Jenner and his impact on medical science : [lecture given at the bicentenary meeting held at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on May 17] / by Sir Edward Mellanby.

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955.
Date:
[1949?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Jenner and his impact on medical science : [lecture given at the bicentenary meeting held at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on May 17] / by Sir Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    There is a vast amount of information about Tenner’s life. Indeed, it would be difficult to find anybody of that period whose actions, experiences, and thoughts were better docu¬ mented, and it would have been easier to centre this lecture round his history. 1 do not propose to do this, however, because I am anxious to paint a broader picture of his work and its influence on medical science. It would, how¬ ever, be wrong to eliminate all such references, because, clearly, a proper appraisal of his work must depend in part on the state of knowledge at that time and on the conditions under which he was brought up and laboured. There has been a tendency to write about and discuss Tenner as if he had the knowledge, outlook, and facilities of later days. I wish therefore to refer briefly to some of his experiences, especially during the formative years of his life, in order to convey an idea of his training, his equipment, and the circumstances in which he made his observations. A Brief History Edward Tenner was the son of a country parson living in Gloucestershire, and at the age of 13 was apprenticed to a doctor with the intention of becoming an apothecary. Under Ludlow, a surgeon at Sodbury, near Bristol, he studied pharmacy and surgery. In 1769, at the age of 20, he had the good fortune to become an apprentice to Tohn Hunter, then a surgeon at St. George’s Hospital and the owner of a menagerie at Brompton, where he made his world-famous studies on the structure and habits of animals. Hunter was then 41. Hunter and Tenner dated their inti¬ mate friendship from this time and began a correspondence which only ended with Hunter’s death in 1793. Hunter expected much from his assistants, but he was equally good in giving them help and opportunities for advancement. Thus, in 1771, when Captain Cook returned from his voyage to the great southern continent with a large cargo of natural history specimens, mostly collected at Botany Bay, it fell to Tenner’s lot, through the influence of Hunter and of Sir Toseph Banks, then President of the Royal Society, to prepare and arrange these specimens. This he did with such skill that he was offered the appointment of naturalist to Captain Cook’s next expedition, which sailed in 1772. Other evidence of Tenner’s capability is seen in the fact that Hunter also suggested that he might become his partner and give additional lectures on comparative anatomy and surgery. Both these invitations were rejected, however, and Tenner preferred to return to his native village to become a country doctor in the vales of Berkeley and Gloucester. Throughout his life one of Tenner’s main interests was natural history, and it was in 1787 that he sent his manu-