During my residence in town in the summer of 1805, Lady Crewe happened in conversation to tell me how much Lord Henry Petty wished for a conference with me on the vaccine subject; and that she would like to bring us together. We met at her villa at Hampstead, and went so fully into the matter that his Lordship, convinced of the injury I had sustained, expressed his determination to bring something forward in the ensuing session. Before the session arrived Mr. Pitt died, and Lord Henry Petty became Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the early part of 1806, I again saw his Lordship, and found that his ardour in my cause had suffered no abatement. This was soon after proved by his Lordship’s motion in the House.[137] Lord Henry brought Jenner’s case before the Commons on the 2nd of July, and recited the fabulous matter communicated to him with the force of personal conviction. Vaccination was a preventive of smallpox, that loathsome disease which spreads death throughout the world. It was in 1777 that Jenner obtained some obscure knowledge of the peculiar virtue of Vaccine; and from that period he meditated profoundly on the subject, accumulated information, and instituted cautious and decisive experiments. At length he perfected his discovery, and published it for the benefit of mankind. Lord Henry then proceeded to relate the triumphs of Vaccination, not only throughout Europe, but China and India! Wherever the practice was introduced, there smallpox diminished and vanished. There was Vienna, for instance, where the average mortality from smallpox was 835 annually. Vaccination was commenced in 1799, and the mortality dropped in 1802 to 61, in 1803 to 27, and in 1804 to 2. Thus in Vienna there was an annual salvation of 833 human beings. This undoubted fact had made a deep impression on his mind [as well it might!] But, alas! what was doing so much good abroad was neglected and distrusted at home. In the City of London the deaths from smallpox had been on an average 1811 annually, and this mortality had been gradually reduced by Vaccination to 629. Through the diffusion of the disease by variolous inoculation, the deaths last year (1805) had been raised from 629 to 1685. This dreadful destruction of life, especially shocking when a certain preventive existed, demanded their most serious attention, and in the situation he felt bound to propose a plan to bring forward a mass of evidence, to elicit the truth, and enlighten the public. He would therefore move-- That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, praying that he will be graciously pleased to direct His Royal College of Physicians to inquire into the state of Vaccine Inoculation in the United Kingdom, and to report their opinion as to the progress it has made, and the causes which have retarded its general adoption.