Oswaldo Cruz father-in-law, a wealthy Portuguese merchant. Cruz found the seaport of Santos ravaged by an epidemic of bubonic plague that threatened to reach Rio de Janeiro and engaged himself immediately in the combat of this disease. The mayor of Rio de Janeiro authorized the construction of a plant for manufacturing the serum against the disease which had been developed at the Pasteur Institute by Alexandre Yersin and coworkers. He asked the institution for a scientist who could bring to Brazil this know-how. The Pasteur Institute responded that such a person was already available in Brazil: Dr. Oswaldo Cruz. On May 25,
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation after Oswaldo Cruz assumed its leadership in 1902. From there on, the institute became the base for memorable sanitation campaigns in an age of outbreaks and epidemics of the bubonic plague, yellow fever, and smallpox. The Institute, however, was not confined to Rio de Janeiro and, on the contrary, collaborated in the occupation of the country’s interior through scientific expeditions, aiding in the development of the country. When Oswaldo Cruz died, in 1917, the Institute, which by then already bore his name, was nationally consolidated through important scientific achievements, such as Carlos Chagas’ description of the complete cycle of the