Then there were lay practitioners, of whom Jenner’s nephew, the Rev. G. C. JENNER, may be taken as an example. He bore witness that he had inoculated 3000 with cowpox without a single unfavourable case, from the earliest infancy to eighty years of age, and under circumstances in which it would not be prudent to use variolous virus; as, for example, children during teething and women in every stage of pregnancy. Upwards of two hundred of his patients had been afterwards inoculated with smallpox matter, and an equal number exposed to variolous effluvia, and in no instance did smallpox ensue. He was satisfied that as soon as the new practice became universal, smallpox would be annihilated. An early date being wanted for “the discovery,” EDWARD GARDNER, wine and spirit dealer, was brought from Gloucester to affirm that he had known Jenner for more than twenty-two years, and had been in the constant habit of hearing his medical opinions and discoveries. It was in the month of May, 1780, that Jenner first informed him concerning the nature of cowpox as a sure preventive of smallpox, and of the theory he had formed on the subject; declaring his full and perfect confidence that the virus might be continued in perpetuity from one human being to another until smallpox was extinguished. It is needless to stigmatise Gardner’s testimony afresh. It possibly had its foundation in Jenner discussing the familiar rural faith in cowpox. Sir EVERARD HOME mentioned to the Committee that Jenner had brought a drawing to London in 1788 of Variolæ Vaccinæ as it appeared on the finger of a milker, and had shown it to John Hunter, who advised him to look further into the matter; but it was not pretended that he spoke to Hunter of the matured conviction revealed to Gardner eight years before. The Committee heard evidence as to the knowledge and use of cowpox apart from Jenner, and their verdict was given as follows-- The disorder itself, and its specific property of securing against Smallpox infection, _was not a discovery of Dr. Jenner’s_; for in various parts of England, in Gloucestershire and Devonshire particularly, there was an opinion of that sort current among the common people employed in dairies, which the observations of the inoculators for the Smallpox tended to confirm. It appears not improbable that in some very rare instances this knowledge was carried one step farther, and that the Cowpox was communicated either by handling the teat, or by inoculation from the animal, for the purpose and with the intention of securing against the danger of Smallpox; but the practice of which Dr. Jenner asserts himself to be the original Inventor is, the inoculation from one human being to another, and the mode of transferring indefinitely, the vaccine matter without any diminution of its specific power, to which it does not appear that any person has ever alleged a title.