Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/292

BRITISH PHYSICIANS. own country, where individuals are abandoned to the guidance of their own capricious suggestions. A committee of parUament was soon appointed to consider the claims of Jenner upon the gratitude of his country. It was clearly proved that he had converted into scientific demonstration a local tra- dition of the peasantry. The committee reported that he was entitled to a remuneration of ,^20,000 ; but an objection was raised in the house, and ^10,000 were voted to him in 1802. In 1807, parliament displayed more justice, and awarded to him an additional grant of ^20,000. In 1808, the National Vaccine Establishment was formed by the government, and was placed under his im- mediate direction. Honours were now j^rofusely showered upon Jenner by various foreign princes, as well as by the principal learned bodies of Eu- rope. In the biographies of most men such honours would be recapitulated with minuteness, but the character of Jenner can derive from them no additional lustre ; the universal voice of man- kind has given its suffrage in his favour, and his name will probably survive most of the societies in which it was enrolled. Dr. Baron, in his interesting biography, by which we have largely profited, has published many of the letters which Jenner wrote to aflbrd intelligence, or to express his thanks ; they breathe the finest spirit of modesty and temperance, combined with generous zeal, and a discriminating judgment. In the explanations which he had sometimes occasion to deliver in society, he always exhibited the same qualities, clothed in an eloquent and winning form. He passed the remainder of his years principally