Heroes of Medicine (1983)

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This cover is postmarked on 17 August 1983 in Umtata. It forms the second set in a Transkei series honouring Heroes of Medicine, featuring Edward Jenner, Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur and Florence Nightingale. Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine after observing that milkmaids who caught cowpox seemed immune to the far more dangerous disease. Mendel, an Austrian monk, used his monastery garden to conduct the botanical experiments that gave rise to the modern understanding of genetic heredity. Pasteur established the germ theory of infection and developed a vaccine against rabies. Nightingale transformed nursing during the Crimean War and went on to found the world's first proper nursing school in London. One detail worth noting is just how far reaching Jenner's original discovery turned out to be. His vaccine, developed from a simple observation about dairy workers, eventually led to smallpox becoming one of the only diseases in history to be virtually eradicated worldwide.

Description of the Cachet

The cachet shows four portraits rendered in soft watercolour, their faces overlapping gently like layered brushstrokes rather than sitting in separate frames. Edward Jenner appears at the back in muted sepia tones, Gregor Mendel just in front of him with round spectacles and a full beard, Louis Pasteur beside him with his own distinctive beard, and Florence Nightingale at the front wearing a simple white headscarf. The overlapping composition gives a real sense of these four figures belonging to one shared story despite working in different countries and different eras. None of them ever worked together directly, yet the layout suggests a continuous thread of medical progress running through all four lives. Below the portraits the title reads Heroes of Medicine, marked as the second set in the series. The stamps above depict each figure again in individual portrait form, paired with a small symbolic image relating to their discovery, a syringe for Jenner, a red hand for Mendel's law of heredity, a microscope for Pasteur, and a lantern for Nightingale.

Information Card

HEROES OF MEDICINE Second set of the series 10c Edward Jenner 1749–1823 Edward Jenner was born in England. He studied medicine and then started practising in the country. At that time smallpox was a widespread and often fatal disease. Jenner noticed that milkmaids who contracted the mild disease of cow-pox were thereafter immune to smallpox. After several experiments on humans he developed a vaccine against smallpox. Today, as a direct result of Jenner's discovery, smallpox is a nearly extinct disease. 20c Gregor Mendel 1822–1884 Gregor Mendel, an Austrian, studied science in Vienna. Later he became an Augustinian monk. Using the monastery garden as his laboratory, he conducted a long series of botanical experiments. His formulation of the principles of heredity applying to plants and animals, is known as the law of Mendel. 25c Louis Pasteur 1822–1895 Pasteur was born in France and was interested in science from childhood. He made many important discoveries in molecular chemistry, but is principally known for his widespread research on bacteriology. He established the germ theory of infection and developed an effective vaccine against rabies. 40c Florence Nightingale 1820–1910 Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, but grew up in England. Despite much opposition, she became a nurse. At the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, she was appointed in charge of nursing services at the British military hospitals. As she also nursed the wounded during the night she was soon called "the lady with the lamp". She later established the world's first proper school of nursing at St. Thomas Hospital, London. N.W.

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