Abstract
THE meeting held on Wednesday, in last week,gave coherence to the scheme for raising a national memorial to Edward Jenner, in celebration of the centenary of the discovery of vaccination. “It was surely high time,” said the Duke of Westminster, who presided over the meeting, “that this his native land should rise to the occasion, and at last, after 101 years have passed since the first successful vaccination, take active and effective steps to carefully preserve his great legacy to the world, and to do more —to give every facility for the promotion of science in the direction of the prevention of diseases that afflict mankind.” Lord Herschell, in moving the first resolution—“That the present is an appropriate time to inaugurate a work of national utility in honour of Edward Jenner,” pointed out that Jenner was the first to illustrate a principle which seemed destined to play an important part in the history of preventive medicine. Surely this alone is a high tribute to Jenner and the value of his discovery. His name is held in reverence by the highest men of science and the most civilised countries in the world. Some of these countries have already commemorated his centenary. Are Englishmen to be behindhand in testifying their admiration of the man, and their sense of the benefits he has conferred on humanity? The resolution was seconded by Prof. Michael Foster, who gave instances of the extension of the Jennerian principle to other diseases by Pasteur and other observers. Sir Alfred Lyall, in supporting the resolution, referred especially to the blessings which vaccination had already conferred upon the people of India. The resolution was then carried unanimously.
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National Memorial to Jenner. Nature 55, 547–548 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/055547a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/055547a0