Flutterby™! : Balmis Expedition

The Spanish Royal Philanthropic Expedition to Bring Smallpox Vaccination to the New World and Asia in the 19th Century Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 41, Issue 9, 1 November 2005, Pages 1285–1289

About the De Balmis expedition. In 1803, 22 orphaned children and the son of the director of the orphanage were loaded onto the Spanish corvette Maria Pita and serially infected with cowpox in order to bring smallpox vaccination to the new world. They brought the vaccine to the Canary Islands, but by the time they reached Puerto Rico, the vaccine had already arrived via the Virgin Islands. However, they set up infrastructure to produce more, and headed on to South America. Balmis split the party, continued across Central America, back on to boats to the Phillippines, China and other parts of Asia, continuing back through the Middle East.

https://doi.org/10.1086/496930

Via MeFi. Now listening to Futility Closet episode 42 on The Balmis expedition.