1.--It was no discovery of Jenner’s that cowpox was inoculable and preventive of smallpox. That was a rural superstition. Nor, be it again repeated, did he ever become responsible for that rural superstition. Recognising its futility, he deliberately set it aside, and recommended a disease of the horse, transmitted through the cow, for inoculation. It was Pearson, who disliking Jenner’s prescription, brought cowpox into vogue; whereon Jenner, fearing that he might be cut out of the enterprise, dropped his specific, adopted the cowpox he had rejected, and claimed Pearson’s work as the development of his own. 2.--That he disclosed his discovery was true, but it was not the discovery set forth in the petition. Moreover the merit of disclosure in such a case is measured by the advantage of concealment; and what could Jenner have taken by concealment? The conditions of successful quackery were not present in the secret practice of inoculation with horsegrease cowpox. 3.--That the discovery occupied a considerable portion of Jenner’s life, and was attended with great expense and loss of practice, is answered by reference to his _Inquiry_. With what loss of time, loss of money, and loss of practice could the series of cases therein set forth have been attended? And after 1798, he confessed he was able to achieve little further. 4.--As for the prophecies about the absolute security afforded by cowpox with the final extermination of smallpox, we may estimate the worth of such vapouring by the asserted check at that time, 1801, administered to the disease, when as yet an insignificant fraction of the population had been subjected to the New Inoculation, and a fraction, too, least likely to suffer from smallpox. Petitions are petitions, and not designed for over-much scrutiny. In them truth is rarely to be looked for otherwise than warped to personal ends. The policy of a petition is to claim in excess with a view to obtain a larger concession. Jenner’s petition was a more than usually flagrant instance of this policy, with the disadvantage that much of its untruth passed into currency as matter of fact. The Prime Minister, Mr. ADDINGTON (afterwards Viscount Sidmouth), informed the House that he had taken the King’s pleasure on the contents of the petition, and that his Majesty recommended it strongly to the consideration of Parliament. It was referred to a committee, of which Admiral Berkeley, a zealous believer in Jenner, was appointed chairman. The points to which the committee chiefly directed their inquiries were-- I.--The utility of the discovery itself. II.--The right of the petitioner to the discovery. III.--The sacrifices of the petitioner in making the discovery.