nicate your ideas to each other." On these occasions he would often bring forward his suspicions on the subject of the relations of small-pox and cow-pox—a theme that was taking commanding possession of his mind. His medical friends treated his ideas with indifference, or brought forward instances that militated against his theory; called him a "dreamer"—how often "Behold this dreamer cometh" greets advanced ideas!—and finally they began to consider him a bore, and threatened to expel him if he did not cease to trot out his hobby. Meantime, while not neglecting his practice, and while following up many lines of physiological and pathological investigation, he continued to collect all the facts and observations, and what other people thought counter facts, that had a bearing on the relation between cow-pox and smallpox; and in 1788 carried a drawing of the cow-pox, as seen on the hands of a milkmaid, to London, and showed it to Sir Everard Home, the President of the College of Surgeons, to convince him of the identity of the two diseases. Sir Everard condescended to assure him that "it was a curious and interesting subject."
Owing to the rarity of the disease in the dairies, or to its concealment, for which there was a strong motive, it was a long time before he found an opportunity of testing his theories by experiment. On the 14th of May, 1796, he took lymph from the hand of a dairymaid who had caught the disease in milking, and inserted it by two superficial incisions in the arms of James Phipps, a healthy boy about eight years old. He passed through the disease in a regular and satisfactory manner, but the most anxious time was yet to come; it was necessary to show that the boy was proof against the contagium of smallpox. In the following July this was settled, for variolous matter taken directly from the pustule was inserted by several incisions, but no disease followed. He wrote to the friend, Mr. Gardner, in whom he had always confided his hopes, "You will be gratified in hearing that I have at length accomplished what I have been so long waiting for: the passing of the vaccine virus from one human being to another by the ordinary mode of inoculation." After minutely detailing the process, he adds, "I shall now pursue my experiments with redoubled ardor." It was now twenty-five years since he had mentioned his "suspicions" to Hunter, a fact to be remembered when, afterward, he was rebuked by pompous arrogance in the person of Dr. Ingenhousz, for too hastily rushing into print, which he did not do till he had collected twenty-three cases, all of whom had passed through vaccination successfully, and had been tested subsequently by the inoculation of variolous virus and shown to be proof against it.
This was the high tide of happiness in Jenner's life—he was under a great degree of mental exaltation, although he maintained
