3-070-051 - LTL/Heritage Images

Smallpox vaccination expedition leaving the port of La Coruña, Galicia, Spain, 1803, (1851). Spanish military doctor Francisco Javier Balmis (1753-1819) led an expedition (1803-1813) to vaccinate against smallpox in Latin America and the Philippines. The Royal Philanthropic Expedition departed from La Coruña, together with the surgeon Josep Salvany and the nurse Isabel Zendal. After his arrival in Venezuela in 1804, the expedition decided to split up in order to reach more areas: Balmis went to Mexico. From "Historia del Levantamiento, guerra y revolución de España" (History of the Spanish Uprising, War and Revolution) by the Conde de Toreno, Madrid, 1851.