May 14: Jenner's Amazing Smallpox Cure (Vol. 38, pp. 145-154)

On this day in 1796, English scientist Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination for smallpox, one of the greatest advances in the history of medicine.

Jenner figured out that cowpox was a close relative of the deadlier smallpox, and that those who had contracted cowpox developed immunity to smallpox. His experiments in using the material in cowpox pustules as a crude form of vaccine against smallpox was a stunning success and opened a new epoch in medicine.

May 13: What Does Your Dog Think of You? (Vol. 6, pp. 151-157)

Robert Burns' "The Twa Dogs," a poem about two dogs gossiping about their masters, is today's selection. Utter doggerel, pun intended.

May 12: His Wife's Golden Hair Enshrined His Poems (Vol. 42, pp. 1149-1153, 1178-1181)

Poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born this day in 1828. When his beloved wife died, he buried most of his manuscripts with her. His friends prevailed upon Rossetti to exhume his wife's coffin and print them. After reading these overwrought odes to love, so typical of the poetry of this era, they should've stayed buried.

May 11: Latest Gossip in Malfi (Vol. 47, pp. 721-737)

English dramatist John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" is yet another Elizabethian-era tragedy full of nonsense.

May 10: A Knight Among Cannibals (Vol. 33, pp. 326-341)

Sir Walter Raleigh again, this time writing about a 1595 trip to Guiana as part of his South American voyage in search of gold and treasure to plunder. This is another one of those Elizabethian-era travelogues by an explorer bemused by cultures alien to his own.

May 9: Relation of Art to Freedom (Vol. 32, pp. 209-217)

German philosopher Friedrich von Schiller died this day in 1805. In this essay, "On Aesthetic Education," he takes a long time to get to his central point — that art and beauty and the appreciation of them are essential to a free society. Seems self-evident today, but it was a radical idea in Schiller's time.

May 8: Behind the Screen in the School for Scandal (Vol. 18. pp. 164-176)

On this day in 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan's "School for Scandal" made its premiere. This 18th century comedy of manners was supposedly hot stuff in its time, but after a couple of centuries, it doesn't hold up too well.