Rather interesting Yeovil facts
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Did you know that the first recorded vaccination in the world was carried out at Yetminster near Yeovil in 1774? A farmer there, Benjamin Jesty, as was the case with Jenner two decades later, reasoned that inducing cowpox (whose sufferers were known not to suffer from smallpox subsequently) would bring immunity to the deadlier disease. He scratched the arms of his wife and two sons with pus from a neighbour’s cowpox-infected beast, using a darning needle. It worked – though his wife’s arm became infected, probably due to the needle being dirty.
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Famous Yeovil people:
Heather Stanning
William Dampier
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