La physiologie des lumières. Empiricisme, modèles et théories

Edward's brother Henry was private chaplain to Aylesbury. In later years, she was frequently in Cheltenham during the season, as were the Jenners, and Edward was in London when she played the lead in a short-run play written by Joanna Baillie, the sister of Matthew, whom Jenner knew well. Also, Charles Moore, the brother of James Carrick Moore of vaccination fame, followed her about devotedly, to Cheltenham as elsewhere. From these events she becomes a "keystone of the Jenner circle" (p. xvi) a curious metaphor surely. Similarly, with reference to the actress Harriot Mellon we read, "The romantic saga of this beautiful but penniless Cheltenham girl who married one of the richest men in the world will be [and is] dwelt upon later, since Jenner himself was obliquely involved" (p. 50) to the extent of having Harriot's mother and stepfather, who ran the post office and a music store in Cheltenham, among his patients. What makes this attention to the private lives of innumerable "exalted personages" so curious is the author's own acknowledgement of Jenner's devotion to his invalid wife and family, which severely limited any social life he might have had, and of his marked dislike for London. The enormous effort that Jenner put into the vaccination campaign seems to be obscured rather than elucidated by the chit-chat about the famous, much of it irrelevant to Jenner's career, so that in this book Jenner, instead of being raised in our estimation by having known so many famous people, would appear somehow diminished by so much association with the trivial. The author has undoubtedly turned up some new details on Jenner's career, but readers will find more balanced and useful accounts in the already existing literature. John B. Blake History of Medicine Division National Library of Medicine