempt was then made to deprive Jenner of the merit of his discovery, but it signally failed, and scientific honours began to be bestowed on him from all quarters. Nothing could, however, induce Jenner to leave his native village, and all his correspondence shows that the purest benevolence, rather than ambition, had been the motive which actuated his labours. In a letter to Mr. Clive, who instituted the first successful case of vaccination in London, he says: 66 Shall I, who, even in the morning of my life, 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? Admitting it as a certainty that I obtain both, what stock should I add to my little fund of happiness? And as for fame, what is it?-a gilded butt for ever pierced with the arrows of malignancy." On the Continent Jenner's claims on the gratitude of mankind were quickly recognised, and the influence of his name and character was very great. On one occasion during the war he addressed a letter to Napoleon, requesting permission for two men of science and literature to return to England; and it is related that Napoleon, being about to reject the petition, heard Josephine utter the name of Jenner; on which the Emperor paused for an instant, and exclaimed, "Jenner! ah, we can refuse nothing to that man.' He subsequently made other applications both to the French and other governments, which were uniformly attended with similar success. In fact his name became at length so potent, and his influence so well known, that persons left England with certificates signed by him, which had all the force and value of real passports. England, however, was more tardy in recognizing the claims of this great man. He once or twice applied to the British government on behalf of some French prisoners, but unhappily without success. Nor was he permitted to share in the least degree in the vast patronage at the disposal of the government, and all his attempts to obtain a living for one of his nephews failed, although he applied where he was quite justified in thinking he would meet with attention and success. On the occasion of the first parliamentary grant to Jenner in the year 1802, the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that he thought the "approbation" of the House was the highest reward that could be given him, inasmuch as it would lead to an extended and very lucrative practice; and although it was proved in evidence that 40,000 men were annually preserved to the State, even at that time, by Dr. Jenner's discovery, the proposition of a grant for 10,000l. was carried only by a majority of

three. Jenner's feelings were deeply wounded by the manner in which this grant was made, and he would gladly have repudiated the whole affair. It remained unpaid for two years, and when at length the money was paid to him, it was so loaded with taxes and other expenses, as to be of little pecuniary benefit. Happily, however, both for Jenner and the credit of Great Britain, the Marquis of Lansdowne (then Lord Henry Petty) was a principal mover in his second parliamentary grant, and through the able advocacy of this enlightened nobleman, together with Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Windham, and Mr. Edward Morris and others, a more fitting recompense of 20,000l., free of all charges, was awarded him in July 1807.

Jenner had several attacks of severe illness during his life, but he notwithstanding attained to a good old age. Till the last day of his life he was occupied in the most anxious labours to diffuse the advantages of his discovery both at home and abroad; and he had the satisfaction of knowing that vaccination had even then shed its blessing over every civilised nation of the world, prolonging life, and preventing the ravages of one of the most terrible scourges to which the human race was ever subject. He died suddenly from an attack of paralysis in July 1823, having attained the seventyfifth year of his age.

Shortly after Jenner's death a statue was erected to his memory in Gloucester Cathedral, chiefly through the exertions of his friend and biographer, Dr. Baron; still more recently the statue in bronze, by William Calder Marshall, R.A., was erected in Trafalgar Square, and afterwards removed to Kensington Gardens, as a 'TRIBUTE FROM ALL NATIONS to the memory of this distinguished philanthropist.-Life of Edward Jenner, by John Baron, M.D., &c. London, 1827.-Memoir by Dr. Thos. Laycock, Encyclopædia Bri tannica.

WILLIAM JESSOP.

Born 1745. Died 1814.

This engineer forms the connecting link between the first and second generations of civil engineers in this country. To the former belong Smeaton and Brindsley, while the latter are headed by the great names of Telford and Rennie.

The father of Mr. Jessop was engaged under Smeaton in superintending the erection of the Eddystone Lighthouse, and his son