History of smallpox In the late 1770s, during the American Revolutionary War, smallpox returned once more and killed thousands. Peter Kalm in his "Travels in North America", described how in that period, the dying Indian villages became overrun with wolves feasting on the corpses and weakened survivors. Smallpox was also used as a weapon by the British. In 1799, the physician Valentine Seaman administered the first smallpox vaccine in the United States. He gave his children a smallpox vaccination using a serum acquired from Edward Jenner, the British physician who invented the vaccine from fluid taken from cowpox lesions. Though vaccines were misunderstood
History of smallpox in Mexico caused Viceroy Félix Calleja to take preventive measures like fumigations and vaccination, which were successful. There were sporadic outbreaks until 1826 when smallpox appeared in Yucatán, Tabasco and Veracruz brought by North American ships. In 1828, there were reported cases in Hidalgo, Oaxaca, State of Mexico, Guerrero, Chiapas, Chihuahua and Mexico City. Efforts to eradicate smallpox in Mexico started with Dr José Ignacio Bartolache who wrote a book in 1779 about smallpox called “Instrucción que puede servir para que se cure a los enfermos de las viruelas epidemicas que ahora se padecen en México”(Instructions that may help to cure smallpox