Ep. 61 | The Speckled Monster

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On a spring morning in 1796, a young milkmaid in southwest England was taking a quick break from her duties.

She left the barn where she worked to take a stroll around the farm, and she noticed a bush covered in beautiful pink roses.

The milkmaid thought how nice the flowers would look inside of her room, so she tore a blossom off its stem, and as she did, a thorn scratched the side of her hand.

She gasped.

The cut wasn't deep, but it stung, and it was starting to bleed.

It felt like an instant punishment for ignoring her job.

She shoved the flowers into the pocket of her dress, wiped the blood on her apron, and quickly went back to work.

She spent the day milking the cows and cleaning up the barn, and she didn't think about the scratch again until the next morning when she woke up and felt her hand throbbing.

Right where the scratch had been, there was now a big, pus-filled sore.

The milkmaid's face went pale.

She'd never had a sore like this, but she knew people who had, and many of them had gotten so sick that they died.

The milkmaid jumped out of bed, ran to the farmer's house, and begged him to send for a doctor.

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From Balin Studios and Wondry, I'm Mr.

Ballin, and this is Mr.

Balin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies.

So, if you like today's story, when the follow button is waiting in line to see a brand new movie they're very excited about, walk up to them and spoil the ending.

This episode is called The Speckled Monster.

On a bright afternoon in April of 1795, 37-year-old James Phipps Sr.

squinted in the sun as he carefully trimmed a hedge, trying to shape an overgrown bush into a perfect sphere.

James was was a gardener, and he tended to the estate of one of the most prominent men in Berkeley, England, a physician named Dr.

Edward Jenner, who was a leading crusader against what was then the world's most feared disease, smallpox.

James did not always like his job.

The days were long, the weather was often bad, and his hands were always covered in cuts and sores.

But working on Dr.

Jenner's estate was never dull.

His boss treated an unending parade of people suffering from hundreds of small, painful sores from their tongues to their toes.

These sores were how smallpox got its nickname, the speckled monster.

But no matter what Dr.

Jenner did to help, nearly a third of the smallpox patients died, while most of the survivors ended up with scars all over their faces.

And today, Dr.

Jenner was doing something particularly strange.

He was deliberately exposing healthy people to the deadly disease.

As James trimmed the hedge, he could look through the window into Dr.

Jenner's office.

The dark, wood-paneled walls were lined with cabinets full of medical supplies, and the silver-haired physician stood in the center of the room, using a mortar and pestle to grind up scabs he'd collected from other patients' smallpox sores.

One by one, people went into the office and allowed Dr.

Jenner to blow these scabs into their noses, sending the virus deep inside of their bodies.

The doctor called this process variolation.

Dr.

Jenner had told James that it was better to make patients sick with a mild case of smallpox like this rather than for them to get a much worse case naturally.

After all, once a patient got smallpox, they could never get it again.

James had nodded like he understood, but inside, he thought it was pretty odd for healthy people to come to the doctor to get sick.

Sometimes, people died from the smallpox infection that Dr.

Jenner gave them.

So, James winced every time he saw the doctor blow through his straw, knowing that the patient would soon return covered in the ugly smallpox rash.

Most alarming though, James knew that one day, his eight-year-old son James Jr.

would have to go through the same ordeal.

Dr.

Jenner would insist.

But James hoped that day was still years away.

Until then, he decided to just put the frightening thought out of his mind.

He stepped back again to check the shape of the hedge.

It still looked a bit like an egg, so he leaned back in and kept on trimming.

A few days later, James squatted beside the flower beds that lined the front of Dr.

Jenner's vast ornate home.

He dug a small hole, placed a tulip bulb inside, and buried it.

He moved six inches down and began to dig a second hole.

But then, he heard footsteps coming up the walkway.

James turned to see a local cattle farmer named Joseph Merritt heading towards the porch.

James was surprised to see him because Joseph had come by for Dr.

Jenner's clinic just a few days ago.

Joseph should have been stuck at home with smallpox right now, but instead, he looked perfectly healthy.

The smallpox virus that Dr.

Jenner blew into his nose must not have made him sick.

James lifted up a dirty hand to wave, and Joseph nodded at him before knocking on the front door and heading inside.

James went back to planting tulip bulbs, but he kept thinking about Joseph.

He'd never seen a person get variolated and not get sick afterwards.

James tried to mind his business and focus on his work, but he just couldn't shake his curiosity.

So, as he moved further down the flowerbed, he peeked through a window into Dr.

Jenner's clinic.

Joseph sat on a wooden exam table, and to James's horror, the doctor was blowing a straw into Joseph's nose.

He was exposing Joseph to smallpox again.

James kept looking through the glass, wondering how Joseph had managed to avoid catching smallpox the first time.

And also, James thought, you know, how sick was Joseph going to get now that he had received a double dose.

About a year later, in May 1796, Dr.

Edward Jenner was enjoying a quiet morning in his sunroom, sipping an after-breakfast cup of tea, when he heard a knock at his door.

A few moments later, one of his servants came into the sunroom and told him that a messenger had come from a nearby village.

There was a pox outbreak at one of the villagers' farms, and they needed Dr.

Jenner's help.

Dr.

Jenner thanked the servant and immediately went to get dressed.

He put on a blue coat with gold buttons and pulled his shoulder-length silver hair into a low ponytail.

Then he packed his traveling medical kit with supplies, walked outside to a stable, and got on one of his horses.

Dr.

Jenner was the only practicing physician within 400 square miles, so he was used to traveling long distances for his patients.

Luckily, this particular village was not too far away.

He rode through the countryside for about half an hour, and when he spotted the farm he was looking for, he pulled on his horse's reins and slowed to a stop.

Dr.

Jenner got off his horse, tied the animal to a fence post, and walked towards a small house on the farm.

But before he made it to the front door, it swung open, revealing a scruffy-looking man in work clothes.

The farmer beckoned Dr.

Jenner inside into a small sitting room.

There, Dr.

Jenner saw a young woman sitting on the couch, cradling her right hand.

She was very pretty, with long brown hair and light eyes, but she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

Dr.

Jenner sat next to her and asked for her name.

With a shaky voice, she said her name was Sarah Nelms.

Then she held out her right hand and showed Dr.

Jenner the big pus-filled sore between her thumb and pointed finger.

She explained that the previous morning, she'd been out picking roses when a thorn scratched her hand.

Then, this morning, Sarah had woken up with this huge sore right where the scratch had been.

Now, she felt exhausted and feverish, and her hand was throbbing.

Tears began to roll down her cheeks, and through sobs, she told the doctor that she was certain she had smallpox.

Dr.

Jenner nodded sympathetically and then gently took Sarah's hand.

Her sword did look like a smallpox spot, but Dr.

Jenner knew that Sarah did not have smallpox because the disease didn't start on people's hands.

It started in their mouths, then spread across their faces and down their limbs.

So he reassured the girl that she didn't have smallpox, but he did have a hunch about what was making her sick.

Dr.

Jenner turned to the farmer and asked him to point out the barn where Sarah worked.

He needed to see see it for himself.

Moments later, the farmer led Dr.

Jenner into a wooden barn where about 30 dairy cows were eating and resting.

A few of the animals turned to look at the men, and Dr.

Jenner approached one of them and leaned down to look at its udder.

And he saw exactly what he was expecting.

The cow's udder was covered in a bumpy, scabby rash.

It had dozens of sores, just like the one on Sarah's hand.

Dr.

Jenner walked around the barn and found that every single cow had a similar rash.

Dr.

Jenner was not a veterinarian, but he knew that this disease was a relative of smallpox called cowpox, and it could be spread from livestock to humans.

Dr.

Jenner and the farmer went back into the house where Sarah was waiting, and the doctor told her that he had good and bad news.

The bad news was that she had cowpox.

This meant she was going to have to quarantine herself so she wouldn't spread it to anyone else, and the sore in her hand was likely going to get worse before it got better.

But the good news was that cowpox was far less deadly than smallpox, so even though it would take a few weeks for her hand to heal, Sarah was very likely going to be okay.

Sarah let out a small laugh of relief and let Dr.

Jenner clean and dress her wound.

When he was finished, the doctor shook the farmer's hand, went back out to his horse, and began his journey home.

But as he rode through the countryside, an idea began to form inside of Dr.

Jenner's mind, a really exciting idea.

He thought about Sarah's case of cowpox that she undoubtedly got from working with those poor sick animals.

It occurred to him that he had treated many, many milkmaids on many different farms for cowpox.

However, he couldn't actually think of a single milkmaid who ever got sick with smallpox.

And that reminded him of Joseph, the cattle farmer from a year ago, the one who did not get sick after his smallpox variolation.

Just like Sarah, Joseph worked with cows every day, and Dr.

Jenner just could not make Joseph sick with smallpox, no matter how hard he tried.

This raised a question for Dr.

Jenner, one that he needed to answer right away.

He pressed his right leg into his horse's side, and the animal sped up from a trot to a gallop to an all-out run.

Dr.

Jenner held on tight, anxious to get back home.

Sitting in his office chair that same afternoon, the doctor rifled through a cabinet full of local medical records.

He found the file for Joseph Merritt, the cattle farmer he'd tried to variolate last year, and in Joseph's medical history, Dr.

Jenner found the answer to his burning question.

Way back in 1770, so 26 years earlier, Joseph had been treated for cowpox.

Then, two and a half decades later, Dr.

Jenner tried to variate him against smallpox twice, and it didn't work.

It was like Joseph was already immune to smallpox, even though he'd never had it before.

So Dr.

Jenner wondered, what if Joseph's previous cowpox infection was what had made him immune to smallpox?

And what if the doctor could use this information to help other people?

Dr.

Jenner might be able to deliberately expose people to cowpox, a painful but ultimately non-fatal disease, to make them immune to smallpox, a far more dangerous illness.

The doctor's mind spun a mile a minute.

If this idea worked, physicians could save patients from smallpox without accidentally killing them.

They could stop the world's deadliest disease in its tracks.

But Dr.

Jenner knew he was getting ahead of himself.

First, he had to prove that his cowpox theory was right.

And the only way to do that would be to experiment on a patient who had never had cowpox or smallpox.

And because pretty much every adult that Dr.

Jenner treated had suffered from one pox or the other already, he was going to have to experiment on a child.

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On May 14, 1796, James Phipps Sr.

held his son's hand as they walked towards Dr.

Jenner's estate.

They passed the hedges James had trimmed and the tulips he'd planted, but James was not thinking about his work.

He was thinking about the fact that his son was about to become a human science experiment.

A few days earlier, Dr.

Jenner had asked James if he'd be willing to let him test his theory on Junior.

The doctor believed cowpox made people immune to smallpox, so he wanted to infect Junior with cowpox, then try to infect him with smallpox.

If Junior didn't get sick, it would prove the doctor's theory was correct.

But if Junior did contract smallpox, it would prove Dr.

Jenner wrong and the little boy would face a 30% chance of death.

At first, James said no way.

Dr.

Jenner's theory was mostly based on the fact that one cattle farmer, Joseph Merritt, couldn't catch smallpox.

That wasn't exactly foolproof evidence.

Plus, Joseph was an adult.

Junior was a child, and children were almost always more susceptible to disease.

James knew if he agreed, he was going to be putting his son in mortal danger.

But still, James also knew that Dr.

Jenner was one of the best physicians in the country and he did trust him.

But also, there was just the harsh reality that at this time, a lot of people were getting smallpox and when they got it, a lot of them died.

And so maybe putting his son in danger now was ultimately saving his life.

So James ultimately agreed to the plan.

He led his son up to the front door, knocked, and a moment later, a servant showed them to the doctor's office.

Inside, James saw Dr.

Jenner sitting next to a young brunette woman with a bandaged right hand.

Dr.

Jenner stood up to say hello, then leaned down and told Junior that the woman's name was Sarah and she was going to be helping with the procedure.

She had actually come out of her quarantine just for this.

Junior glanced at his father nervously and James gave him an encouraging nod.

While Junior sat on the exam table, Dr.

Jenner unwrapped Sarah's bandage, revealing the cowpox sore underneath.

Then, the doctor grabbed a scalpel from one of the cabinets and asked Junior to hold out his arm and stay still.

Dr.

Jenner held Junior's wrist while he brought the scalpel towards the outside of the boy's upper arm.

James put a reassuring hand on his son's shoulder and Junior drew in a sharp breath as the doctor pressed the scalpel down and dragged it about an inch across his skin.

Dr.

Jenner made one more cut beneath the first one, then did the same thing on Junior's other arm.

Then, Dr.

Jenner turned to Sarah and used the same scalpel to poke a hole in the top of her cowpox sore.

Yellow pus began to leak out the top, and right away, Dr.

Jenner got a small spatula to gather some of it up.

Junior squirmed, but James tightened his grip on his son's shoulders to keep him still as the doctor wiped the pus directly into the cuts on both of Junior's arms.

Junior looked completely grossed out, and James did too, but James was also glad that at least this part of the experiment was over.

He let go of his son's shoulders and they headed back home.

Nine days later, James felt like he'd made the worst decision of his life.

His son had been stuck in bed for over a week with chills, body aches, and nausea, and James knew the worst was yet to come.

Even if his son recovered from cowpox, which was feeling like a big if, he still had to be exposed to smallpox.

Late that evening, James brought a spoonful of stew to Junior's lips, but his son refused to eat.

He was too nauseous.

A voice in the back of James's mind told him that he had put his son through all this suffering for nothing.

But he shook off that nagging thought, then grabbed an extra blanket to keep his boy warm.

Then he told his son to call for him if he needed anything at all.

Then, James blew out the candle on Junior's bedside table, went to his own room, and got into bed.

And he laid there awake worrying about his son until eventually he drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, James jumped out of bed and immediately went to check on his son.

And to his surprise, his son was awake and smiling.

Junior said he was finally starting to feel better.

In fact, he was even hungry for breakfast.

James was so relieved, but he did know the biggest danger was still to come.

A little over a month later, on July 1st, 1796, James brought his son back to Dr.

Jenner's office for the second part of the experiment.

Junior sat on the exam table, looking like he wanted to sprint out the door, while Dr.

Jenner took a jar of reddish powder out of one of his cupboards.

It was a container of ground-up scabs from smallpox patients.

James looked on uneasily as Dr.

Jenner sprinkled some of the scabs into the straw and told Junior to hold the straw inside one of his nostrils.

Then, once it was in place, Dr.

Jenner blew the contaminated red dust into Junior's nose.

Over the next several days, James kept a very close eye on his son.

He was terrified that he would start developing a fever or the awful smallpox sores.

One morning, four or five days after their visit to Dr.

Jenner, Junior woke up with a scratchy throat.

And James feared that his worst nightmare had come true.

He imagined all these smallpox sores popping up inside of his son's throat, spreading across his face and down his arms and legs.

He felt so stupid and guilty, he couldn't believe he'd put his child in this kind of danger.

But then, Junior drank some water and suddenly his voice went back to normal.

And with a smile on his face he asked his dad, when can I go play outside again?

James let out a long sigh of relief and said, soon, but not yet.

Over the next week or so, Junior continued to just sail along without ever getting sick.

And finally, James was satisfied that his son was perfectly fine, and he did let Junior back outside to play.

Dr.

Jenner's experiment had worked, and though James and his son had no way of knowing it, they had just helped revolutionize medicine forever.

It turned out that Dr.

Jenner's theory was correct.

Cowpox and smallpox were so closely related that contracting one disease made people immune to the other.

Dr.

Jenner wrote a report about Junior's remarkable immunity to smallpox, and he named his new technique vaccination.

after the Latin word for cow.

And the name stuck because Dr.

Jenner had invented the world's first vaccine.

But as incredible as this discovery was, Dr.

Jenner's report was met with mixed reactions.

It took years for other doctors to endorse smallpox vaccination and even longer for the public to embrace it.

But Dr.

Jenner believed in his new method so much that he devoted the rest of his life to vaccinating patients and teaching other doctors how to do the same.

Over the next century, Dr.

Jenner's smallpox vaccine saved millions of lives every year.

Then, in 1967, almost two centuries after James Phipps Jr.

took part in Dr.

Jenner's experiment, the World Health Organization began a campaign to permanently eliminate smallpox.

And by 1980, they did it.

A disease that caused countless deaths and immeasurable suffering was literally wiped off the face of the earth.

And it all began with a sick milkmaid, a gardener's son, and a very creative doctor.

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Bollins Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondry.com/slash survey.

Also, a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

This episode was written by Karis Allen Pash Cooper.

Our editor is Heather Dundas.

Sound design is by Andre Plus.

Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan, and our coordinating producer is Taylor Sniffin.

Our senior producer is Alex Benedon.

Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vitak and Teja Palaconda.

Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson.

For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt.

Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen.

Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins.

Production support by Avery Siegel.

Executive producers are myself, Mr.

Bollin, and also Nick Witters.

For Wondry, our head of sound is Marcelino Villipando.

Senior producers are Laura Donna Palavota and Dave Schilling.

Senior managing producer is Ryan Wauh.

Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louie for Wonderry.

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