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Why Music Object Spotlight
As Radio 3 takes up residence at Wellcome Collection in London to explore what makes music a vital part of being human, comedian and actor, Gryff Rhys Jones explores a history of health through objects on display.
Model of the Aëdes aegypti mosquito
Made by Grace Edwards, 1914
- Aëdes Aegypti is a mosquito known to spread yellow fever
- Yellow fever is thought to have been exported to Central and South America during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade
- Yellow fever, or Yellow Jack, is a viral disease that still infects around 200,000 people a year, killing approximately 30,000
- Wax models like this one were made to aid teaching and understanding - what couldn't be viewed easily on the real insect, could be seen with ease on the large sculpted replica
- Yellow fever was contracted by so many men building the Panama canal that it effectively crippled a French attempt to build it.
Image: Wellcome Collection
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Object spotlight: Model of the Aëdes aegypti mosquito
Gryff Rhys Jones and Simon Chaplin discuss a model of the aëdes aegypti mosquito.
This is one of five objects explored as part of Why Music a partnership between BBC Radio 3 and Wellcome Collection.
