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To Save the Children: Smallpox Inoculation, Vaccination, and Public Health in Guanajuato, Mexico, 1797-1840

When smallpox threatened the Mexican province of Guanajuato in October 1797, Juan de Riaño, the Intendant of Guanajuato, instituted a program of inoculation to protect the children of his province against the disease. Realizing that many parents would resist having their children inoculated, he decided to provide an example by having his own six children inoculated first, thereby encouraging other parents to bring their children forward. Accordingly, a physician made deep scratches in the arms of his children, three of whom were under the age of five, and rubbed organic matter containing live smallpox virus into the wounds. Thanking Riaño for this gesture, Dr. Juan de Islas praised him for showing “true mercy for your children, banishing the timidity from the minds of others.” Nor was their timidity entirely unjustified. People occasionally died from inoculation, for inoculation provided immunity by artificially inducing a case of smallpox, but one that was usually benign. The risk of dying from inoculation was much lower than from contracting smallpox naturally. That was the point Riaño was trying to make to the people of Guanajuato.