I've dispatc'd, my dear madam, this scrap of a letter, To say that Miss — — is very much better. A Regular Doctor no longer she lacks, And therefore I've sent her a couple of Quacks.
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"The human mind is capable of great things; but it is also capable of great errors."
"This Inquiry will lay all those troublesome ghosts which have so long haunted the Metropolis with their ox-faces, & dismal hootings against Vaccination. However, tis all for the best – you may depend …"
"It is the lot of man to suffer; but it is also his lot to alleviate the sufferings of others."
"The opposition I have met with has only served to confirm me in my opinion."
"The practice of vaccination is now so generally adopted, that it is hardly necessary to recommend it."
Poem/letter excerpt
Date: Unknown, but within his active period (late 18th - early 19th century)
Life & AgingFound in 1 providers: gemini
1 source checked
A witty rhyming note announcing a patient's recovery. Since she no longer needs a real doctor, Jenner humorously sends her 'a couple of Quacks' — a deliberate double pun on quack doctors (charlatans) and actual ducks, which literally quack. The joke playfully suggests that fraudulent physicians and farmyard birds are equally useful now that she's well, delivered with warm affection in impromptu verse.
Jenner was a naturalist as much as a physician — he made landmark observations on cuckoo behavior and kept wildlife at his Berkeley, Gloucestershire home. He was also an amateur poet known for warmth and wit in personal correspondence. His career fighting for vaccination against fierce medical establishment resistance gave him both familiarity with actual quacks and the sardonic humor to mock them lightly in verse.
In Georgian England, unregulated 'quack' doctors — selling patent medicines and false cures — were a pervasive social scourge. Medical licensing barely existed, and distinguishing charlatans from legitimate physicians was genuinely difficult. Jenner's era also saw vaccination fiercely contested by these same establishments. Verse letters were a fashionable form of witty educated correspondence, making this rhyming pun both culturally typical and a sly commentary on contemporary medical fraud.
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