JENNER, EDWARD. 1749-1823.


Autograph Letter Signed ("Edwd. Jenner") to an unidentified correspondent ("My Lord") applauding him for seeking a second opinion, 2 pp, 4to, October 18, 1804, minor foxing.A warm letter expressing pleasure for a patient's seeking a second opinion, "I am truly happy at your Lordship's having consulted Sr. Walter Farquhar. Indeed I am quite flattered at the result, as our opinions respecting the medicinal plan you should pursue, harmonize so exactly. If anything could vex me, it would be your Lordship's having troubled yourself in making an apology." In 1796, Jenner demonstrated that smallpox could be innoculated against using a mild strain of cow-pox, and by 1798 had assembled 23 case reports in support. Thomas Jefferson wrote to him in 1806, "Medicine has never before produced any single improvement of such utility." Indeed, he provided "the first proof that a population could be immunized against disease" (Grolier Medicine 53). His work effectively represents "the foundation of the modern science of immunology" (PMM 250). Accompanied by a steel engraved portrait by Edward Scriven (1836).