The dissemination in Latin America of the first spanish publications·on vaccines (1799-1804)

Abstract

This article indentifies the first sources of information on the smallpox vaccine and their dissemination according to local documents of the time. As of 1799 the periodical press in Latin America and Madrid played a major role in the wide and rapid spreading of information on the subject publishing European as well as American news. From among the first nineteen books and leaflets publicizing the vaccine, which were written or translated by Spaniards and published before 1804, eight were printed in Catalonia, five in Madrid and the rest in Bilbao, Montpellier, Cádiz, Pamplona and Saragossa. Six out of this stock of nineteen texts are translations from French, eight of them were quoted or reprinted in America. This intensive education and documentary activity, headed by Government publications in Spain and the Colonies, preceded the Vaccination Expedition of the Spanish Government. So one of the Expedition's most noteworthy results was that, upon landing in America, it encountered interest in and knowledge of the vaccine.