Talk:Balmis Expedition

Innoculation vs. vaccination
Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who had survived smallpox, brought the process of innoculation back from the Ottoman Empire in about 1718. Innoculation involved taking pus from a recovering smallpox victim and scratching it into the skin of a healthy person, who would then have a milder case of the disease. This process was slow to be accepted, but was in fairly wide use across Europe in 1800.

Edward Jenner reported, in 1796, that infection with a related but much milder disease, cowpox, would entirely prevent smallpox. This process, which he called vaccination (from 'cow') caught on a bit more rapidly but was now widely popular, even in England, by 1800.

That Dr. Balmis carried a significant number of orphan boys on an expedition in 1804 suggests that he was innoculating them in series rather than vaccinating.

Jojo-acapulco 16:03, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

No, it was really the vaccine (cowpox) that was transported. Dr. Balmis had the problem of keeping the virus alive during the long crossing of the ocean; he solved it by innoculating some orphans with cowpox, and then having them pass it to other orphans as the voyaged progressed. Innoculation was already known (and used) in the Americas before the expedition. 213.4.112.58 (talk) 11:38, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

I have corrected the article to make it clear that what the Balmis expedition borought to the Spanish Americas was vaccination, not innoculation. I have also corrected the title of the main reference. 213.0.53.131 (talk) 13:09, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

The words are still being used incorrectly. "Inoculation" is "the introduction of a pathogen or antigen into a living organism to stimulate the production of antibodies". The first type of inoculation was done for centuries with material taken from a person who had the smallpox and it was called variolation. Then Jenner discovered that the cowpox protected against Variolae vaccinae (smallpox of the cow) virus and that is the origin of the name which was meant to distinguish the procedure from variolation. In summary, speaking very strictly, variolation is the inoculation with smallpox material and vaccination is the inoculation with cowpox material. Since the first vaccine was invented the word "vaccine" has taken a general meaning similar to "inoculation" and in modern usage inoculation and vaccination are used interchangeably with the same meaning. I would suggest introducing a definition of the words in the beginning of the article. 31.4.130.32 (talk) 07:57, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

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Orphans in Balmis expedition
Did the orphans they took die after being used as vaccinations donors? Dale662 (talk) 18:27, 1 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Dale662, Noone knows apparently.
 * What I find shocking is the language used in this article to describe how the orphans were "used". It puts the kids on a level with experimental animals.

"In New Spain, Balmis took 25 orphans to maintain the infection during the crossing of the Pacific". --Wuerzele (talk) 22:41, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

Existence of Infanta Maria Teresa
I can't find a Infanta Maria Teresa anywhere besides in this article. I'd out her name through Google and I can't find any. The Family tree of Spanish monarchs doesn't have her name on it. In this article, something similar didn't even happen:

Gabriel, King Charles's brother, and his sister-in-law, the Portuguese queen Maria Ana Victoria, succumbed to smallpox. In addition, the king's daughter, Queen Maria Luisa, and the Princess of Parma were all infected with the smallpox virus but survived

It could be that I'm bad at researching but I can't confirm her existence.

The Malaysian Redcoat (talk) 08:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Incompleteness
Its rare, but compared to the spanish version this article is lacking a lot of details. 2A0C:5A84:E30C:2700:B973:B04F:643B:8749 (talk) 21:24, 19 November 2023 (UTC)