Amazing Artefacts
Cow Horn: Teacher Notes
Why is Blossom one of the most important Cow’s in History?
In 1796 Dr Edward Jenner was visited by a young dairy maid called Sarah
Nelmes to be treated for cowpox. Sarah had caught cowpox from the udder of a
dairy cow named Blossom.
Cowpox was often caught by milkmaids and symptoms include a rash of blisters
usually on the hands. Cowpox was a mild infection and sufferers recovered fairly
quickly with no long-term sickness.
In Georgian times milkmaids were rumoured to have nice fair skin with few
blemishes or scars. This was unusual in Dr Jenner’s day because smallpox was
a very common disease that gave people horrible pox and if they recovered they
were often left with gruesome scars all over their bodies.
Dr Jenner and others (such as a farmer called Benjamin Jesty) connected the
two illnesses and believed that people who had caught cowpox were unlikely to
catch the more deadly smallpox virus at a later date.
In May 1796 Dr Jenner decided to try an experiment to see if this really was the
case. He infected his gardener’s son James Phipps with cowpox and later tried
to give James smallpox. Dr Jenner’s experiment was a success as James did
not contract the deadly smallpox virus.
How does blossom fit in to this story? Well, it was Blossom who had cowpox and
gave cowpox to Sarah Nelmes. Sarah Nelmes went to see Dr Jenner and it was
the pus from Sarah’s cowpox blister that Dr Jenner took and put into the skin of
James Phipps. The very cowpox pus that was used to infect James Phipps with
cowpox (that came from Blossom at the very start) protected James from
smallpox!
So you see that Blossom truly was one of the most important cows in History – it
was her cowpox that enabled Dr Jenner to vaccinate James and prove his
experiment.
Dr Jenner went on to publish his experiment in a booklet in 1798 with the long
title of; ‘An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a
disease discovered in some of the Western Counties of England
particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of the Cow Pox’
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:
Sarah Nelmes hand sketch and Blossom Portrait
Table-Top Globe: Teacher Notes
How many countries do you think smallpox affected?
During Dr Jenner’s lifetime the explorer Captain James Cook famously
completed voyages all over the world including the South Pacific. Before Dr
Jenner moved back to Berkeley to be a country doctor he had a job listing and
arranging all the botanical and zoological specimens that were collected during
Captain Cooks first major expedition by botanist Joseph Banks & naturalist Dr
Solander.
This particular globe was made in 1783 and by this time many explorers
including Captain Cook had completed voyages and discovered many different
countries – some for the very first time. When explorers discovered land it was
normal for them to name that land.
This globe shows a country called New Holland, this is not the name of a country
that we are familiar with in the 21st Century but in the 1780’s this was the name
for the country we now call Australia.
This shows us that New Holland was not named Australia until after this globe
was made. In fact New Holland was not officially named Australia until 1824, the
year after Jenner died.
By the time this globe was made (in 1783) Edward Jenner had completed his
successful experiment on James Phipps to see if his theory that infecting a
person with Cowpox would stop them from catching Smallpox. Dr Jenner worked
very hard to make his findings available to the public in order to try and wipe out
Smallpox. But Dr Jenner knew that if smallpox spread so fast in his local area it
would certainly have spread further afield and his aim was for the abolition of
smallpox.
This did not happen in Dr Jenner’s lifetime but it did happen. In 1980 the World
Health Organisation declared smallpox eradicated. Smallpox was the very first
disease ever to have been completely wiped out worldwide.
We think it is very likely that Dr Jenner looked at his globe to see how far
smallpox had spread and get an idea of how big a fight it would be to wipe out
the disease. By understanding geography and by making his research in to
smallpox vaccination public Dr Jenner was able to start spreading the word of
vaccination. Dr Jenner’s importance was recognised across the world and
Napoleon himself is recorded as saying “Jenner!” ” We can refuse nothing to that
man” and 3rd US President Thomas Jefferson wrote to Jenner stating; “mankind
can never forget that you have lived”
Supporting docs: Jefferson Letter and Inquiry Extract
Vaccination Gun: Teacher Notes
Dr Edward Jenner did not have the luxury of a vaccination gun when he did his
first smallpox vaccination experiment on James Phipps. In fact he didn’t even
have a syringe needle to use as this wasn’t invented until 1853.
In the 1960’s vaccination guns began being produced so that doctors and nurses
could vaccinate people more quickly and more safely. This particular vaccination
gun was used in West Africa by doctors who were part of the campaign by The
World Health Organisation to eradicate smallpox.
This type of vaccination gun fired a jet of vaccine using compressed air. The air
was compressed and by the pedal you see in the picture. Doctors would use
their foot to pump the pedal. This was an important piece of equipment as it did
not need electricity to power it and so could be used all over the world.
Unfortunately this type of vaccination gun was easily broken and blocked by dust
and was soon replaced by the ‘bifurcated needle’. This needle had a narrow,
flattened end and that was jabbed very quickly into the skin to give a painless
vaccination
Dr Jenner’s dream was that the deadly smallpox disease would eventually be
completely wiped out. The development of technology such as vaccination guns
helped this become reality and smallpox was finally announced eradicated in
1980 by the World Health Organisation.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:
World Health Organisation Poster declaring the eradication of smallpox
Temple of Vaccinia: Teacher Notes
How do you think The Temple of Vaccinia got its name?
This thatched hut is a Grade II * listed building which means it is considered a
very important building that has a special place in the history of the UK.
The temple was built between 1796 and 1804 for Dr Jenner by his friend
Reverend Robert Ferryman. Dr Jenner had intended to use the thatched hut as
his summer house in his garden however this changed after one very exciting
experiment and it is this experiment that led to Dr Jenner to name the hut the
Temple of Vaccinia.
In 1796 Dr Jenner famously infected a young boy called James Phipps (who was
his gardener’s son) with a disease called cowpox. Dr Jenner did this by using a
small blade to scratch James’s skin and putting some pus from a cowpox blister
in to the scratch. Dr Jenner waited and after a few weeks did the same
experiment again but the second time used pus from a smallpox blister to see if
James would develop smallpox. James did not develop smallpox.
Dr Jenner had realised that people who caught cowpox did not catch smallpox.
This was very important because cowpox is nowhere near as horrible an illness
as smallpox. Cowpox made people feel slightly unwell – a bit like having a cold
and a few blisters, mainly on the hands. Smallpox made hundreds of thousands
of people very ill and it could cause blindness, deafness, terrible scarring and in
the worst case, death.
In the late 1700’s, when Dr Jenner tried out his experiment on James Phipps,
only more wealthy people could afford to see a doctor. Dr Jenner realised that
he had to try and vaccinate as many people as possible to try and stamp
smallpox so he decided to provide vaccinations free of charge to people who
could not afford medical treatment.
The Temple of Vaccinia is very close to the Church in Berkeley so Dr Jenner
decided it would be the perfect place to vaccinate people against smallpox after
church. It was common on a Sunday to see poorer people of the district queuing
up to be vaccinated and it was because of this that Dr Jenner named his summer
house the Temple of Vaccinia.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENT:
Lettsom Letter