RT journal article
T1 Francisco Oller y Ferrer (1758-1831). The surgeon who performed the first smallpox vaccination in a Hispanic American territory
A1 Pérez Pérez, Antonio
A1 Vallejo Villalobos, José Ramón
A2 Anatomía PatológicaBiología Celular, Histología, Historia de la Ciencia, Medicina Legal y Forense y Toxicología
K1 SmallpoxVaccine
K1 Epidemics
K1 The Spanish navy
K1 Oversea
K1 Royal college of medicine and surgery of Cadiz
K1 Medical-surgical school of Cadiz
K1 History of medicine
AB Balmis arrived on February 9, 1804, in Puerto Rico, the beginning of the American stage of the Philanthropic Expedition of the vaccine that was to begin the campaign to spread the vaccine throughout Hispanic America, in the Philippines, in Macao and Canton and on the island of St. Helena. With this, the surgeon and the expeditionaries under his orders would go down in the annals for heading one of the most transcendental sanitary enterprises carried out in the history of mankind. However, in our historical research we reiterate that the arrival of the vaccine in Hispanic America did not occur exclusively at the hands of the Balmis Expedition. At the same time, in the approach and narrative, we vindicate the figure of Francisco Oller, a Spanish military surgeon, as the person responsible for the first vaccination campaign in a territory belonging to the Spanish overseas provinces. Thus, the surgeon deserves to be considered as a distinguished figure at the dawn of public health. The historical method used is based on unpublished primary sources from the 19th century, contemporary to the facts studied, documents from the 18th century corresponding to the history of the surgeons involved, and literature obtained from the main national and international databases. The results are presented in the form of an in-depth narrative of Oller's biography with new data on this relevant character. However, we do not propose its examination as a traditional biography, but as a synthesis work that highlights facts not yet sufficiently integrated as part of the universal medical and cultural heritage.
PB Elsevier
SN 1873-2518
YR 2025
FD 2025-04-02
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/36192
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/36192
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 07-nov-2026