Professor O'Kennedy taught us about smallpox and how, in the old days people died from it. We learned how Edward Jenner was the first doctor to effectively control this disease by vaccination - something unheard of at that time.


Smallpox was the most feared and greatest killer of Jenner's time. It was as deadly as cancer or heart disease is today. It killed 10% of the population, rising to 20% in towns and cities where infection spread very easily. Among children, it accounted for one-in-three of all deaths. Jenner called it the "Speckled Monster". Smallpox is caused by the virus variola. We breathe in the virus, which is then carried in the blood to the internal organs, which it infects. The virus then spreads to the skin where it causes a very nasty rash.

Edward Jenner had been intrigued by country-lore which said that people who caught cowpox from their cows could not catch smallpox. In May 1796 a dairymaid, Sarah Nelmes, consulted Jenner about a rash on her hand. Cowpox is a mild viral infection of cows. It causes a few weeping spots on their udders, but little discomfort. Milkmaids occasionally caught cowpox from the cows. Although they felt rather off-colour for a few days and developed a small number of spots, usually on the hand, the disease did not trouble them.

Jenner diagnosed cowpox rather than smallpox and Sarah confirmed that one of her cows, a Gloucester cow called Blossom, had recently had cowpox. Edward Jenner realised that this was his opportunity to test the protective properties of cowpox by giving it to someone who had not yet suffered smallpox.

He chose James Phipps, the eight-year old son of his gardener. On 14th May he made a few scratches on one of James' arms and rubbed into them some 'scabby' material from one of the spots on Sarah's hand. A few days later James became mildly ill with cowpox but was well again a week later. As Jenner had hoped, to his great relief no doubt, James did not develop smallpox, either on this or any other occasion.

To find out lots more about Jenner and his work visit the Jenner Museum website.


This lecture was interesting if you are interested in disgusting things - like all the above - but not all of it was horrible pictures being shown on the big screen. Professor O'Kennedy picked three boys to go up on stage. One of them put on horns (pretending to be the germ) while the others pretended to to be antibodies and kill the germ! We learned about antibodies that attack foreign cells to protect your body. We were taught about cells that protect our bodies, such as B cells and T cells and another one called microphage which grows around its target and then kills it.

Three girls from the class are in the Dublin Girls Singers and were volunteered to go on stage and lead some singing. This they did - very enthusiastically. They were caught rehearsing for their big moment before the lecture. Click here to catch them!

We learned a lot about cancer as well as vaccination. At the end of the lecture, we were given the chance to view some blood through a microscope.

Because we were so good, we were allowed to stay and have lunch in the lecture hall. We then waited a short time for a bus, hopped on and arrived back at school at about 1.15.

It was a very busy bus, with pupils from both St Andrews College and Newpark - but our bus driver still found time for a photograph with our American visitor, Chinook.

Our sincerest thanks to the staff of the RDS, Dublin Bus, our teacher Iníon Ní Choimín (and her assistants!) and in particular to Professor Richard O'Kennedy for a super day.