good ground and brought forth fruit a hundredfold; while the knowledge of the same facts—always existent had, outside of these illuminated intelligences, fallen on the stoniest kind of soil.
The relation of the beautiful and brilliant and witty Lady Montagu to one of the most beneficent applications of knowledge to the abatement and mitigation of human suffering, is at the present time very inadequately understood. Even in this day of boasted intelligence nine out of ten among persons who consider themselves well informed will say, "Yes, I know Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was the woman who introduced vaccination into England," whereas it was inoculation for smallpox that she had introduced. This produced a mild form of the disease, perfectly protective, and left no marks. Others had observed this Oriental practice, and had brought the knowledge back to England before her time, and here and there a venturesome individual had tried the experiment, but it was generally done in secret, being looked upon as akin to suicide. It was Lady Mary's intelligent enthusiasm that brought it into repute; she explained the conditions necessary to success, and set the example of having all belonging to her subjected to it. Her only brother had died of smallpox, and she had had it severely; it disfigured her to the extent of destroying a fine pair of eyebrows, resulting in imparting a fierce and disagreeable expression to her eyes, in spite of which she had won the heart and hand of an accomplished gentleman. Remember, this was in the first quarter of the last century, when communication between distant lands was infrequent, and women's books were almost unknown.
Her husband had been appointed in 1710 ambassador to the Ottoman court, and she had accompanied him, being then twenty-six years old. They made the journey overland through Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and Bulgaria, being the first Christians that had passed over the route since the time of the Greek emperors. It occupied more than four months, and, although hospitably entertained by the sovereigns in the large cities, as the representatives of their government, there were long reaches of country where they were obliged to use the beds and provisions that they carried along with them. She wrote back lively and brilliant descriptions of Eastern life in letters that to this day are "mighty interesting reading," the arrival of each being an event in the court coterie of her friends; they were passed from hand to hand, commented on, and enjoyed with a relish that the surfeited readers of to-day can not know, and one of them was appointed to exercise a potent influence on the destiny of millions of the human race, for it was eventually to lead up to the discoveries of Jenner. They were not printed till after her death, in 1762. The one which at last led to the establishment and popularization of inoc-
