Gardner, Jenner’s friend, who played the part of _alter ego_ in the asseveration of an early date for Vaccination, was a dealer in wines and spirits. Charity believeth all things, but even charity would exhibit a sceptical countenance when what it is a man’s interest to prove and have placed to his credit, is in itself improbable; which, if true, might be proved by documents and witnesses; but which is merely supported by his own word and that of a friend. Let me repeat, there was never a vestige of evidence adduced for the revelations of 1780 beyond the bare assertions of Jenner and Gardner; and further, that they are radically at variance with the tenor and dates of Jenner’s first publication--_The Inquiry_ of 1798. The next date to which we come is 1787, in which year Jenner is represented as having taken his nephew, George, into a stable to look at a horse with diseased heels-- “There,” said he, pointing to the horse’s heels, “is the source of smallpox. I have much to say on that subject, which I hope in due time to give to the world.”[91] Baron gives no authority for this anecdote. It is probably ante-dated six or seven years. In 1788 Jenner married Catherine Kingscote. In his domestic relations, he was devotedly affectionate, even uxorious; ready to defer any duty and to surrender any advantage to the pleasures of home. As the phrase ran, Jenner was a good hand at a “copy of verses,” and one of these, “Signs of Rain,” commencing-- The hollow winds begin to blow, The clouds look black, the glass is low-- has a place in nearly all poetical collections. In 1792 Jenner applied to the University of St. Andrews for the degree of Doctor of Physic. It cost £15, and nothing more. Hunter used to say to speculative pupils, “Don’t _think_, but _try_; be patient, be accurate;” and Jenner, in relation to cowpox, required the advice; for, by his own account, he was content to _think_ of cowpox for at least a quarter of a century, whilst he knew by intuition its true origin, its magical efficacy, and future triumph without any _trial_. His first experiment was made in November, 1789, upon his son Edward, his first-born, an infant of eighteen months. “He was inoculated with cowpox?” O, no! “Then with grease from a horse’s heel?” Not at all! “With what then?” Why, with swinepox; and it answered! The child sickened on the eighth day; a few pustules appeared; they were late and slow in their progress, and small, but they proved sufficient. The poor child was then put through what was styled the Variolous Test: not once or twice, but five or six times at various intervals, he was inoculated with smallpox without other obvious effect than local inflammation and erysipelas. Nothing ever claimed for cowpox turned out more satisfactorily than this experiment with swinepox--supposing we trust Jenner.