Welsh Journals

anyone were to be re-infected, 'it proceeds from the ignorance or negligence of the operator, who inserts other matter, than the true.' After pursuing the issue further, in 1805, Johnes published a pamphlet, Vaccination vindicated against misrepresentation and Calumny in a letter to his patients. There he maintained that cowpox was so mild in its effects that it 'can scarcely be said to deserve the name of a disease'. Of the two hundred or so people that he had variolated, two had died. He had vaccinated more than three times that number, and no deaths had followed. It was his opinion that vaccination was suitable for use in pregnancy and at any other time or age. No changes in diet were required and if it were only to be universally accepted, this vmust utterly extinguish that disease'. Jenner, glad of any support, was greatly impressed with this work. He wrote to Johnes saying that he had "never met with anything better calculated to excite contempt for the malignant efforts of those who have attempted to delude the people and offered to pay to have the pamphlet reprinted.6 Among the honours that were bestowed on Jenner was the degree of Doctor of Medicine of St Andrews University. This gave him the right to nominate others for this qualification. Still pleased with his Montgomeryshire colleague's work, he went on to suggest that Johnes should be allowed to graduate in this way without undergoing an examination. This would elevate his status considerably to that of a physician. Although they had never met, Jenner ignored the rule which stipulated that those recommending others for degrees in absentia ought to be personally acquainted with their nominees. He decided to 'chuse to put afigurative meaning to the expression, and feel myself sufficiently satisfied that you are justly entitled to the degree of Doctor of Physic from any University.' All that the regulations demanded was that no fewer than two physicians known to the university should testify that he was respectable, well educated, worthy of the qualification, and that he had attended a course of lectures on the various medical disciplines.7 Apart from Jenner, three Montgomeryshire physicians confirmed that he met the given criteria, adding that 'he has so improved his [medical education] by an extensive and successful practice as justly to entitle him to the Degree of Doctor of Medicine from any University.'8 Johnes was awarded his degree in December 1807 without having to visit St Andrews. He was to find that there were disadvantages as well as benefits that followed. He was now able to charge higher fees for his services, but there were few in his locality who were able to pay them. As a result, he wrote woefully that 'many of my friends tell me that this Country will starve a Physician'. While he did not intend moving for the present, he was 'not bound to any country that will not maintain me'.9