From viceroyalty to vaccinated viceroyalty. Shared application and theory (1803-1810)

Abstract

Smallpox ravaged the world since ancient times. Periodic epidemics left thousands dead, people with deep scars on their bodies, and even blindness. It wasn't until the end of the 18th century that Edward Jenner discovered how to immunize humans. Various trials were conducted in England, France, and Spain. But it was the expansion of smallpox inoculation that mitigated the scourge. This effort was coordinated at an intercontinental level when Francisco Xavier de Balmis proposed to the Spanish Crown, in 1803, that they undertake an expedition to all the American viceroyalties, including the Philippines, to vaccinate all their inhabitants. The research I present brings together data scattered across various Spanish and American archives and bibliographies. It is important to highlight the significance of maintaining health care for more than five years, covering vast distances, at the time. It was a planned undertaking, based on the exchange of observations and lessons learned. The main objective is to demonstrate that both preventive medical knowledge and the normative and practical organization were shared across such vast and remote territories. This is confirmed by the documentation kept in various archives, which contain identical lists of expedition members, regulations, and instructions on vaccination procedures, regulations that authorities were required to follow according to their hierarchy, as well as the location and method of administering the vaccine. Handwritten documents, copied for one destination or another, or printed, sought to expand knowledge and achieve the proposed health objective.