I have said that the world gave a cordial and unhesitating welcome to Jenner’s revelation, but the observation requires a startling qualification. Jenner’s revelation as conveyed in his _Inquiry_ was summarily and ignominiously rejected--was absolutely rejected. I wish to emphasise this point. Jenner published his _Inquiry_ in order to recommend horsegrease cowpox, and what I have to say is, that the public declined to have anything to do with horsegrease cowpox. The origin of cowpox in horsegrease was scouted as an intolerable origin. It was disgusting. Why a diseased secretion from horses’ heels should be more repulsive than a similar secretion from cows’ teats was not explained; but, as we all know, there is no accounting for tastes. Various attempts were made to verify Jenner’s prescription by inoculating cows with horsegrease, but they ended in failure--fortunately, it was said, in failure; for as Dr. Pearson (chief among primitive vaccinators) observed, “The very name of horsegrease was like to have damned the whole thing.” What did Jenner do under these circumstances? Did he confront the public and assert the efficacy of horsegrease cowpox? Not he. He wanted money. He saw how the wind was blowing. He said not another word about horsegrease cowpox; and as the public were eager at any price to escape from the nuisance of smallpox inoculation, and disposed to substitute cowpox as a harmless substitute, why then he resolved to go in for cowpox, and pose as its discoverer and promoter. JENNER’S TRANSFORMATION. I am not making what is called a constructive charge against Jenner, but simply setting forth plain, undeniable matter-of-fact. I ask any one in doubt as to what I say to read Jenner’s _Inquiry_, published in 1798, the prescription of which is horsegrease cowpox, and the condemnation of cowpox. Turn then to his petition for largess, addressed to the House of Commons in 1802, and what do we find? Not one word about horsegrease cowpox, but this audacious assertion:-- “That your Petitioner has discovered that a disease which occasionally exists in a particular form among cattle, known by name of Cowpox, admits of being inoculated on the human frame with the most perfect ease and safety, and is attended with the singularly beneficial effect of rendering through life the person so inoculated perfectly secure from the infection of Smallpox.” Why, that was not Jenner’s discovery! It was the notion of the dairymaids, and, so far as concerned spontaneous cowpox, was known by Jenner to be untrue. Yet, strange to say, the claim was in a measure allowed by the House of Commons, and £10,000 awarded to the imposter, and subsequently £20,000 in 1807. HORSEGREASE COWPOX KEPT OUT OF SIGHT.