The War Against Epidemics

WARNING
THE MATERIALS AND WORKS MADE AVAILABLE BY C&M ONLINE
MEDIA INC. THROUGH BOSON BOOKS ARE COPYRIGHTED.

YOU ARE PERMITTED TO DOWNLOAD LOCALLY MATERIALS AND

WORKS FROM BOSON BOOKS AND TO MAKE ONE (1) HARD COPY OF
SUCH MATERIALS AND WORKS FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE.

FEDERAL COPYRIGHT LAWS, HOWEVER, PROHIBIT ANY FURTHER

COPYING OR REPRODUCTION OF SUCH MATERIALS AND WORKS, OR
ANY REPUBLICATION OF ANY KIND.

ILLEGAL COPYING OR DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIALS AND WORKS

OBTAINED FROM BOSON BOOKS CONSTITUTES COPYRIGHT
INFRINGEMENT. ILLEGAL COPIES OF SUCH MATERIAL AND WORKS
CAN BE SEIZED AND DESTROYED. FURTHERMORE, MATERIALS AND
WORKS CREATED BY YOU OR OTHERS USING COPYRIGHTED
MATERIALS OBTAINED FROM BOSON BOOKS WITHOUT THE WRITTEN
AUTHORIZATION OF C&M ONLINE MEDIA, INC. ALSO CAN BE SEIZED
AND DESTROYED. COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT CAN BE INVESTIGATED
BY THE FBI. CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS MAY RESULT IN IMPRISONMENT
OR A FINE OF UP TO $250,000, OR BOTH.
________________________________________________________

BOSON BOOKS -1-

 The War Against Epidemics

Published by Boson Books

3905 Meadow Field Lane
Raleigh, NC 27606
ISBN 1-886420-60-2

An imprint of C&M Online Media Inc.

© Copyright 1999 Lawrence H. Feldman

All rights reserved

For information contact

C&M Online Media Inc.
3905 Meadow Field Lane
Raleigh, NC 27606
Tel: (919) 233-8164; Fax: (919) 233-8578;
e-mail:[email protected]
URL: http://www.bosonbooks.com/

BOSON BOOKS -2-

 The War Against Epidemics

_____________________________________________

The War Against Epidemics

in Colonial Guatemala
1519-1821

by

Lawrence H. Feldman

______________________________________

BOSON BOOKS -3-

 The War Against Epidemics

Contents
PREFACE 8

The Stench of the Dead 13

Impact of the Epidemics 14-15
Colonial Government and Boundaries 15
Medical Practice in the Colony 21
Medical Education and Administration 22
Saints and Devils 23

Native drugs for the Healing of Measles and Smallpox 28

Inoculation 46-47
The Vaccination Crusade Against Smallpox, 1798-1804 56-59
The Fevers of Amatitlan, 1814 84

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS

"Of the Epidemic Called Cocoliztli and the Image of Death Called San
Pascual" by Antonio Fuentes y Guzman (late seventeenth century) 24-27

"Procedure Used in the Curing of Measles and

Smallpox, Prepared at the Request of the Government as per the Order of the
Fiscal of His Majesty in the Present Year of 1769"
by Manual Avalos y Porras and Francisco Desplanques (1769) 29-34

Reports on A New Disease, 1786-1787

by Jose de Estacheria (1788-1787) 35-37

Correspondence on Typhus
by Pedro Aparicis, Francisco Xavier de Aguirre, Toribio Josef Carbajal,
Francisco Solivera, Josef Bonilla, Jose Antonio Cordoba, and Ignacio Guerra
(1797-1798) 38-44

Testimony of a Provincial Governor 39-41

Relief for Jumaytepeque 41-44

Correspondence on Smallpox
by Domingo Gonzalez, Francisco Sebastian Chamorro, and Jose Camposeco
Lorenzana (1795) 45-55

"Laws for the Propagation and Establishment of the Vaccine in the

Kingdom of Guatemala" [by Jose Antonio Cordoba, 1805] 60-82
ARTICLE I. THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE. 60-64
ARTICLE II. PROVINCIAL COMMITTEES 65-67
ARTICLE III. PROPAGATION OF THE VACCINE 67-71
ARTICLE IV. PERPETUITY OR ESTABLISHMENT 72-75
ARTICLE V. PRIESTS AND JUDGES. 75-77
ARTICLE VI. THE PHYSICIANS 77-79

BOSON BOOKS -4-

 The War Against Epidemics

ARTICLE VII. THE VACCINATORS 79-80

ARTICLE VIII. PORTS AND FRONTIER ESTABLISHMENTS 80-81
ARTICLE IX. THE SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC 81-82
"Simple and Easy Instructions for Curing the Fevers that Currently 85-87
exist in Amatitlan" by Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo (1814)
SOURCES 88-89
REFERENCES CITED 90-101
INDEX 102

BOSON BOOKS -5-

 The War Against Epidemics

Maps of Guatemala and Some of its Provinces in 1800

Guatemala 9
Escuintla 10
Amatitanes 11
Totonicapan 12

Tables

Major Colonial Guatemala Epidemics 16-18

Measles 16
Smallpox 16-17
Typhus 18
Other Epidemic Diseases in Colonial Guatemala 19

BOSON BOOKS -6-

 The War Against Epidemics

For Richard, Samantha, Gabrielle, Alexandra, Shana, Davey, Jacqueline,

Rhonda and her husband, Dave the M.D.

BOSON BOOKS -7-

 The War Against Epidemics

Preface

There are many works on medicine in Colonial Guatemala. This is one more such
endeavor. What makes this work different is that it is neither a broad history nor restricted
to an ethnic group or organization. Instead it confronts a particular problem; what to do
when an epidemic strikes? Looking at it from the viewpoint of those who actually had to
face this menace, the words of those who needed to take action are given in English
translation. The first part offers a discussion of the setting, the times and places in which
these happenings took place, and presents some conclusions on the effects of all these
efforts. The second part of each section gives the actual words of the people effected by the
epidemics.

In this second edition of Epidemics in Colonial Guatemala, I have made changes in the
manner of citing references, corrected some errata and provided some additional material
prepared for the earlier edition but, because of space limitations, not included in that edition.
No attempt has been made to review the literature since 1991, that I will leave for those who
wish to pursue this topic further.

I wish to take this opportunity to express my thanks those at the School of Medicine whose
editing improved the first edition and that the same school for their permission to do a
revised edition under another publisher.

Lawrence H. Feldman, Ph.D

BOSON BOOKS -8-

 The War Against Epidemics

BOSON BOOKS -9-

 The War Against Epidemics

BOSON BOOKS -10-

 The War Against Epidemics

BOSON BOOKS -11-

 The War Against Epidemics

BOSON BOOKS -12-

 The War Against Epidemics

The Stench of the Dead

"It happened that during the twenty-fifth year the plague began, oh, my sons! First
they became ill of a cough, they suffered from nosebleeds and illness of the bladder. It was
truly terrible, the number of dead there were in that period. ... Little by little heavy
shadows and black night enveloped our fathers and grandfathers and us also, oh, my
sons! when the plague raged." ...

"Great was the stench of the dead. After our fathers and grandfathers succumbed, half
of the people fled to the fields. The dogs and the vultures devoured the bodies. The
mortality was terrible. Your grandfathers died, and with them died the son of the king and
his brothers and kinsmen. So it was that we became orphans, oh, my sons! So we became
when we were young. All of us were thus. We were born to die!," Annals of the
Cakchiquel (Recinos and Goetz 1953).

The Indian narrative above dramatically describes the great smallpox epidemic of 1519-
1521, the first to strike Central America after the arrival of the Europeans. Thereafter,
during the three hundred years of colonial rule, the specter of disease was seldom absent.

In recent years there have been many works on medicine in colonial Guatemala. What
differentiates this collection of Indian and Spanish documents is that it is neither a broad
history of the colonial era nor is it restricted to a single ethnic group or organization.
Instead, it confronts a basic question: What could be done when an epidemic struck?

BOSON BOOKS -13-

 The War Against Epidemics

Impact of the Epidemics

Based on tax and census records, some modern researchers estimate a decline in the
indigenous population of at least 90% in the first 160 years of European conquest.
Colonial mismanagement, drought, famine, flood, earthquakes, and even locusts ravaged the
peoples of colonial Guatemala, but the epidemic -peste - was the most obvious and chief
cause of devastation (Lovell 1985; MacLeod 1973; Sherman 1979; Feldman 1985; Feldman
1993).

Something very much like Malaria is reported from the Pacific coast by the end of the
seventeenth century (cf. Azeituno 1759; Orellana 1987:155). Malaria was almost certainly
present on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala and Honduras in the eighteenth century.
Lowland populations were particularly susceptible to endemic diseases that caused chronic
illnesses or disabilities, gradually whittling away the population. Towns in the province of
Escuintla, for example, were said to be “well populated” with Indians blinded by disease.
Census documents for Tacuilula, an Escuintla town that vanished at the end of the
eighteenth century, repeatedly referred to Indians excused from taxes because of leprosy
and syphilis (Orellana 1987:155-156; Feldman 1988:5-7; Anonymous 1721; Anonymous
1735; Anonymous 1751).

The four horsemen of the apocalypse in Guatemala were smallpox (viruelas ), typhus
(tabardillos ), measles (sarampion ) and Influenza (epizootia ). Between 1519 and 1821,
there were at least twenty epidemics of smallpox, eighteen of typhus, nine of measles, and
four of influenza. These epidemics are documented in Table 1.

Many colonial diseases lack a modern name. At least twenty-two other outbreaks were
documented but not specifically identified (Table 2). The difficulty was frequently semantic.
Modern investigators, for example, associate certain symptoms with influenza (epizootia )
and mumps (paperas ), yet those terms do not always appear in the Spanish documents.
Also, the Spanish used viruelas to describe several kinds of eruptive fevers until the
eighteenth century; and as late as 1768, doctors used the same treatment for measles as
smallpox (Smith 1974; Avalos y Porras and Desplanques 1769).

Indian languages may have been more precise. For the Nahua, a commonly used colonial
era language in southern Guatemala, Smith (1974: 5) gives the terms hueyzahuatl ("great
leprosy") for smallpox and Zahuatl Tepiton ("small leprosy") for measles. In Central

BOSON BOOKS -14-

 The War Against Epidemics

Mexican Nahua, from the earliest days, smallpox had its own specific term, totomonaliztli
(Sahagun 1955:81).1

Colonial Government and Boundaries

The Conqueror of Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado, established the first colonial capital of
Santiago de los Caballeros in 1524; three years later the capital was moved to Almolonga
(on the site of Ciudad Vieja). After Alvarado’s death, the seat of government was relocated
to Antigua. At that time, “the Kingdom of Guatemala” constituted a large portion of
Central America, including the current Mexican state of Chiapas and the Republics of
Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Alvarado held the title Captain General, and after his death the title fell to the President of
the Royal Court (Audiencia). This individual (also called the Regent) served as both chief
executive officer and head of the military forces. After the Audiencia, the next level of
administration was composed of the provincial governors: alcalde mayors, corregidors, and
intendents. In the various towns, city councils exercised jurisdiction.2

Parallel to those offices was the hierarchy of the Roman Church headed by an archbishop
in the capital, and bishops in Honduras, Nicaragua and Chiapas. At the local level was the
parish priest. Both clerical and military authorities reported regularly to the Council of the
Indies in Madrid. Their actions were crucial when action was necessary to curb an
epidemic. Yet none had medical training.

1This is from the Nahua word “totomonaltia” that translates as “to make blisters” (Molina 1944).

2 Provincial boundaries, as well as the limits of Spanish sovereignty changed over time (e.g. the Peten did
not come under Spanish rule until about 1700). But because most of the cited material comes from late in
the colonial era, except as otherwise noted, this volume uses the boundaries current at the late eighteenth
century to locate outbreaks of epidemics.

BOSON BOOKS -15-

 The War Against Epidemics

Table 1. Major Colonial Guatemala Epidemics3

DATE LOCATION SOURCE

Measles

1532/34 Central America MacLeod, p. 98

1560 Solola Recinos & Goetz; Orellana
1614 Central America AGI Guat 121
1727/1728 Chimaltenango, AGCA A3.16-2817-408; Pardo
Antigua AGCA A3.16-2817-408; Pardo
1746 Chiquimula AGI Guat 371; AGCA A-1751-4595-f. 146
1747 Chiquimula AGI Guat 370
1748 Chiquimula, AGI Guat 409
Amatitanes AGI Guat 409
1768/69 Totonicapan AGI Guat 409
1769 Antigua, AGCA A1.1807-11801; Wortman, p. 181
Amatitanes AGCA A1.1807-11801; Wortman, p. 181
1773/1774 Quetzaltenango AGI Guat 409, 558, 661
1805 Guatemala City, AGI Guat 717
Totonicapan AGI Guat 717

Smallpox

1519/15214 Chimaltenango Recinos & Goetz; Fuentes y Guzman,

I, 338; MacLeod, p. 98; Hopkins
1534 Central America Remesal in Asturias, p. 87
1563/65 Antigua, Solola AGI Guat 9, Recinos & Goetz
1576/77 Central America AGI Guat 10 and 156; Recinos & Goetz
1588 Solola Recinos & Goetz

3 Dates with darkened entries are discussed in greater detail elsewhere in the text.

4In the previous edition of this work, this epidemic was identified as measles but (Sahagun 1955:81), in
describing an attack of the same epidemic in Central Mexico, mentions blindness as one of the possible
after effects of this illness. Blindness is associated with smallpox and not measles, hence the change in
identification.

BOSON BOOKS -16-

 The War Against Epidemics

1600 Totonicapan, Verapaz AGCA A3.16-40493-2801

1614 Central America AGI Guat 121
1660 Antigua (?) Molina (1943)
1694 Totonicapan, AGCA A1.4.7-30980-4026
Antigua AGCA A1.4.7-30980-4026
1707/1708 Antigua, AGCA A1-1787-11781
Cor. Valle AGCA A1-1787-11781
1723, 1725 Antigua Pardo
1733 Antigua, AGCA A3-2819-40916
Totonicapan AGCA A3-2819-40916
1752 Antigua Pardo, p. 168
1761 Antigua AGCA A1-1799-11798;
AGCA A1-2379-1803
1780 Totonicapan Gazeta Guatemala 6
?Quetzaltenango AGCA A3.16-2819-40918
Chiapas AGI Estado 37-55
Chiquimula, AGI Guat 423, 392, 574
Antigua AGI Guat 423, 392, 574
Amatitanes AGCA A1.4.7-31005-4026
1781 Escuintla AGCA A1.31-3408-169; AGI Guat 410
1781/1782 Central America AGI Guat 451
1782 Totonicapan AGI Guat 411
Chiquimula AGCA-A3.16-1615-26545;
A3.16-950-17721
1795-95 Totonicapan, AGI Guat 478, 452, 648, 917
Quetzaltenango, AGI Guat 478, 452, 648, 917
Chiapas AGI Guat 478, 452, 648, 917
1800 Escuintla AGI Guat 612
1801 Escuintla- 2 towns AGI Guat 620; AGCA A1.16-4896-245
1802 Guatemala City, AGI Guat 490, 452
Totonicapan, AGI Guat 490, 452
Peten AGI Guat 490, 452
1815/1816 Escuintla AGCA A3.16-252-5748
1816/1817 Chimaltenango AGI Guat 416
1817 Chiquimula AGCA- A3.16-5139-252; A3.16-5215-254

BOSON BOOKS -17-

 The War Against Epidemics

Typhus

1570 Verapaz AGI Guat 9

1614 Central America AGI Guat 121
1631/1632 Central America ? Ximenez (1930), II, p. 207;
Gage in Asturias p. 87
1666 Antigua, AGCA A1.1-50569-5911
Totonicapan AGCA A1.1-50569-5911
1741 Antigua Pardo
1746 Cor. Valle AGCA A1-1794-11788:138-141
1749 Antigua Pardo
1772 Escuintla Gavarrete p. 282
1773/74 Guatemala City, Martinez Duran p. 265
Chimaltenango, AGI Guat 410, 411
Totonicapan AGI Guat 410, 411
1785, June Totonicapan, AGI Guat 451
Quetzaltenango AGI Guat 451
1788, December Quetzaltenango, AGI Guat 476
Suchitepequez, AGI Guat 476
Verapaz, Solola AGI Guat 476
1797 Escuintla & AGCA- A1.49-3416-169;
A1.49-7782-377; A1.19-7266-350
Totonicapan AGI Guat 832, 694, 705, 832
1803 Chiquimula AGI Guat 453, 712
1804 Totonicapan AGI Guat 622
1807 Chiquimula AGCA A1.19-8823-421
1811/1813 Totonicapan AGI Guat 848
1814 Amatitlan AGCA 1.21-11903-1809
1817 Chiquimula AGCA- A3.16-5139-252; A3.16-5215-254
1818/1819 Totonicapan AGCA- A1.4-388-8099; A1.4-6118-56743

BOSON BOOKS -18-

 The War Against Epidemics

Table 2. Other Epidemic Diseases in Colonial Guatemala5

DATE DISEASE LOCATION SOURCE

1536 Epidemic Guatemalan Highlands Fuentes y Guzman :II:371

1545/48 influenza/cucumatz Central America [Anon.] “Isogoge Histórica,”
p. 290; Figueroa
1558 influenza Antigua Figueroa
1560/61 epidemics Central America AGI Guat 9
1571 epidemic/plague Verapaz, Totonicapan Viana et al. p. 150;
AGCA A1-5942-51995
1585 epidemic Quetzaltenango AGI Contaduria 968
1590 influenza Solola Recinos & Goetz ; Figueroa
1598 epidemic/plague Verapaz AGI Guat 11
1601 mumps ? Solola, Coban Recinos & Goetz; Orellana
1623 epidemic Antigua Lutz, p. 745
1647 influenza Antigua Molina (1943); Figueroa;
Ximenez (1930), II, p. 254
1650 cucumatz Antigua Fuentes y Guzman:III:401-2
1654 epidemic/plague Amatitanes AGI Guat 72
1676 epidemic/plague Central America Molina (1943)
1682/89 malaria ? Amatitlan Orellana, p. 155
1710/11 epidemic/plague Antigua ? [Anon.] “Isogoge Histórica,”
p. 291
1713/16 epidemics Escuintla- 2 towns AGCA- A3.16-31537-2074;
A13.16-36541-2502
1716 epidemics Cor. Valle Pardo
1749 epidemic Chiquimula parish Pardo
1759 malaria ? Chiquimula6 AGI Guat 239
1765 epidemic/plague7 Chiquimula AGI Guat 543

5In this table, the Spanish terms peste and the Nahua term cocolistli are translated as “epidemic”; no
further identification of a specific illness is attempted. Identification of Influenza comes from Figueroa
Marroquin (1983:28).

6This epidemic with intermittent fevers was found at Omoa and in the Atlantic lowlands of the province of
Chiquimula. Among the victims were a Captain General and his family who were in transit to Guatemala
City. The epidemic was said to have existed in these coastal zones since 1756 (Azeituno 1759).

BOSON BOOKS -19-

 The War Against Epidemics

1768/70 epidemic/plague Chiquimula- 12 towns AGI Guat 410

1786/87 La Bola Central America AGI Guat 475
1802 epidemic/plague Chiquimula- 3 towns AGCA A1.4-7876-380
1802 epidemic Escuintla AGCA A1.19-7266-350
1811 yellow fever ?8 Escuintla AGCA A3.16-252-5748
1817 epidemic/plague Escuintla, Chiquimula, AGCA- A3.16-5148-252;
Totonicapan A1.73-15401-2152

7This epidemic, associated with the rotting corpses of people and animals, appear ed after the ear thquake
that leveled Chiquimula; it may have been typhus.

8"Mal de Amarillo"

BOSON BOOKS -20-

 The War Against Epidemics

Medical Practice in the Colony

When Pedro de Alvarado begin his conquest of Guatemala in 1524 he brought along
cavalry, infantry, guns and crossbows but there was not a single doctor in the entire
expedition. When Alvarado was wounded in the leg, he improvised a cure. Thereafter, with
one foot shorter than the other, the famous conquistador limped for the remainder of his
life (Martinez Duran 1964:126).

When permanent capital was established at what is now known as Ciudad Vieja, there were
no Doctors even by then current Spanish standards. Instead there was the infamous and
unschooled "Doctor N", who in the words of an old chronicler, "killed more people than he
cured. The situation became so bad that the town officials ordered that if a person called
Dr. N. to treat someone who was ill, and the patient died or got worse, then the one who
called him would have to take the blame" (Remesal in Orellana 1987:160).

All five hospitals in Guatemala were located in Antigua, which served as the capital from
1541 to 1773. The first, founded in 1527, eventually became San Alejo, the hospital for the
Indians. San Alejo had a total of only twenty four beds in 1650. Other Hospitals were San
Juan de Dios for the Spaniards, Hospital San Pedro for the clergy (joined to San Juan in
1795), and Bethlem for the handicapped. Two other institutions, San Lazaro (1640) and San
José (1780), treated victims of leprosy and smallpox respectively.

Aside from temporary shelters for the ill, there were no hospitals in the seventy-two Indian
towns outside of Antigua. Those population relied on native healers and the kindness of
Spanish friars (Orellana 1987:160; Martinez Duran 1964: 126,154,177,183,284,327,346).

Things were little better at the end of the colonial period. Professional practitioners with
some claim to a University education were few and far between while so-called “destroyers
of humanity” endangered lives. An 1804 statement describes a birthing attendant who
“instead of delivering the baby, delivered the mother’s intestines.” During another birth, as
the baby emerged arm first, the practitioner grabbed the arm and pulled, “but seeing that his
efforts were in vain, he cut it off,” (Lanning 1985:119-120).9

9The citation is for practices in Mexico City but similar instances doubtless could be found for Guatemala
where there were even fewer professional practicioners.

BOSON BOOKS -21-

 The War Against Epidemics

Medical Education and Administration

Medical professionals in colonial Guatemala were scarce. Between 1700 and 1821, the
University of San Carlos granted only thirty bachelor’s degrees in medicine- or about one
every four years for a kingdom of approximately one million people (Lanning 1985:140).
A bachelor’s degree could be earned after eight years of study (four in the arts and four in
medicine) and two years of internship with an established physician, followed by an
examination.

Two advanced degrees- the licentiate and the doctorate- were also available from the
University of San Carlos. Of those, according to historian John Tate Lanning, “only the
licentiate involved the additional work that might indicate greater learning, but even this
degree did not involve any more classes or laboratory work - only the reading and the
memory required to perform the ‘acts’ and stand the examination.”

Surgeons came in two forms. Most common were the “romance” variety, who spent four
years apprenticed in a hospital or under an approved surgeon, followed by examination.
“Latin” surgeons had courses in a school of surgery (Lanning 1985:265- 266).

The Royal Protomedicato, a board of licensed medical examiners, existed elsewhere in the
New World since the sixteenth century but was not established in Guatemala until 1793
(Martinez Duran 1964:370). Its jurisdiction covered the entire field of medicine- algebra
(bone setting), midwifery, phlebotomy (bloodletting), surgery, and pharmacy. In practice,
however, its interest rarely extended beyond the examination and licensing of new doctors
and the prosecution of malpractice claims. Fees or fines for those services, as well as
modest salaries, comprised the protomedicos’ income. The board served primarily as a
court for European or Creole practitioners.

All medical professionals were for the white population. Indians relied on their own curers.
Activities of village healers or Indian experts were not the concern of the Protomedicato,
although such practitioners did occasionally undergo scrutiny by clerical authorities, as
shown in the first of the colonial documents printed here.

BOSON BOOKS -22-

 The War Against Epidemics

Saints and Devils

The line between a saint and a devil has long been a problem in Guatemala. A
seventeenth-century account of an epidemic, a beatified saint named Pascual Bailón, and
an apparition that became know as El Rey San Pascual shows the interaction between
Indian beliefs and religious and civil authorities in colonial Guatemala.

In 1650 a prominent Indian lay seriously ill from the painful fevers of Cucumatz, an
incurable disease. A vision of a tall, fleshless figure clothed in glowing robes appeared to
him and commanded worship. Identifying himself as San Pascual Bailón, the figure
predicted the time of the man’s death and offered to remove the scourge of Cucumatz in
exchange for devotion. When the epidemic did indeed cease, word of the miraculous vision
spread. The Indians identified the apparition as both a new saint- El Rey San Pascual-
and the angel of death. Images of him began to appear in family shrines and even in some
traditional celebrations. As worship of the idol increased, local priests turned to the
Inquisition. All images of El Rey San Pascual were ordered to be destroyed in public
bonfires. How a saint became part of the Indian arsenal of weapons against epidemics in
the late 1600s was recounted in this report by Captain Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman
(1933:401-403), himself a descendant of the original Hispanic conquerors and a native of
Guatemala.

Fuentes y Guzman also provided details about Indian health. Cucumatz was limited to the
native population, and the only apparent treatment was bathing in hot sulfurous waters.10
Pious volunteers assisted those that were sick. The professionals may have been rare but
volunteers were not lacking to assist the sick. Often these were Spanish friars (Orellana
1987:159). It is no accident that San Pascual Bailón appeared in the guise of a friar. It is
clear from the narrative that no other treatments were offered to the ailing population.

LHF

10Inlieu of natural hot springs, Indians often ascribed healing value to indigenous steam baths, the
temascal mentioned elsewhere in this volume.

BOSON BOOKS -23-

 The War Against Epidemics

Of the Epidemic Called Cocoliztli and the Image of Death Called San
Pascual11

The natural inclination of this generation of Indians toward superstition and idolatry extends
even to inventing..., chimeras which they abuse to satisfy their needs. This had not happened
for many years when in 1650 the worship of a fleshless figure of death, among the Indians
of the valley of Guatemala, had its origin in their continuing ignorance. On the occasion
that we refer to there raged an affliction among the Indians of the valley of Guatemala,
which is an epidemic of natural origin, that the Pipil Indians call Cocoliztli 12 and the
Cakchiquels13 call Cucumatz . It caused a continuing and prickling pain in the stomach
with strong twists that came in spasms with a numbness of the muscles, nerves and joints
which worked only with agonizing pain and whose undulating movements resulted in the
name of Cucumatz which means snake. This affliction continued in the stomach, spreading
repeatedly to other parts of the body the pain being always accompanied in the miserable
patient by the indescribable torment and anguish of an active and malicious fever and
implacable thirst.  

It is an illness inborn in the Indians, incurable in that all who catch it quickly are unable to
do anything. These miserables are without any possibility and means to repair their
sorrows. They have no means of escaping. I have noted when young that the only
medicine and remedy they have is a mat placed on the hard ground near the hearth and to
wait for Providence to decide if they live or die. Many enemy authors search maliciously
for other reasons why so many towns have been extinguished.14

11From Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán (1932-1933). Italicized words and passages appear in the
original. It is interes ting to observe how quickly the devotion to the Spanish friar Pascual Bailón (1540-
1592) arrived in Guatemala. Beatified in 1618, Pascual was not canonized until 1690, forty years after the
cult of El Rey San Pascual had begun. See Pascual Bailón entry in Charles G. Herbermann et al., eds., The
Ca tholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907-1912).

12The Pipil were speakers of the Nahua language who lived in the province of Escuintla. The standard
dictionary of sixteenth century Nahua uses the term teococoliztli ("divine epidemic") for leprosy (Molina
1944). In that same dictionary, cocoliztli just means “sickness,” "epidemic" or “illness.”

13 The Cakchiquel Maya still live in what was then known as the Corregimiento or province of the Valley
of Guatemala. In the eighteenth century this unit was divided into the two separate provinces of
Chimaltenango and Amatitanes e Sacatepeques.

14Fuentes y Guzman here refers to the tendency of Protestant writers of his and subsequent centuries to
blame the decline of the indian population on the cruelty of the Spaniards to their indian subjects.

BOSON BOOKS -24-

 The War Against Epidemics

This epidemic had fed on the entire district and its extension of the valley of Guatemala.
Many of the most excellent and numerous settlements were empty like deserts, one of these
being San Antonio Aguacaliente which is one of those adjacent to the parish capital of
Almolonga [today Ciudad Vieja]. For up to a year its inhabitants had suffered the dreadful
carnage and desolation caused by this deadly illness and which infected these miserable
Indians with pain. They desiring a remedy went to some sulfurous and very hot fountains
which they had in this town. They bathed here a long time leaving here well aware that they
would soon die.

Among those sick was one of the leading citizens of this place. Believing that he could die
any moment, he requested and received the sacraments, and now at the end of his life he
received a vision in which appeared a beautiful person, gleaming in a glowing light. More
than that he could not discern because he with dressed in full length clothing like the habit
of my patron San Francisco. But he didn't believe it was a friar who was so dressed and
adorned with glowing fabric of some unimaginable material. Inspired with confidence by
this vision, bravely from his seat on his bed of rushes although his tongue was numb with
weakness and thirst, he asked "who are you, what great Lord"?

This very lofty and serious individual in a graceful and calm manner asked the sick Indian
his own question, inquiring: Why don't the Indians celebrate and make a festival, like for
the other saints, for San Pascual Bailón? But the poor Indian responded that he never
heard nor knew until now the name of the said Saint and that he believed that the other
Indians also had no knowledge of him. And who was the great Lord who wanted to know
this? And the personage said that he was San Pascual Bailón and that he should
understand, in order to inform the other Indians, that it would be very pleasing to him and
save them from their illnesses if with faith and a clean heart they call on him by celebrating
with images and pictures made of him. God wants him to be their patron in order that by his
intercession they would be free of the contagion that afflict them and so free them from
death.

The humble Indian remained very astonished when consoled by the words of the Saint. But
pleased and respectful he said: that he then promised his devotion but others of his nation
will not give credit to his words, that they would be incredulous and call him crazy.
Strengthened by his new and welcome patron, he asked what should he say to the Indians.
What proof would San Pascual Bailón offer of being his patron and advocate, and that if

BOSON BOOKS -25-

 The War Against Epidemics

they possess and invoke his picture will they be freed of death. As a sign that you are my
messenger (said the Saint) you will die within nine days and from this day the pestilence
will cease and no other Indian will die. And blessing him the saint disappeared from the
view of the sick one. He then called the pious volunteers who assisted those that were sick
and asked them to call the parish priest. When he arrived, in the presence of these pious
volunteers and other Indians who came with the Vicar, told what had passed with San
Pascual Bailón.

Having been examined very carefully by the priest and not disbelieving what the saints can
do with God, on the following day he sung a mass, preaching after it and urged the people
to show devotion to San Pascual. From this day, thanks to the mercy of God, ceased the
illness. The truth of what he preached, that the vision was not a dream nor delirium, was
certified by the death of the Indian messenger after nine days.

From here the story of the event diffused to all the towns of the district. Because of the
evident mercy and protection or because the Indians like to try novelties, all those of the
valley of Guatemala took pains to show their devotion to their holy patron. When they
placed themselves under his production they obtained from his intercession and pleas great
mercy and marvels. But as their ignorance is such or perhaps they received the news
corrupted, confusing the saint with the figure of death or that they thought that the image of
death was a representation of San Pascual Bailón which would save them. For the ill
persons who wanted it, they fabricated statues of death with the title of San Pascual.

There is not an Indian house where one didn't find two or three large and small ones placed
on their altars with elegant flowers and perfume. In this way, confusing the cause with the
effect, they showed that they were grateful for they were very sure that San Pascual was, in
their opinion, death. This error was so general and so the public was the disorder of their
ignorance that it came to the notice of the holy office of the faith [i.e. the Inquisition] which
ordered the parish priests and vicars of the Indians do all in their power to remove these
effigies. And that in the public plazas and in view of the people they should burn them in a
bonfire as was done and executed with promptness.

Despite this activity the memory survived, and wherever they see a similar picture they make
reverence and bend their knees. The procession of our "Holy Burial of Lord Christ" leaves
from the church of Santo Domingo on holy Friday and in front of it used to be the skeleton
of death. On it many Indians deposited robes, wreaths of flowers and many branches to

BOSON BOOKS -26-

 The War Against Epidemics

adorn it. Because of this and in order to remove it from view, it was determined by the City
Council, Justices and Government of Guatemala who are responsible for it, that the town
crier would proclaim that they intend to eliminate the cart. And it now has been fourteen
years since it left on this day.

Effigies of the skeletal El Rey San Pascual continue to be displayed in homes throughout
rural Guatemala and at a chapel in the town of Olintepeque (formerly in the colonial
province of Quetzaltenango). The shrine, built as recently as 1970, draws many pilgrims,
especially during an annual celebration. According to a 1989 description by Italo
Morales, Ph.D.:

The date of the celebration . . . is May 17, when people from all over the country, as well as
Tapachula, Mexico, and El Salvador come to visit him. There is no mass celebrated in his
honor since he is anathema to the Catholic church, except that chimanes [i.e. Indian curers]
come to perform rites.

The chapel, which . . . is very small . . . was built with alms from the devotees; its
maintenance is also paid with the same alms. . . Inside the chapel there are few places to sit
down since most people, I imagine, prefer to kneel down. There are also few places on
which to leave candles. The altar is filled with flowers brought every Sunday and the
“camarin ” (where he is enclosed or kept) is made of glass with metal bars and is well
locked for protection against vandals. . .

His devotees either leave thank you notes on the wall ... or bring him capes. According to
an informant he must have at least a hundred capes which he wears three or four at a time.
... The color of the candles to burn and its significance is as follows- Red = love, Green =
business, Blue = work, Pink = sickness and health, Black = against enemies and revenges,
Light Blue = money, Purple = against vices, Yellow = protection for adults, White =
protection for children.15

15Information presented here was collected for this volume, at the request of the author, by Italo Morales
(Ph.D) in Olintepeque on April 30, 1989. Many references to other strange practices -often associa ted with
witchcraft, but that with few changes could have become healing activities- can be found in the Spanish
records. Anonymous documents (see references cited) provide two examples from 1631 Nicaragua and 1750
Totonicapan.

BOSON BOOKS -27-

 The War Against Epidemics

Native drugs for the Healing of Measles and Smallpox

Herbs and drugs were the most common means of treating the sick. In the 1769
document printed below, doctors Manuel Avalos y Porras and Francisco Desplanques
named twenty-three substances to be used as drugs or health aids. Excluding burnt deer
horn, ground mother of pearl shell, ground eggshell, mercury and soil from pilgrimage
sites, all were derived from plants.

Colonial practitioners with access to the pharmacies of the capital could choose from well-
stocked shelves of “lizard excrement, spider webs, peacock and gander dung, urine of the
cow, and afterbirth of a woman,” to name a few. Friar Aguilar’s garden of “medicinal
herbs” in Verapaz included rue, rose, centaury, common chamomile, nettle, coffee,
borage, and mint.16

Desplangues and Porras described the treatments offered to both Spaniards and Indians.
They observed that the rich- “who have help, comfort, and all the care that they need” -
usually fared better.
L.H.F..

16See Feldman 1988:85 for the garden of Friar Aguilar and also Ximenez (1967) and Fuentes y Guzman
(1932-1933) for additional references to medicinal plants. An example of a less successful remedy of the
time is offered by the Gazeta de Mexico, which once, according to Lanning (1985:363): "played up a 'True
water for whitening and strengthening the teeth' that not only would leave them in their 'natural state' but
also would cure scurvey. Two numbers later, however, the periodical reported candidly that the "licor" was
nothing more than sulfuric acid diluted with water. It might, the slightly repentant editor reflected, clean
the teeth, but it would also dissolve them 'in short order,'"

BOSON BOOKS -28-

 The War Against Epidemics

Procedure used in the Curing of Measles and Smallpox (1769)17

Description

The reigning epidemic is Measles; it is an exacerbated fever with eruption of red spots on
white, similar to the bites of fleas, raised little more than the surface of the skin, and joined
together to make larger spots, which sometimes cover without interruption very large areas,
particularly on the face. In the Indians, Mulatos and Blacks the eruption is of the shape and
size of heads of pins, of the same color as the skin, and in all one describes it best by
saying: a little dust similar to tiny sawdust.

Differences

Besides Measles, which is the illness most common, one also finds occasionally smallpox
and sometimes morbillosas fevers or sarampionosa, which one observes in those who
previously had Measles.18

Diagnosis or the method of recognizing and distinguishing the illness

In practice it is useful to distinguish measles only two times; the first is before the rash and
the second after the rash appears. Before the rash appears one recognizes it by an
exaggerated cold; there is pain in the head and the tongue, the eyes tear and are red, and one
can't stand the light; the nose drips, there is much coughing; sometime sounds hurt one; and
one of the most certain signs is that the tongue which is more or less white, has near the tip
some bumps like pin heads, which are very red. Together with all this, one is irregular or
with a small fever, which one recognizes by a more frequent pulse, and extraordinary heat,
particularly in the hands; This small fever like other symptoms, starts in the afternoon and
is stronger in the night than in the day. All these signs, or even most of them, one finds

17Metodo, Que se ha de Observar en la Curacion de Sarampion, y Viruelas, formado de Orden del Superior
Govierno, a instancia del Sr. Fiscal de S. M. en el año presente de 1769 (3 de Mayo). Doctors D. Manuel
Avalos y Porras and D. Francisco Desplanques Printed by Joachin de Arevalo. AGCA A1.4.10-A1.7-5909-
271-fol. 9. Italic (e.g. paragraph headings) represent emphasis in Spanish text. Francisco Desplanquez, a
French physician, arrived in Guatemala in 1768 and was still practicing medicine after the move of the
Capital to its present location in 1773 (Martinez Duran 1964:300-306)

18"Morbillosas" and "Sarampionosa" dictionaries translate as Measles like diseases. The word for Measles
in Spanish is "Sarampion".

BOSON BOOKS -29-

 The War Against Epidemics

together. One can sometimes add vomiting, and diarrhea, with expulsion of worms. Neither
is it rare, that the ill bleed from their noses or the cough up bloody phlegm. And that in
women they advance their periods. At first for only a few hours, afterwards for two, three or
even eight days or more.

In the second time [after the rash appears], the symptoms of the first greatly increase,
particularly the fever in the night. In Whites one finds the eruption of a superficial red
spots of two to four millimeters in diameter and in the Indians, Mulatos and Blacks the
eruption of little grains like heads of pins, of the same color as the skin. This eruption
begins on the face, afterwards follows the chest to the arms and the other parts of the body.
The fever, the condition of the face, and the elevation of the spots or grains lessens after
three or four days of Measles. Two days afterwards the fever entirely ends. Where were
the spots or grains of Measles is covered with white markings. One can then see that the
Measles is ended, although the marks sometimes persist two or three weeks afterwards.

One separates Smallpox from Measles (of the usual type) before the eruption in that the
Measles like symptoms are weaker, in lesser number, and that in particular one lacks the
sign of the tongue. After the eruption the body is filled, more or less, with hemispheric semi
transparent grains close to 2 mm. in diameter, which burst after two, three or four days,
without complete recovery. They forming a scab which comes off leaving a scar.

The fever of Sarampionsa begins like measles, has the same symptoms except that of the
tongue, and entirely lacks the eruption. It ends in a week.

Prognosis

From our observations, these three illnesses don't have the same danger in the rich, who
have help, comfort, and all the care that they need, and if they are fatal and mortal in the
Indians, and poor, it is for lack of care or food. The duration of the principal illness does
not extend beyond a week; but needs a special diet much longer. The symptoms,
particularly the diarrhea, continue far longer than the principal illness and sometime for lack
of a proper diet, begins after it. Of the three illnesses that we have discussed in this tract,
Measles is the most subject to these relapses and requires a special diet longest.

Healing: The different remedies for each kind of mishap, thus one can select from
what closest to the hand.

BOSON BOOKS -30-

 The War Against Epidemics

GENERAL PRECEPTS
As soon as some one is not feeling well, it is necessary to leave the chile, the Chiapa pepper,
the suchil [either a fermented beverage or condiment and anise added to atole], the chocolate,
all kinds of alcohol, chicha, sweet water and whatever other kind of drink or food which is
spicy or is naturally hot.19 Nor should one use the temascal but bath only with cold water.
When the marks, as defined above as, of the first stage appear that one recognizes as
Measles; those over twelve to fifteen years are bleed from the arm twice. Each time one
remove six or eight ounces of blood, as per the constitution of the individual. Those who are
fat, who have much pain in the head or in the tongue, who have much coughing, who have
much phlegm filling their nose, or those who hurt in the breast have the more need for
bleeding than others, and although [the rash of] Measles begins to appear one should not
stop the bleeding.

If they already haven’t laid down, as soon as Measles begins to appear, the ill should be
placed in bed. The bed should be well sheltered, with no ingress of air from the windows or
doors, and the patient overdressed with clothes.20 Beverages should be the usual or hot
water or a cooked sprouts of Erythrina [pito or coral bean tree], or of its leaves or of cooked
southern maidenhair fern [culantrillo], barley, borage, and poppy.21 With all these drinks
one can add a little brown sugar in order to alleviate the cough and make the drink more
enjoyable. Use whatever drink is easiest to obtain, hottest, and often, in order to gain quick
relief. Those who vomit should take no more than six spoonfuls each time, but repeat it in a
short time.

19 "Sucheles" is either a condiment of cacao, ginger, allspice (Pimenta dioica

Merr.) and anise added to
atole or an fermented beverage made with yellow maize, barley, ginger, pepper and brown sugar (Armas
1982:198). The term appears to come from the Nahua word "Xuchitl" for flower. Chicha is a fermented
drink, usually of maize.

20The advise to patients to drink hot water, clothe themselves warmly, go to bed and atole as nourishment
is repeated, for smallpox, in the instruction of Bartolache printed in Mexico in 1779 (Smith 1974).

21Erythrina corallodendron L. or E. folkersii Krakoff & Moldenke (Orellana 1987:202) is the pito or
coralbean tree. Eating the cooked flowers causes drowsiness (Orellana 1987:202). "Culantrillo" is
Adiantum capillus-veneris L. It has been used in this century for chest compaints such as respiratory
catarrh and coughs (Orellana 1987:174).

BOSON BOOKS -31-

 The War Against Epidemics

When two days have passed without it working and [one has] given two or three enemas ,
add a little dark soap, brown sugar and oil or lard or butter (cleaned or cooked).22 The food
should be boiled broth or bread atoles, or rice or toasted rice, or cooked and ground maize,
or toasted and then ground tortillas. One can add a little southern maidenhair fern and mint.
One ought to feed the patient each four hours, four times a day. Five days after the
vanishing of the [marks of] measles, they can put on his clothes and use a little more food.
But they should still wait eight days before leaving the house. They should wait fifteen
days before going out in the rain, drinking cold water or walking on the ground with bare
feet.

SPECIAL PRECEPTS

Fever ought to diminish, from bleedings, abundant drinks and little food. It ought to vanish
only two or three days after the appearance of Measles.

Headaches are cured with bleedings, and if it is very strong one bleeds the ankle, and
smears the face with only tallow, or mixed with almond oil, or eats it, or mixes it with soap
or chicken fat.

Eye pain is removed with a tiny amount of milk, either from a mother or other source, the
eyes being covered with a pad soaked in it.

A sore neck is cured with bleeding, abundant drinks, mouthwashes of milk, or of cooked
mallow with water or milk, and ointments of the types described under headaches or by
using a poultice of mallow leaves, or ground Opuntia cactus leaves cooked with milk or
water, or mixed with cooked mallows or teasel or chamomile flowers or those of elder or of
parrot herb.

Ear pains are alleviated by filling them with some mothers milk or hot milk or almond oil
and then closing them with cotton.

22There is blackish soap in modern Guatemala made from tallow, cattle offal and ash lye used by poor
people for cleaning. Another possibility is the soapy material, used to clean clothes, found inside the fruit
of the Sapindus saponaria tree.

BOSON BOOKS -32-

 The War Against Epidemics

Breast pain is cured with bleedings, with abundant hot drinks and with the same
ointments as noted under headaches.

Stomach pain is with the ointments used for heartaches or by placing a hot egg omelet on it
and an ointment of almond oil or placing on it linen soaked in cooking oil and sprinkled
with flor de ceniza [literally flower of ashes, perhaps lye].

Abdomen pain is removed with the mentioned ointments used with headaches or by placing
pieces of wool soaked in milk or cooked mallows or Opuntia cactus leaves in water,
renewing the application with only small amounts in order that it not be counterproductive.
The help of cooked mallows, or Opuntia cactus leaves, with a little oil and milk, produces a
good result.

Vomiting is cured by drinking rarely and a little amount each time, and with the following
remedy: one takes the amount of ash one can pick up with one hand, placing it in a glass
with some spoonfuls of water and stir it some times for two hours until the ash falls to the
bottom and the water is clear, then remove two spoonfuls and add some drops of lemon
juice to it until it stops bubbling and give it to the patient to drink. The patient should take,
in the shell of a nut, burnt deer horn powder or earth from Esquipulas [a pilgrimage center
in eastern Guatemala]. One can also apply oil, flor de ceniza , or an egg omelet.

Diarrhea is an mishap most difficult to cure and the most rebellious. It comes normally
from a lack in the diet, from those who eat too much, who walk on the ground with naked
feet, or those who don't take care of themselves in the cold. In order to cure it, it is
necessary that they eat very little, that they keep warm and drink all day much milk, mixed
with two parts of cooked rose water, or some plantain leaves and smear the coccyx with
tallow and the stomach with oil mixed with flor de ceniza. One can also take the weight of
one real [a dime sized silver coin] of ground egg shell or of pearly shells. If one has the
opportunity to take goats milk, this is the best remedy.

Constipation is cured by squatting, in order to receive the steam, on a chamber pot filled
with hot water and smearing the coccyx with tallow.

Worms are cured by taking some mercury, an amount equal to half a chickpea in size,
mixed with a little brown sugar and some drops of water until the mercury is mixed and

BOSON BOOKS -33-

 The War Against Epidemics

does not move anymore. Then the patient should take it. Some spoonfuls of oil are also a
good remedy. These two remedies should be repeated each day.

In order to alleviate Hysteria it is necessary for the patient to put ground rue on the navel
and smell feathers, wool, and burn shoes.

One stops Cough by drinking much and very hot. If it continues after the ending of the
eruption, one drinks milk mixed with two parts of cooked Erythrina leaves. One can
sometimes also take the weight of a real of ground egg shell.

Bleeding from the nose or from the chest. If the illness is just starting, one can not have a
better cure than with bleeding and drinking cooked roses or plantains with a little brown
sugar.

Smallpox, and Sarampionosas fevers, are cured in the same way as Measles.

If one follows exactly the method for curing the current illness and its mishaps, with the
help of God, one will have no more misfortunes than already experienced up to now.

BOSON BOOKS -34-

 The War Against Epidemics

Reports on a New Disease, 1786-1787

The reports and abstracts printed below were submitted to the Council of the Indies by
President José de Estachería between November of 1786 and March of 1787.23 They are
printed verbatim, with filing notes showing actual date, date of receipt, and date of abstract
Estachería chronicles the epidemic known as La Bola- which means, literally, The Ball.
La Bola claimed few lives in the cities (where Estachería credits bloodletting for recovery),
but caused “havoc” in the Indian towns. Estachería makes reference to a “committee of
doctors,” which apparently was created to oversee the epidemic.
L.H.F.

November 10, 1786 [Number 683]

I wish to give notice that this city and the towns of the provinces, suffer from an epidemic
called Bola . It arrived from New Spain and appears to be the same that afterward came to
Europe, afflicting for three years the inhabitants of Cadiz [an official port of entry for ships
from the Americas] where it was called Pantomina [“The mimic”].

It has very diverse symptoms. In some it causes an intense pain in the head and some
fever. In others it begins with delirium. In still others it starts with a strong fever and
pressure on the head causing pain and acute discomfort in the stomach and breast. Then
there are those who develop difficulty in swallowing, coughing, and bloody spittle with a
considerable flow from the nostrils. Most only experience chills without major stomach
and head pain, some difficulty in breathing, and pain in the bones with a kind of lassitude or
slowness in their speech.

This malady progresses very quickly. I have heard of families of 18, 20 and more persons
being attacked at the same time in a manner that had been very deadly. It cut most of them
down and caused unspeakable dismay because of their inability to perform their public
functions and the lack of any assistance to the ill.

23These abstracts came from AGI Guatemala, legajo 475 (see also Anonymous 1787a-b).

BOSON BOOKS -35-

 The War Against Epidemics

Up to now there have been very few deaths in the City although its seems that in the towns
of the Indians it has caused enough havoc since they don't like bleeding and the use of it is
strongly recommended for it stops it. To avoid dehydration and to cause them to sweat,
they should drink a brew made from borage, barley, centaury and other similar plants.
These have caused the best results in the said Capital, in Ciudad Real [today San Cristobal
Las Casas in Chiapas] and Tuxtla from where the said epidemic has been introduced into
this Kingdom. I have kept the dispatches from a Committee of Doctors who quickly
informed me and in a clear manner of the curative methods which should be undertaken and
am enclosing it with this letter [no enclosure survives].

The time taken to recover from this malady in some has been 4 days but in many others
there has been a remission. Mostly it has been women and old men who remain ill for a
long time. It was understood by the President, and all the individuals of the secretariat, that
those remaining sick, with little or no ability to take care of themselves, are the ones most
likely to die. It is for this reason that we provided orders for care of the citizens and this we
should require for the afflicted throughout the kingdom wherever exists this epidemic. Thus
we are communicating the situation that now exists and our measures to remedy it.
Letter received on February 28, 1787
Abstract logged in on March 5, 1787

The President continued to provide news on this illness, saying in letter number 698 of the
15th of December of last year that it had now ceased in the capital without having caused
many deaths but that it has begun to spread in other Provinces of the Kingdom with the
same effects as mentioned previously.
Abstract logged in on April 16, 1787.

Subsequently in a letter of the 15th of January, number 725, he gives an account of this
illness, without many details, noting where it spread in the provinces and that its effects were
not as benign as experienced in the Capital and surrounding district. He attributes this to
the climate, as had happened in New Spain, whose circumstances without doubt caused the
loss in the small population of the Port of Omoa [Honduras]. Here, as soon as the
sickness struck, 27 individuals died, all the rest of the inhabitants becoming badly ill.
Letter received on April 23, 1787.
Abstract logged in May 6, 1787.

BOSON BOOKS -36-

 The War Against Epidemics

In letter number 756 of the 19th of last March the following was received from the
President:

According to news received from the governors of the provinces of this jurisdiction relative
to the epidemic called La Bola, the effects reported previously were very exaggerated.
Although the mortality in the provinces compared with that in this city was notable
nevertheless it was not so great as to be considered as monstrous given the number of
inhabitants. It has already ceased in most of the towns and in others it is definitely in
decline. I am sure you will join with me in praying, through Divine Mercy, for the freedom,
from similar afflictions of the towns of your dominion.
    Letter received on August 26, 1787.
Abstract logged in on August 29, 1787.

BOSON BOOKS -37-

 The War Against Epidemics

Correspondence on the Discovery, Prevention, and Halting of

Outbreaks of Typhus, 1797-1798

These documents describe the typhus epidemic of 1797-1798, one of the nineteen to
strike colonial Guatemala (Aguirre 1797a&b; Carbajal 1797a&b; Solivera 1797; Solivera
1798; Solivera & Bonilla 1797; Soivera, Bonilla & Peres 1797). They illustrate
convincingly the importance of civil authorities in the war against disease.

Francisco Xavier de Aguirre, governor of the province of Totonicapan, took charge

of all activities in the town of Concepción- from establishing a new cemetery for typhus
victims, to demolishing unsanitary temascals, to banishing healthy individuals until the
epidemic had passed from the town. Among his many criticisms of the inhabitants -whom
he characterized as “coarse and insubordinate”- was a devotion to “pagan” shrines,
perhaps an ongoing legacy of El Rey San Pascual, whose worship had been outlawed
generations earlier (Lovell 1985 :87).

Aguirre’s efforts were accompanied by those of Dr. Toribio José Carbajal, official
representative of the Royal Protomedico, José Antonio Cordoba. Carbajal brought to the
infected province of Escuintla an impressive collection of remedies from the Guatemala
City pharmacies, including cream of tartar, several tonics, absinthe salts, and sulfuric
acid.

In life, property, and government expense, the cost of the epidemic was high.
Approximately one hundred homes were ordered burned in the town of Concepción. The
epidemic eventually spread to San Gaspar Chajul, Todos Santos, Cuchumatan, San Juan
Atitan, San Sebastian, and Huehuetenango, resulting in the loss of 546 Indians, 130 of
whom were male taxpayers (Lovell 1985: 163; Aparicis 1798).
L.H.F.

BOSON BOOKS -38-

 The War Against Epidemics

This note treats of the town of Concepcion, following the account made by the Governor of
the Province of Totonicapan Don Francisco Xavier de Aguirre, to the President of
Guatemala of the result of the personal inspection which he made of it and its territory. It
presented the most pitiful spectacle worthy of compassion that one can imagine for neither
could he find a remedy to halt the illness of which it was suffering nor find some Ladino
person who would assist the sick. To this one must add that since the bad state to which the
Indians were reduced did not permit them to excavate deep graves, the atmosphere was filled
with the smell of corruption thus spreading further the disease. It contributed not a little
also to the neglect of the Indians in leaving closed the habitations of entire families that had
died from the disease.

To halt these fatal consequences, the Provincial Governor, filled with compassion and
disregarding the risk of losing his life, resolved to go personally to the town of Concepcion
and in its territory. Remaining there among the infected eleven days in order to investigate
the causes of the epidemic and he gave appropriate orders for its extinction. Despite
opposition from the Indians, he insisted that the dead be buried in a cemetery separate from
the population, and ordered that those who were healthy should go to their fields. All the
structures of the community, even the church, were of thatch and very close to each other.
Therefore although considered the best remedy, he decided not to burn the infected houses,
for fear of setting the entire town aflame. Afterwards the Indians would not have been able
to rebuild the settlement and thus remain scattered in tiny hamlets. Pedro Aparicis, 21
November 1798. Madrid.24

Testimony of a Provincial Governor (Aguirre 1797a)

...With risk of life, I spent eleven days in this town and its infested territory with the
aim of discovering the cause and origin of the persistence of the disease. I observed first of
all that in the patio of the church and in the shrine of San Sebastian a square where was
buried more than two hundred corpses leaving it very foul smelling and [I observed] the
same in the cemetery which in spite of the repugnance of the Indians I had consecrated
after the town was three quarters depopulated .... [and I punished] severely those who

24The provincial governor actually indicated that it would be better to destroy the town and send the
inhabitants elsewhere. See the testimony collected in Guatemala, that follows this abstract prepared in
Spain.

BOSON BOOKS -39-

 The War Against Epidemics

opposed the said determination jailing them for this reason. I also demolished the temascals
[saunas] which they opposed. They did not make use of the said cemetery, as all were ill
and could not carry the bodies any great distance. For the same reason they had not made
the graves very deep ... as a result several cadavers were dug up by animals.

The town is situated on a peak of a forest which has more than a league of climbing, whose
climate is very disturbed and cloudy because there is rain in all the months of the year . I
recognized also that although the drinking water seems good it is very scarce for there are
only three or four springs on these peaks, with ponds in order to collect the water where
also drink the animals, and those who were healthy, and [those who are] sick which all can
contribute to the occurrence of the said illness.

The houses where entire families have died left a smell that, upon opening the door in order
check what was inside, restrains all desire to continue the search. Since all these houses are
so close one to other, there is hardly an alley without two or three [houses whose inhabitants
died]. In all one can only count six or eight huts in which there were no deaths or ill, the
healthy fleeing into the fields to escape the illness. Since the town hall, the house of the
priest and the church are thatched I could not ... burn the huts which are abandoned, since I
would burn the entire town; I thus had to make the decision of ordering all the [remaining]
healthy into their fields. These hardly came [to the total] of two hundred of both sexes
including the infants. Now only remain the ill, and two [others] who care for the dying.
My lords, based upon what has been said, this place should be saved from the fire.

But this would end the Indians entirely since they are a class of people so lazy and without
understanding instead of making new huts they would return to live in the infested, and
perhaps with trade and contact could infect those of other towns as has happened in the case
of San Marcos Jacaltenango, and San Sebastian Coatan who have received some of those
from Concepcion. And in San Sebastian Coatan, where has died one of those from
Concepcion they have expelled them and burnt the huts and clothes of the dead in order not
to infect their other houses, but even now in the said San Martin up to fourteen of the
Indians have died for the same reason, the proximity of the town of Concepcion.

One finds these [of Concepcion] the most corrupt on the royal road for they are the most
coarse, the insubordinate ones to whom is attributed many robberies made on the royal
road. Recently I discovered and destroyed a pagan shrine two leagues from the town where
they went to offer sacrifices and pray to the devil, of which crime I provided an account to

BOSON BOOKS -40-

 The War Against Epidemics

the Royal Audiencia. For all these reasons not only ought we burn this town but the few
remaining inhabitants should be divided among those of the towns of San Martin, Petatan,
San Antonio, and Santa Ana Huista which are on the royal road... March 8, l797.
Francisco Xavier Aguirre, Huehuetenango.25
March 8, 1797. Huehuetenango
Francisco Xavier de Aguirre

Relief for Jumaytepeque

Having inspected the huts of the sons of the town, I observed the lack of ventilation, little
cleanliness in the clothes, use of the bedding of the dead, most of these being on the ground
and the ground being very humid. Added to all this is the semi starvation from which they
suffer. The character of the fever seems of nature putrid. The type of symptoms are
bleedings, discharge of gas, diarrhea, sweats, nauseating etc. without a fixed end in their
crisis. The one recovering remains very weak and of those who relapse, most die. I have put
into practice the method of Mr. Masdevalli: the cleanliness, the ventilation, raising the ill off
the ground, their foods etc.26
God guard Your Lordship for many years.
November 12, 1797. Jumaytepeque.
Toribio José Carbajal (1797a).

We, the Judge, Mayor and City Councilmen say that on this date left for the Capital
Don Toribio Carbajal, having been commissioned by the Superior Government and the
Royal Protomedico, he extinguished the contagious fevers of said town and complied as a
Christian in all the duties with his cures which he had worked very completely with great
zeal and effectiveness. Also we have received from the said Doctor the following medicines:
a pound of saltpeter, one of sulfur, two pounds of cream of tartar, eight or more simple
tonics, four ounces of absinthe salts, two pounds of chamomile, two of borage, eight ounces
of ammonia salts, one ounce nitric acid, one of laudanum, one pound of ammonia salts,
twelve pounds of opiate, eight ounces sulfuric acid, a small pot for the collection of urine,

25The epidemic spread to the towns of San Gaspar Chajul, Todos Santos, Cuchumatan, San Juan Atitan,
San Sebastian and Huehuetenango resulting, in the death of 546 Indians (including 130 adult male
taxpayers) (Aguirre 1797b). Lovell (1985:163), basing himself upon documents at the AGCA, notes that
"over one hundred homes were ordered to be burned to the ground" at Concepcion. Another AGCA
document, cited by Lovell (1985:87) also refers to the "pagan shrine" destroyed by Aguirre.

26Although the identity of this person cannot be verified, it is likely that his name is associated with a
particular opiate preparation; see Córdoba’s Nov. 27, 1797 reference to masdeval )

BOSON BOOKS -41-

 The War Against Epidemics

four ounces of camphor, two pounds of powdered quinine, and two bottles of wine. The
said Doctor has placed by charity, from his own money, other medicines in the two bottles
of wine and we affirm [all] this with our signatures.
November 23, 1797. San Francisco Jumaytepeque.
Francisco Solivera, José Bonilla (Mayor), Ylario Peres (Town Scribe)
(Solivera, Bonilla and Peres 1797).

By the attached certificate of the Judge and officials of Jumay, one can confirm the zeal and
credit with which I devoted to the service of this town infested with fevers whose
extermination I was responsible. I am requesting travel expenses, eighteen days of going,
coming and being there, plus the six pesos paid from my own funds for the delivery of the
medicine...
November 25, 1797. New Guatemala.
Toribio José Carbajal (1797b).

I notify your Lordship that I have ordered paid the said Practitioner the 114 pesos that he
had earned, 108 of them for his subsistence at a rate of 6 pesos each one of the 18 days of
his expedition and the other six for the delivery of the medicine.
November 27, 1797. New Guatemala.
José Antonio Córdoba (1797).

Receipt for medication for the town of San Francisco Jumay, despatched upon the order of
the President [José Domas y Valle] and under the direction of Doctor Don José Antonio de
Córdoba Protomedico of this Kingdom.

12 pounds of opiate of Masdebal ,

at six pesos a pound = 72 pesos
1 pound Ammonia salts, in powder, at
8 pesos a pound = 8 pesos
6 ounces sweet sulfuric acid, at
4 reals an ounce = 4 pesos
One sulfuric acid container = 1 peso
Three large and one small jar = 2 pesos, 6 reals
Total = 87 pesos, 6 reals

BOSON BOOKS -42-

 The War Against Epidemics

Approved Córdoba

Don Francisco Ramírez, our apothecary in this capital, has provided the attached receipt
ordered by Your Lordship and under the direction of the Protomedico Don José Antonio de
Córdoba sent it to the Practitioner who was in the town of San Francisco Jumaytepeque.
November 28, 1797. Royal Palace [New Guatemala].
Ignacio Guerra (Ramirez and Guerra 1797)

List of those who have died from the epidemic in the town of San Francisco Jumaytepeque:
12 adult male taxpayers, 19 adult married women, 4 tax exempt males, 4 infants and 3
widowers = 42.
There remains as a result of the death of both parents, 20 orphans, most no more than 10
years of age. Out of the 270 ill there were 39 deaths making 231 who were cured.
December 30, 1797. San Francisco Jumaytepeque.
Francisco Solivera (1797).

Account of the expenses made upon the order of His Lordship, the President, for the food
of the sick children of this town of San Francisco Jumaytepeque...

16 pesos, 4 reals for a container of wine

requested by the Doctor
9 pesos for 2 arrobas of sugar, at 4 pesos
4 reals each
9 pesos for 3 dozens of chickens, at 2 reals each
each
1 peso of white honey
1 peso of bread
[TOTAL] 36 pesos 4 reals
December 1797. San Francisco Jumaytepeque.
Francisco Solivera and José Bonilla (Mayor)
(Solivera and Bonilla 1797)

BOSON BOOKS -43-

 The War Against Epidemics

In response to the commission which Your Highness conferred on the 6th of the past
November for the extinction of the plague of typhus which attacked the inhabitants of the
town of Jumaytepeque, I have the satisfaction of giving notice to Your Highness that from
the 30th of December of the past year all are healthy and there is no risk to the inhabitants
of the indicated town... There remains in my care 20 orphans most of which are 10 years
old and lack any hope other than the protection of Your Highness.
Also the Justices and Notables of the town have requested that I inform Your Highness of
the total decay caused by the illness and that you remove from the tax rolls the twelve dead
taxpayers...
January 8, 1798. San Francisco Jumaytepeque.
Francisco Solivera (1798)

BOSON BOOKS -44-

 The War Against Epidemics

Correspondence on the Discovery, Prevention, and Halting of an

Outbreak of Smallpox

Smallpox was the most devastating scourge that struck the Spanish Indies, not merely for
the death that it caused -although those were quite enough to reduce the population
drastically- but also for the blindness and other disabilities it brought to its victims. In
eighteenth century Europe smallpox was said to be blamed for thirty-five out of every one
hundred blind (Hopkins 1983:80). Doubtless the impact was equally severe in
Guatemala. Of the Smallpox epidemics that struck the colony, those of the 1780's and of
l794/1795 are the best known.

The epidemic of the early 1780's caused the most fatalities. In Totonicapan as much as 25
percent of the population died (Lovell 1985:154-160); in Amatitanes more than ten
thousand Indians perished (Anonymous 1788). Coban, in the Verapaz, had 8,524 people
in l778, but only 5,917 six years later (Anonymous 1778; Juarros 1981). More than ten
years passed before the population of this town returned to pre-epidemic levels. Following
the epidemics, the hardships of famine and starvation were so great that taxes were
excused for up to a year for many communities in the province of Chiquimula (cf.
Anonymous 1798,1821,1823).

The smallpox epidemic of 1794 originated in Chiapas, at the western edge of the Kingdom
of Guatemala, and raged for two years (Gonzalez Leon 1795b).27 The disease was
introduced at least twice from Chiapas into Totonicapan and Quetzaltenango (Domas y
Valle 1795; Domas y Valle 1796a; Flores 1796).28 Prompt quarantine and inoculation
kept the mortality rates low.

A truly remarkable series of Protomedicos directed the effort: José Felipe de Flores (1793-
1796), José Antonio Córdoba (1796-1804), and Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo. Flores
had earlier distinguished himself in the study of cancer; Córdoba had written an

27Itwas erroneously thought by Hopkins (1983:222) to have been transported by ship from Peru in April
1796 to Chiapas or Acapulco. Contemporary Guatemalan accounts show that this is wrong.

28 The belief that it originated among the "wild" Lacandon indians north of Totonicapan, as suggested by
Chamorro (1795e), and thence transmitted by them to the town of San Mateo appears very unlikely given
the few contacts of the Lacandon with the outside world and the known contacts between San Mateo and
Chiapas.

BOSON BOOKS -45-

 The War Against Epidemics

outstanding paper on leprosy; and Esparragosa had designed an elastic whale bristle fillet
intended to save infants from the murderous deliveries of iron forceps (Lanning 1985;
Martínez Duran 1964: 680).29

These conscientious and persistent observers had other professional duties in addition to
the scientific. Their private practices were most demanding when an epidemic was in
progress; and they were also bound by the official duties of their office as well as the
responsibilities of a professorship in medicine at San Carlos University (Lanning
1985:37,369).

In health crises, both the private doctor and holder of the office of Protomedico were on
the fringes of efforts to save the population. The program of inoculation in Totonicapan
was led by the royal governor of the province of Totonicapan, Don Francisco Sebastian
Chamorro. As can be seen in the documents printed below, medical experts played an
important role in drawing up “instructions” and administering help to the sick, but they
did not have leading authority in medical matters and emergencies. The war against
disease was too important to be left to private individuals.

Inoculation

Inoculation was the great eighteenth-century defense against smallpox. Inoculation was
accomplished “by inserting pus or powdered scabs containing smallpox virus from a
previous patient into the skin of a susceptible person in order to deliberately cause an
infection. A person infected artificially in this manner ... ordinarily developed an illness
and rash milder than usual. The procedure carried a risk of death of between one and
three percent” (Hopkins 1983:7).

According to historian John Tate Lanning, inhabitants of the Spanish Indies showed “a
penchant for accepting inoculation.” They had, he said, “a confidence in the possibility of
the discovery of a remedy, particularly a botanical remedy” for smallpox. “In contrast to
the French, who were slow and indifferent to inoculation and finally suspended it, the
Spaniards showed the same hopefulness and some of the alacrity that [later] marked their
quick use of vaccination (Lanning 1985:372-73).” According to Chamorro, of the 2,895

29A discussion of Flores’s cancer cure, meatballs made from the newts of Lake Amatitlán (abody of wate r
just south of Guatemala City), can be found in Lanning (1985:338-340.

BOSON BOOKS -46-

 The War Against Epidemics

children who were inoculated in the province of Totonicapan, only seventy-eight died, while
3,774 who were not inoculated lost their lives.

Thus, in the last quarter of the eighteenth century and first quarter of the nineteenth,
Guatemala advanced to the forefront of medical research.

The documents printed below show that progress. At first, as the reports detail, the
Indians “shuddered upon seeing the lancet” and feared that the Spaniards were “going to
kill the children.” The same Spaniards were later hailed with “the ringing of bells, the
throwing of flowers” as villagers came to realize the value of the treatment (Chamorro
1795b-e; Chamorro 1798; Gonzalez de Leon 1795b).
L.H.F

BOSON BOOKS -47-

 The War Against Epidemics

My Lord: The plague of Smallpox was introduced to the town of San Mateo Ixtatan of my
parish of San Pedro Soloma after February of this year by natives of the said town of San
Mateo who went to the lowlands where they made their fields near the town of Comitan in
the Province of Ciudad Real and from the same region to that of Santa Eulalia. There were
young Indians who had not had Smallpox previously, resulting in the spread of the disease
in this parish by the end of last July.30

In spite of the repeated orders of the Governors of these provinces who want to comply with
the suggestions of the doctors, and the orders of Your Lordship who has notoriously and
frequently notified all these towns with regard to procedure relative to this problem, the
Indians are without understanding and did not take the proper safeguards to prevent the
spread of the disease nor advise proper authorities of its existence.

In this situation it was necessary for me to advise the government of the need to
introduce the operation of inoculation to the native children of both sexes of the town of San
Mateo and continuing with the same arrangement with those of the town of Santa Eulalia. It
had the result of making the operation without any cost and that the terrible threat to the
poor children could be halted. I verified that 260 were inoculated with the result of
preventing the death of many infants and children. Upon the conclusion of this operation
on the entrance of the experts into these towns on the 17th of last August safeguards were
established to completely isolate them. ... but nevertheless the contagion passed to San
Juan Iscoy (being a distance of three leagues), by the end of September, and from Santa
Eulalia to the towns of San Sebastian and San Miguel Acatan, the first only 5 leagues
distant and the second about eight ... arriving at Jacaltenango (which is the same distance
from the last) where it was finally halted by the experts from the 28th of September until the
4th of this October. ...
San Pedro Soloma. October 12, 1795.
Domingo Gonzalez (priest of the parish).

30Given that Chamorro, as of November 1795, had held his anti Smallpox comission for sixteen months
(documents in the same AGI legajo) and Friar Josef Camposeco y Lorenzana (below) has Chamorro
visiting and innoculating from November 1794, it appears that the author of this letter, Domingo Gonzalez,
is confusing the events of 1794 and 1795. San Juan Ixcoy was already being innoculated to halt the spread
of Smallpox in August 1795 (see below footnote 56). The Captain General writes that the epidemic spread
from Tabasco to Chiapas in July of 1794 (Domas y Valle 1795).

BOSON BOOKS -48-

 The War Against Epidemics

Method of Inoculating for Smallpox Among the Savage Mams and Pocomams [Popoti]
who live near the forests of the Wild Lacandons in this Colony of Guatemala (Chamorro
1798).

Only after great difficulty was it possible to convince Indians -so obstinate and
superstitious- of the unutterable benefit of inoculation. But beyond their customs, they
shuddered upon seeing the lancet, saying that in this operation I was going to kill their
children.

The following procedure was followed:

1. In the principal plaza of the town were assembled all those born, up to the age of 15,
since the last epidemic. Here their hair was cut in order to make them less susceptible to the
illness, and there the parents moaned upon seeing it cut. [The text clearly states that the hair
-pelo - was cut, but perhaps the author meant to write piel , which means skin].

2. They went from here to the hospital, in order to be inoculated. Here reigned the most
confusion. Armed, In a loud voice mixed with many tears, two thousand threatened me
[with harm] if their children died.

3. Taking the child in her arms, and showing it in the forests while burning much copal, she
begged the hills for the health of the child. Afterward they would go to the church, asking
the town saint to keep it from harm.

4. The mother would go on her knees, bless the eyes and avert her face upon presenting the
child to the inoculator. And then the child feeling the incision of the lancet, would cry, and
everyone would repeat their threats if this cure of the Castilians, for thus they call the
Spaniards, killed their children.

5. Some four, or five days after began the terrible symptoms of the illness. They surprised
me with their cries asking me to cure the fever which now was killing their children and I
began to think I would be victim of these barbarians. But God granted that of the inoculated
no more than 7 or 8 died.

6. Afterward I returned to the towns to fumigate the houses with sulfur and take other
precautions, in order to be sure of completely destroying the illness. I was not received as
before but with the ringing of the bells, the throwing of flowers. It was pointed out to me

BOSON BOOKS -49-

 The War Against Epidemics

that those marked by the Smallpox were few. They raised their hands to heaven and in their
unpolished style gave thanks to the King for saving the life of their children. But what
impressed on them was the operation with the lancet, which they called the diabolical craft of
the Castilians.

I have made to Your Excellency this picture in order that you may obtain an idea of the
barbarity of the Indians and of their scant instruction. What one sees and hears causes
horror and compassion for their soul, body and dress and they are worthy of pity.
New Guatemala. February 3, 1798.
Francisco Sebastian Chamorro.31

August 19, 1795

President Don José Domas y Valle, Your Lordship: Then, as I had indicated previously, I
established the inoculation and the method of curing in the infested towns of the parish of
Soloma and cut the communication with those not infected. Then I moved to the parish of
Jacaltenango- the head town of the parish where the father priest assured me that the
epidemic had resulted in the burial of more than one hundred and thirty, to attack
unfailingly cause of these deaths. I then ordered the justices and calpules, or heads of the
neighborhoods to appear, so that they would learn the reason for my coming. I informed
them that Your Lordship, knowing of the terrible havoc made by the epidemic in their towns
and wishing to free their sons from its death, ordered them inoculated and an apothecary
[sent] for their cure.

Not unhappy with this, they answered that word had been received that the natives, and their
children, of the parish of Soloma had been freed from death with the remedies of the
Spaniards which Your Lordship had ordered; and that therefore they would present their
children for inoculation. This I verified, for one thousand two hundred and four were so
treated, with such good results that all were freed from risk. The few who died were due to
the barbaric custom of bringing them close to the fire.

The orders against communication of the said infected parish capital with the others were
enforced with three salaried guards, each being paid twelve pesos monthly. One was

31In a letter of August 29, 1795 Governor Chamorro (1795b) indicates that this incident happened in the
"Mam" town of San Juan Ixcoy. He speaks of the rioting of "these ferocious idiots" (aquellos feroses
idiotas), notes that only the threat of the Government avenging his death with that of the killers own blood
and that of their families saved his life.

BOSON BOOKS -50-

 The War Against Epidemics

stationed in the hamlet called The Knife, the other in a pass called Window of Pilate and the
other on the bridge of the San Marcos river. Each of these guards was accompanied with
two local Ladinos, they being salaried with a real each day and with an Indian. I hope that
Your Lordship will approve these expenses which are indispensable for the isolation of the
contagion which, I hope to God will not spread thanks to these measures.

The epidemic, after causing several deaths in the town of San Antonio of this same parish,
has ended but this was not due to the effect of the inoculation which had arrived late. The
town being a small place, one of those which give assistance to the royal road, the deaths
were strongly felt here.

Today I have inspected the border of the Intendency reviving the order that no one could
pass from the infected towns of Chiapas.

I have spoken with priest of Escuintenango, first parish of the bishopric of Chiapas, who
assures me that all the towns and farms adjacent to my province have already had the
smallpox. Now I know the mistaken idea in which it is said that perhaps the infected air
could propagate the epidemic for these towns and farms are five and eight leagues apart
beyond any communication (in this matter I have worked from the month of October
[1794]). I have not experienced first hand the epidemic in the towns of the royal road, and
yes, it appeared in those of Soloma by a rare introduction, forty leagues distant, as on the
other occasion I have informed Your Lordship.

I finished my reconnaissance of the entire royal road returning to the parish of Jacaltenango
and that of Soloma to check on the guards I had placed as well as to examine the houses
and furniture of the Indians who apparently all were recovering and whose diligent
inoculation I will give an account to Your Lordship.

Each day I see more the obvious benefit which Your Lordship had for these unhappy
Indians and remain persuaded that if Your Lordship had not decided to order the isolation
of the contagion that the entire Kingdom [of Guatemala] would now be infested. I equally
say to Your Lordship that if the inoculation and curative procedures were not put into effect
already all these towns would have been annihilated as had happened with those of the
Guistas [Huista] of this same parish of Jacaltenango in the previous epidemic of the year
eighty! Happy Kingdom which in the present epoch threatened by a terrible blow, has for
its Chief a minister so good a servant of the King; who may be seen from his measures to

BOSON BOOKS -51-

 The War Against Epidemics

have a most conscientious policy thus conserving for His Majesty the numerous towns
which have been placed under his protection.

May Our Lord give Your Lordship many years.

Santa Ana Huista. August 19, 1795.
Francisco Sebastian Chamorro.

October 3, 1795

I, Friar José Camposeco y Lorenzana Retired Preacher of the Holy, Royal and Militant
Order of Our Lady of Mercy, vicar and priest of this parish of Nuestra Senora de la
Purificacion Jacaltenango= Certify that the Alcalde Mayor Don Francisco Sebastian
Chamorro, ordered by His Lordship the President to isolate the contagion of smallpox and
[provide] inoculation, from the month of November of the past year of 94 has visited three
times the towns of the royal road, making effective the orders of the Lord President, and has
proceeded with such disinterest that he has not burdened the towns of my parish not even
with the expense of a single chicken for he has paid the Indians taking his expenses from
the custom duties, and upon staying in the infested towns, has refused the gifts of chickens
and other things Indians normally made to their Governor.32

This I do affirm here in Jacaltenango on the 3rd of October of 1795.

Fr. José. Camposeco Lorenzana.

October 12, 1795

I, Friar José Camposeco y Lorenzana, Retired Preacher of the Holy, Royal and Militant
Order of Our Lady of Mercy, vicar and priest of this parish of Nuestra Senora de la
Purificacion Jacaltenango, certify that in the two towns of this parish San Antonio and
Purificacion Jacaltenango (which is the capital), those who were infested with smallpox are
now entirely free of this disease and all Indians are now recovering from it. Their clothes
have been washed and houses fumigated with sulfur, and the roads are closed with the same
guards as before.

32A letter from the President of Guatemala (i.e. the Spanish Capitan General) notes that while on these
inspections, Chamorro lost all his baggage in a large river. In the same letter the President notes that
Chamorro, established schools in his province and offered out of his own funds prizes to those Indians most
advanced in agriculture (Domas y Valle 1796a&b).

BOSON BOOKS -52-

 The War Against Epidemics

This I do affirm here in Jacaltenango on the 12th of October of 1795.

Fr. José Camposeco Lorenzana.33

State of the Children, in this year of 1795, who suffered from the Infection of Smallpox in
five towns, three of the Parish of Soloma and two of Jacaltenango in the most northern
part of the Province of Totonicapan and bordering the Province of Chiapas from where
came the epidemic in this year of 1795.

Towns
San Mateo Ixtatan . At this town which is of the parish of Soloma the inoculation arrived
late and was resisted but had some benefit. There were 604 children infected, 140
inoculated 9 of whom died while 155 without inoculation died, 2 were blinded by the plague
and 440 escaped injury.

San Antonio Huista . In this town of the parish of Jacaltenango the inoculation arrived late
and no one was so treated. There were 85 children infected, 62 deaths, 3 blindings and 23
who escaped injury.

Santa Eulalia . In this town of the Parish of Soloma all, except one hundred and twenty two
were inoculated. There were 1,555 children infected, 1,433 children inoculated 38 of whom
died while 98 without inoculation died, 5 blindings from the plague and 1,419 who escaped
injury. Of the inoculated 23 only had fever although others in their homes suffered more
grievous injury. Of the remainder the inoculation resulted in very irritated abscesses without
any fever, and in the end two of them died.

San Pedro Soloma . The capital of its parish, a small town where all the children were
inoculated. There were 109 children infected of which 7 died leaving 102 free of any injury.
In this town there was an Indian who refused to allow his wife of 24 years old, who in the
previous plague had not had smallpox, to be inoculated. She was checked three times
afterward, in the first and second times she remained in good health but was sick upon the
third inspection and died within forty hours.

33Don Domingo Gonzales de Leon, priest of the parish of San Pedro Soloma, certified in a letter dated
October 2, 1795, the same facts for the towns of San Mateo, Santa Eulalia and San Pedro Soloma.

BOSON BOOKS -53-

 The War Against Epidemics

Purificacion Jacaltenango . The capital of its parish where it was not possible to inoculate
everyone. There were 1,421 infected children, 1,213 inoculated of whom 24 died, 149
deaths of those without inoculation, 6 blinded from the disease and 1,248 who escaped
injury.

In summary a total of 3,774 children were infected, 2,895 inoculated, 78 deaths of inoculated

children, 464 deaths of children without inoculation, 16 blinded from the disease and 3,232
who escaped injury.
Dated in Totonicapan on the 19th of October of 1795
Francisco Sebastian Chamorro.

October 26, 1795

President Don José Domas y Valle, Your Lordship: It was not prudent to assure Your
Lordship that the contagion of smallpox is suppressed in this province under my rule, for it
could be for some innate cause return to take root but I can give to Your Lordship the
commendable notice that each day one observes more and more that with the susceptible
your decisions have they exercised the hoped for effects. Already in the isolation and
already in the inoculation, for one can see that in the first, with isolated towns of San Mateo,
Soloma and Santa Eulalia [the smallpox] has not spread to the other three of the parish, and
if it is transmitted to Jacaltenango, it is stifled in the parish capital. And in the part
inoculated, the effects are more energetic.

So reduced is the ravages since the practice of inoculation, one can say that the Indians are
right in saying that the operation which cuts short the calamity is by diabolic Spanish arts.
Hardly a fifth of those who caught the disease remain alive, and this without lacking the help
of other medicines. But those with inoculation all remain free of it, and only four percent of
the inoculated died on the attached listing sent to Your Lordship. Although in all the five
towns more than a thousand of the adults are victims of typhus and other illnesses which are
part of the same epidemic, they cure it happily with what they get from the pharmacy and
the practice of inoculation which exactly assists it. And as the Indians gain positive
experience from one and the other help it will overcome the reluctance and although the
disease continues it will not have any importance. Nevertheless the five infested towns
remain entirely free and yet no suspicion exists that they have transmitted the disease to
other for they have halted it as verified in the certifications of the father priests as duly noted
in the attached papers. The isolation still exists and will continue in all its force, not only
for forty but sixty days, in order to be sure that the epidemic is entirely extinguished.

BOSON BOOKS -54-

 The War Against Epidemics

This happy success I prophesy and I promise that some time I will have the satisfaction of
informing Your Lordship that it will be the result of the tireless hard work of the experts.
Vigilance and devout intentions will have the happy result of freeing the kingdom [from
this plague].

With such happy results, and considering each day being closer to the arrival of my
successor, urgent needs of this court require that to return [to the capital of the province].
Now I see with the most careful precautions and leave well assured the safeguards, and
those in charge ready to take all necessary measures on which we will advise Your Lordship,

May Our Lord guard the life of Your Lordship many years.

Totonicapan. October 26, 1795.

Francisco Sebastian Chamorro.34

The Vaccination Crusade Against Smallpox, 1798-1804

34Chamorro was afterwards appointed to fill the remainder of the term of the Governor of Quetzaltenango
province (the previous holder had died in office) and then in 1801 appointed governor of the province of
Escuintla and Guazacapan.

BOSON BOOKS -55-

 The War Against Epidemics

The discovery that vaccination with cowpox produced immunity to smallpox, was first
published by Jenner in 1798 (Jenner 1798). In vaccination, vaccinia virus was
inserted into the skin to cause an infection. As historian Donald R. Hopkins relates: “Like
inoculation, a successful vaccinated person developed a rash only infrequently and in any
event could not spread smallpox to others, unless he had been infected with smallpox just
before the vaccination took effect. ... Properly performed, vaccination only rarely caused
the death of a vaccinee," (Hopkins 1983:7). The vaccinia virus was obtained from cattle,
hence the name for this infection was "cowpox" (Jenner 1798).

Jenner’s methods found an enthusiastic champion in King Carlos IV of Spain, whose

children had survived the smallpox epidemic of 1798 due to inoculation. In 1803, as
smallpox was appearing in the colonies, Carlos IV made vaccination a royal project. Dr.
José Felipe de Flores, physician of the King’s Chamber and former Protomedico of
Guatemala, was instructed to study the problem. Flores report, submitted on February
28, 1803, called for an expedition that would convey the vaccine to the New World.35

Weeks later, the King informed the Council of the Indies of his desire to carry out such an
expedition. On March 22, the Council approved Flores’s recommendations, and
throughout April and May the details were finalized (Smith 1974:13).

The plan included the vaccination of several orphans, who would serve as hosts for the
virus. Under the direction of Dr. Francisco Xavier de Balmis, the final expedition
numbered three assistants, two practitioners, three male nurses, a secretary, twenty-two
male orphans, and a nun who cared for them. On November 30, 1803, the Balmis
expedition set sailed from La Coruña aboard the Maria Pita (Smith 1974:13-17). For
Guatemala, however, the expedition came too late, the cowpox virus had already been
delivered to Central America thanks to the remarkable perseverance of Esparragosa and
other doctors.

Historian John Tate Lanning’s examination of the Gazeta of Guatemala for 1802-
1803 indicates that “almost every issue described frustrated attempts to acquire the virus

35Dr. Flores had earlier used innoculation in the epidemic of 1780, but only in Guatemala City. Carlos IV
did much for medical sciences during the first ten years of his reign, including the establishment of the
Real Colegio de Medicina and a school of veterinary medicine in Madrid (Smith 1974:13; Lanning
1985:338,372).

BOSON BOOKS -56-

 The War Against Epidemics

from Spain or the United States, the latest vaccination instructions, excerpts from
European journals discussing the serum, and articles extolling its benefits", (Smith
1974:11,50-52). In 1803, with a new epidemic threatening the island, the governor of
Puerto Rico had obtained the virus from the island of St. Thomas in the Danish West
Indies. From Puerto Rico the vaccine arrived, early in 1804, in Cuba. That same year, a
few weeks before the Balmis expedition reached the Mexican mainland, a warship brought
the vaccine (via vaccinated crewmen) from Cuba to Mexico. Don Ignacio Pavón y Muñoz,
a native of Guatemala City residing in Veracruz, obtained the virus and sealing the lymph
between glass slides, sent it on April 22 1804 by special courier to Guatemala City, where
it arrived twenty days later. As Michael Smith relates:

Esparragosa’s36 diary records the suspenseful preparation of the lymph, “a little speckle
the size of a fly’s wing,” into a diluted form of vaccine. Assisted by the Protomedico, José
Antonio de Córdoba, he began by pricking the upper arms of six children with the
vaccinating needle.

During the first few days, the vaccination lesions exhibited no signs of normal development.
Perhaps, some thought, the vaccine had deteriorated during the three-week journey from
Veracruz. Yet Esparragosa did not lose hope. Then on the seventh day, one small vesicle
appeared on Alfonso Wading's right arm. In order to observe it development more closely,
Esparragosa y Gallardo moved into the Wading home and kept the boy under constant
observation. ...

Esparragosa would not be convinced that the operation had been successful until he had
lanced the vesicle and examined the base of the lesion. This he did, assisted by José
Antonio de Córdoba, on May 25. As soon as he removed the thin layer of skin covering the
vesicle, Esparragosa observed "a small amount of very clear, transparent fluid ... as the
white of an egg.” Before probing the source of the fluid, he inoculated twenty more
children. He then scrutinized the lesion with a magnifying glass. Examination revealed that
Wading, indeed, had a true vaccination.

36Dr. Narciso Esparragos y Gallardo, a former student of Dr. Flores, would ultimately become Protomedico
of Guatemala. At this time he was already famous for his many investigations into new ways of
improving the health of the inhabitants of Guatemala.

BOSON BOOKS -57-

 The War Against Epidemics

On May 28 the vesicle partially filled again with the precious lymph and Esparragosa y
Gallardo vaccinated seven more children. Three of these seven inoculations proved
effective. On the same day the Gazeta de Guatemala reported that all twenty children
vaccinated on the twenty-fifth were progressing satisfactorily. These successful operations
assured an adequate source of vaccine (Smith 1974:50-52).

Esparragosa and Córdoba quickly instructed physicians, students and non-professionals

in the use of vaccination techniques. Córdoba even used his recently vaccinated seven year
old daughter as an agent, taking her to each convent and monastery in the capital.
Utilizing the lymph from her mature vesicles, he inoculated several individuals in each
place and trained the nuns and monks to perform the operation within their own religious
communities. Vaccinations were held every nine to eleven days and by June 23 an
estimated four thousand persons were treated in Guatemala City and its immediate
surroundings. 

On June 17 the City Council sponsored a special ceremony in the Cathedral to give thanks
for the efforts. In attendance were the President, the Archbishop, the faculty of the Royal
University, members of the Royal Audiencia, and civil and religious dignitaries (Smith
1974:52).

Thanks to private individuals, the vaccine soon reached the provinces. Esparragosa
himself led a private expedition to Antigua Guatemala, the old capital where, with the aid
of the Spanish governor, he identified the immune and non-immune, divided the city into
wards, and established vaccination centers. In less than a week he vaccinated all
susceptible citizens in the city except nursing babies and the infirm. He also trained Dr.
Mariano Fernández and Dr. Santos Alesio Coseros to continue the vaccinations (Smith
1974:52).

The vaccine, with instructions for use, reached Solola, Quetzaltenango, Chiquimula,
Verapaz and Totonicapan. In view of the problems that officials had in their treatment of
typhus and smallpox only a few years previously, it is no surprise that Dr. Ignacio Ruiz de
Cevallos encountered in this last province considerable resistance “from stupid, ignorant
Indians and even some whites," (Smith 1974:54). The governor of the Peten was ordered
to send a delegation to the nearest border with the Verapaz in order to receive the vaccine.

BOSON BOOKS -58-

 The War Against Epidemics

An emissary from the Balmis expedition finally reached Guatemala City late in 1804. By
this time, however, there was very little for him to do. Local practitioners had delivered
the vaccine to “even the remotest parts of the captaincy general," (Smith 1974:54). But the
journey was not entirely in vain, since he delivered instructions for the creation of a central
vaccination board in Guatemala. Together with the Archbishop and a representative of
the Audiencia, the Protomedico Córdoba drew up these instructions for an agency suited
to conditions in Guatemala.
L.H.F.

BOSON BOOKS -59-

 The War Against Epidemics

“Laws for the Propagation and Establishment of the Vaccine in the Kingdom of

Guatemala”

ARTICLE I. THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE.

Name and Duties

1. In the Capital of the Kingdom will be formed a Committee, which will be called Central,
similar to the establishments in other places. Its duties will be: (1) The propagation of the
vaccine in all the districts of the Captaincy General; (2) the keeping of the vaccine fluid in
such a manner that it will never be absent in the said district; (3) [the recording of]
observations and new discoveries in the use of the vaccine which can result in benefits to
public health.

Members
2. It will be composed of three permanent and three elective positions plus a secretary.

Permanent Members
3. Permanent members, now and in the future, shall be the Illustrious Lord Archbishop, the
Regent of the Royal Audiencia and the Protomedico of this kingdom.

Elective Members
4. Elective members shall be an individual of the Ecclesiastical Council, another of the City
Council of the Capital, and a Professor of Medicine or Surgeon other than the Protomedico.
Nomination and Length of Service.
They shall serve two years and may have their terms extended for a longer length of time.
The first members shall be named by the head of the government. Afterwards the Central
Committee shall elect them based upon the vote of a majority of its members.

The Secretary

BOSON BOOKS -60-

 The War Against Epidemics

5. The Secretary is a permanent position. With just cause, that the Committee will
determine, he can be removed or exonerated. The rules for his nomination will be the same
as for the elected members.

Duties and obligations of these offices

6. The duty of these offices is equal in importance to their objective. They are interested
in discharging the paternal concern of the King, the public health, (for which all ought to
sacrifice), the common good of humanity (and in particular of this country, more than
others), and especially with regard to the cruel ravages of the whip of smallpox. No one can
be excused from accepting and serving. Neither should there be for it any salary or
compensation.

Announcement of the Nominations

7. The Head of the Government will, upon the first nominations, so inform the members
of the committee. Subsequent nominees will be so informed by the presiding officer of the
committee and without any other formality begin the exercise of their duties in the next
session of the committee.

Substitutions
8. If in the two-year period one of the members is absent due to death, or a similar cause,
they can substitute with delay, electing another person to the appropriate position; but only
for the remainder of that two-year period, at the end of which there will be a normal election.
The substitute member can then be elected for the subsequent two year period.

Vacancy in the Archbishopric

9. In case of a vacancy in the Chair of the Archbishop his seat will not filled by a
substitute but functions will be exercised by the Lord Regent of the Audiencia, or by the
representative of the Ecclesiastical Council, according to the instances and circumstances.

Vacancy in the Regency

10. The Lord Regent will be replaced by the most senior member of the Audiencia, or that
one next in line, if he is vacant due to absence or a legitimate reason.

Vacancy in the Protomedico

11. The lack of the Protomedico, for whatever reason will prevent the holding of
committee meetings. He should be replaced by the most senior Professor of Medicine other

BOSON BOOKS -61-

 The War Against Epidemics

than that one already on the committee; or if by him, another member will need to be elected
to replace him in such a manner that there always will be two medical specialists on the
committee.

Advice on the Substitutions

12. Owing to the need for consideration by the permanent members in the instances
requiring substitution, the Secretary will so advise members of the committee in writing.
The member, whoever will need a substitute, will so advise the Secretary explaining why and
when the substitution will take place.

Presiding Officer and Location of the Committee

13. The Illustrious Lord Archbishop will preside over the meetings of the Committee
whenever his other more important duties permit. The Committee will hold its sessions in
his palace. When the Illustrious Lord has just reason to be absent, he will so advise the
Lord Regent who will take over his duties and the Committee will be convoked at his house
or at that of the most senior member of the Audiencia as so established above. The same
procedure will be followed with regard to the presiding officer and location of the meetings,
in case of a vacancy in the Chair of Archbishopric.

Weekly sessions at first

14. At the beginning, until the majority of the individuals in the capital and its surrounding
areas have received the benefits of the vaccination, the committee will meet each week. The
day and hour will be marked by the members in the first session. The presiding officer can
always convoke extra sessions when it seems necessary.

After each 15 days

15. The committee will vote and advise the government when the first part of its task is
complete; that is when the vaccine has been disseminated, as established by the diminishing
of the vaccinations, within the borders of its jurisdiction and there is a need only to arrange
for a permanent supply of it. Thereafter, in order to ease the burden of the members, it is
agreed that there would be no need to have a session more than once each fifteen days
however there never will be more than fifteen days between sessions.

Equipment they have for treating it

16. They will discuss in the Committees everything necessary for discharging the tasks in
the three parts indicated in Section 1. In each session the minutes of the previous session

BOSON BOOKS -62-

 The War Against Epidemics

will be read. They will express their observations, be they medical or economic. They will
read the correspondence with the provincial committees. They will confer commissions and
nominate vaccinators. And they will discuss all points relative to the progress and
permanent supply of the vaccine, find means and arrange for its execution, simplifying the
operations whenever possible.

Books of the Secretariat

17. The Secretary will be responsible for three books:
(1) The Minutes of the Committee; (2) on special observations made outside of this
kingdom, in which will be extracted all mentioned in books or public papers, ultimately
including those in the treatise of Moreau de la Sarthe;37 and (3) on the observations that
has been or will be made in this capital and its provinces. There always will occur new
observations of one or another type. The first Committee should read about them and
discuss them. It being important to correct them, they should make experiments and in time
make their results known to the public.

Correspondence with the provincial committees

18. The correspondence between the Central Committee and those of the provinces should
be through their respective secretaries. It should be well organized in separate files. In the
book of minutes there should be a brief abstract of their contents and general notices, with
reference to the papers and the official numbers with which they should be marked. New
observations should be recorded in the appropriate book as well as mentioned in the
minutes.

Log book of vaccinators

19. Information given to the Committee on the number of vaccinators should be abstracted
in another book or log book, which will be divided into sections noting those in charge of
the vaccinations, their names and the towns or wards that are their responsibility and an
abstract of their reports.

37This work, translated into Spanish by Dr. Francisco Xavier de Balmis and entitled in Spanish Tratado
histórico y práctico de la Vacuna, was regarded by Smith "as the most complete study of vaccination at that
time" (Smith 1974:17).

BOSON BOOKS -63-

 The War Against Epidemics

Biyearly report to the Government

20. Each six months the Committee, through its presiding officer, shall notify the
Government with regard to the number of vaccinators, with a copy of the abstract from the
previously noted logbook, and another brief abstract from its minutes in which is noted all
its activities in that six month period. Whenever it seems convenient, from one or both, the
abstracts will be inserted in the official gazette of this capital, the secretary of the committee
taking care that only well established information be made public and he being responsible
for checking the page proofs for errors.

Expenses of the Secretariat

21. Sworn statements for office expenses [for escritorio and correspondencia ] are
transmitted by the Secretary every three months, or sooner if more convenient. The
government will, at its convenience, advise the Committee with regard to the appropriate
department to issue payments on vouchers.

Decisions of Government
22. The government will communicate its decisions to the committee by means of the
presiding officer and, as necessary, he will name one of the members to reply and represent
the Committee.

BOSON BOOKS -64-

 The War Against Epidemics

ARTICLE II. PROVINCIAL COMMITTEES

Leon, Comayagua and Ciudad Real

23. In each of the Episcopal Cities, Leon, Comayagua and Ciudad Real, there will be
formed a provincial committee of vaccine, which will be composed of the Illustrious Lord
Bishop, the Lord Governor, a member of the Ecclesiastical Council, another of the city
council, a physician if they have one, and a secretary.

Permanent Members and the substitution

24. The two first positions will be permanent or perpetual. In the absence of a Illustrious
Lord Bishop, the Lord Governor will preside. He can be replaced by a lieutenant with a
college degree or whoever is exercising the powers of the Governor.

Elective Members - Idem

25. The length and duration of the terms of elected member, and their substitution will be
as indicated in Sections 4 and 8 of Article I; with the only difference being that after being
first nominated they can be elected by their respective provincial committee.

The Fourth Member in Comayagua

26. In Comayagua, where there is no city council, for the fourth member one can elect an
honorable prosperous citizen, or a priest who does not have a parish.

Designating Vaccinators where there are no teachers

27. Up to now there are no physicians in Comayagua nor Ciudad Real, nor are there any
in Leon. Therefore this absence may be filled with a specified vaccinator in each locality
where sits a Committee, as per Sections 99 and 100 of Article VII. This vaccinator has
only an advisory vote in the Committees but their assistance to them will be indispensable.
Without them present they can't resolve any medical point.

Settlements with City Councils

28. In capitals of provinces where there are city councils but no Bishop nor Ecclesiastical
Council or in those with neither, or [those that are] very small or have no Spanish residents,
the Committees are composed of the following. In San Salvador, Costa Rica, Sonsonate and
Quetzaltenango, a Governor, an Ecclesiastic (other than the parish priest or parish
administrator), an alderman, and the physician or vaccinator of the territory. Except for

BOSON BOOKS -65-

 The War Against Epidemics

chief of the province and the vaccinator (who remain on the committee as long as they fill
these positions), those appointed are elected on an annual basis.

Branch Committees outside of province capitals

29. In the settlements which without being capitals of provinces have City Councils, or
have a sufficient number of Spaniards -like San Miguel, San Vicente, Santa Ana,
Tegucigalpa, Nicaragua, Comitan, Ahuachapa, and others of this type- in order to facilitate
operations they can establish committees which they call Branches, which will be dependent
upon that of the province of which they form a part. The establishment of these branch
committees, the number, kind and election of their members is the responsibility of the
provincial committees, since they are their helpers.

In those provinces without City Councils

30. In the provinces of Chiquimula, Verapaz, Zacatepeques [elsewhere called Amatitanes
and Sacatepequez], Escuintla, Chimaltenango, Solola, Totonicapan, and Suchitepequez, the
chief of the province, the parish priest of the capital, and the specified vaccinator are the
permanent members of the committee formed there and can, as circumstances require, select
others. The central Committee, basing themselves upon reports, can elect two other
members where there are appropriate individuals and remove them as necessary.

Duties
31. The duties of these provincial committees is the same as that of the Central Committee
(Article I, Section 1) with which they correspond by means of their respective secretaries.
They will communicate on the vaccination, the methods adopted for the establishment or
perpetuation of the fluid and the observations that they make, proceeding toward this end
whenever it seems easy and without inconvenience.

Each four month to the central Committee

32. Each four months they will send to the Central Committee an extract from their
minutes, in order that they can report on the previous half year to the government (Article I,
Section 20) and present, when verified, news to the public. With this abstract should come a
report on those vaccinated from one four month period to another, noting census classes,
towns and political divisions.[Census classes include widow, widower, unmarried, married
and exempt from paying taxes.]

BOSON BOOKS -66-

 The War Against Epidemics

Common Laws
33. The laws given for the central Committee in paragraphs 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 17, 19, and
21 apply also to the provincial Committees, with appropriate modifications in so far as the
circumstances vary.

General Measures
34. The orders of the Government that are appropriate to all will be communicated by
means of the secretary of the Central Committee to those of the provinces. By the same
means they can petition the government when it seems convenient so that all would act in
conformity to these laws as a single entity in complete understanding of their significance.

ARTICLE III. PROPAGATION OF THE VACCINE IN THE CAPITAL

Weekly Vaccinations
35. The practice will be continued, which with praiseworthy zeal has been established by
the Protomedico, of making weekly vaccinations in order to conserve the fluid and extend its
preservative virtue. But although many have been vaccinated in the capital and its
surroundings, still many more lack vaccination. They should come to receive this necessary
benefit, which will require only one brief visit, in order to remove or avoid totally the risk of
a smallpox epidemic.

Censuses of the Vaccinated

36. The judges of each ward, by Section 12 of their instructions, ought to prepare each
year a census of the inhabitants. When prepared, according to the requirements explained
below, each house or family should be designated vaccinated or not vaccinated. In order
that these censuses be uniform, and not obscure information collected previously, they will
all follow a single format which the judges will receive from the Secretariat of the
government.

Ecclesiastics commissioned to assist in their preparation

37. Each judge of the ward, in fulfillment of the previous section, will be accompanied at
times by an Ecclesiastic, in order that the survey will be completed with such formality and
circumspection as to inspire confidence, as well as to instruct the inhabitants of its important
objective, and expose false ideas that could result in inexact censuses.

BOSON BOOKS -67-

 The War Against Epidemics

Nomination of Ecclesiastics
38. The nomination of these Ecclesiastics will be made by the Illustrious Lord Archbishop
from among the friars and priests of the capital, excluding only the parish priests and their
assistants.

Problems
39. Problems which occur in the preparation of the censuses will be referred to the Lord
Regent for resolution.

Completion of the Censuses

40. They will completed within two months from the publication of this Regulation, in
order that each Judge can send the completed census of his ward to the Secretariat of the
Government.

Voucher for the cost of the prepared paper

41. They will present a sworn note on the cost of the paper and preparation of these
censuses, the voucher will be arranged by the judges, including with it an account of the
work.

Lists prepared from the Censuses

42. The Secretariat of the government, upon receiving the censuses, will prepare lists of
individuals not vaccinated in each ward, with their houses and names, and pass this on to the
secretary of the Central Committee.

Naming of Vaccinators and Commissioners

43. From these lists, without waiting to see if they are complete for the entire city, the
Committee will proceed to name for each ward a vaccinator and a commissioned assistant
for the vaccinations. From these duties neither the Protomedico nor any of the elected
members of the Committee are exempt, except for the Secretary.

Their qualities
44. The vaccinators of the capital will be all licensed physicians (or surgeons), or be
approved by the Protomedico, who will inform them of their nomination. For
commissioned assistants they will nominate Ecclesiastics, members of the our city council,
and prosperous citizens. Their nomination will be communicated to the Ecclesiastics by the
office of the Illustrious Lord Archbishop and for the others by that of the Lord Regent.

BOSON BOOKS -68-

 The War Against Epidemics

Their functions
45. By mutual agreement on set days and hours, the commissioner and the vaccinator of
each ward will proceed to vaccinate those on the copy of the list received from the secretary
of the committee. They will from house to house, marking off daily each name and their
ages.

Of those who remain without vaccination

46. Those individuals who are not found in their house, or in the proceedings for just
cause can not be vaccinated, will come to the house of the commissioner on the day and
hour agreed by the vaccinator. If they fail to so appear, the commissioner will so advise the
Lord Regent, who will take measures for their vaccination.

The Time for the vaccinations in each ward

47. In order to conclude the vaccination of each ward, those who are in charge of it should
display prudence and zeal. It is recommended that the task be completed as soon as
possible. If it is seen that there is considerable delay, the Committee will so insinuate to the
respective commissioner, as the one primarily responsible, that it is entrusted to his
conscience.

Inspections of the vaccinated

48. In the days in which the vaccinator and the commissioned assistant decide to return to
visit the vaccinated in their houses in order to meet with them, they should note which
vaccinations were ineffectual, and any anomalies that they have observed. In order that no
one be absent upon the time of this visit, they should advise them of the day and hour of
their visit. If someone is absent, or for some other visit can not be seen, they will proceed
according to Section 46.

49. Upon completing the vaccination of a ward, those in charge should provide a report to
the committee. They will refer to all that took place, extracting them from the journal of the
vaccinator, which should be carefully kept by him so that it can be exhibited upon request.
The report will be accompanied by two lists; one of those perfectly vaccinated, in which in
his judgment there is no doubt that the vaccination is true and who display the virus
pockmark. The other list is of those excused from inoculation for just cause and of those
whose vaccination was ineffectual. In both lists should be the names, houses or localities
where they have their houses; and in the second, very clearly, the reasons and circumstances

BOSON BOOKS -69-

 The War Against Epidemics

for their condition. They should return to vaccinate, as soon as convenient, those individuals
on this last list.

District of the Capital

Charge of the Committee
50. The all towns in this province [i.e., Amatitanes and Sacatepequez], are the direct
responsibility of the Central Committee. For each they will name a commissioner and a
vaccinator, just like for the wards of the capital. In other towns a short distance away, even
though they are outside of this district, when it seems convenient they will adopt a similar
method.

Lists in these towns

51. The Illustrious Lord Archbishop will advise the priests of each of the said towns and,
with the aid of the Indian and Hispanic judges, they will prepare lists of unvaccinated
individuals (excluding those very young, ill or for some other motive should be excused for
now from vaccination) and send it to the appropriate commissioner.

Attendance in the capital for vaccination

52. The priests and judges may, with the approval of the commissioner (to whose house
those on his lists would come to be vaccinated), allow an agreed number to come on certain
designated hours and days. The vaccination made, they would return without delay to their
towns. In order to insure their good treatment and prevent any disturbance, a judge,
alderman, or other trustworthy person, would accompany those who want to come.

Duty of the Priests

53. The vaccinated of these towns will be watched by their priest who will visit them on
convenient days and note the progress of the vaccinations. He will note those that seem
false, (that is those with out any effect), and any peculiarity. After fifteen days he will
provide a letter to the responsible commissioner, advising him before this time if something
appears of special interest.

Reports to the central Committee

54. With the diary of these vaccinations, and the letters of the Priests, they will present
reports to the Central Committee, as per Section 49.

Provinces

BOSON BOOKS -70-

 The War Against Epidemics

Commissioned Doctors
55. The vaccinations in the provinces distant from the capital will be done by means of
physicians commissioned for this purpose, with instructions provided by the Protomedicato
and approved by the government. Their duty was to vaccinate once everyone, without
exceptions, who never had smallpox.

Account of their operations

56. The account of their operations of these commissioned physicians should be given to
the Protomedicato as well as a duplicate for their respective provincial committee, whether it
is already formed or if it is formed after they conclude their operations. The same
committee should remit the books that they ought to make on the vaccinations that took
place and lists of individuals who were not vaccinated (giving the reasons why they were
not) and all the observations which should be presented in successive order.

Delays and obstacles

57. During their commission, if it takes a long time to establish provincial committees,
those bogged down are advised to take every opportunity to speed their business, observing
what is prescribed to complete this task.

Methods for expediting general vaccination

58. The committees will decide if the laws given for the capital and its district (Sections 36
to 54) or other similar ones, are adaptable to its territories in whole or part and follow those
that they find best in order that the first general vaccination is completed as soon as possible
in order to diminish the danger from smallpox and lessen the expenses of the
commissioned doctors.

Reports of the committees on the performance of the doctors

59. The completion of the instructions which they gave to the said doctors are the
responsibilities of the respective territorial committees when they are formed. Without their
report their expenses will not be paid and not only must they provide a good performance
but also -depending upon the circumstances- execute their duty in each town or district in
the shortest time possible.

BOSON BOOKS -71-

 The War Against Epidemics

ARTICLE IV. PERPETUITY OR ESTABLISHMENT.

Annual List of Exceptions

60. From the list of exceptions (Sections 49 and 56) one can deduce that they ought to or
should vaccinate in the year immediately following the general vaccination and also in
successive years.

Condition of births
61. They should prepare statements on births each fifth year and of dead infants at about
the same time. This work will be entrusted by the Illustrious Bishops to the priests of the
four dioceses, they sending out instructions on the organization of this information.

Future vaccination by rotation

62. By lists and statements (Sections 60 and 61) each committee will determine the
number of individuals who need to be vaccinated in their district periodically and annually.
With regard to the preservation of the fluid, this is best done by transmitting it from arm to
arm as long as possible. After the ending of the general vaccination treated in Article III, in
consideration of precisely this object they should not vaccinate everyone all at once.

Vaccination Room in the Hospital

63. Poor people will be sent to a decent room in the Hospital of San Pedro.38 Its fiscal
and medical management will be the same as the general hospital. Under the direction of its
first doctor, or a physician who can substitute for him, they can rotate vaccinations in the
manner prescribed by the Central Committee.

Management and government of the vaccinated

64. The vaccinated will remain in the hospital like established ranches, supported by their
income. Breast feeding babies, or of very few months, will be accompanied by their mother,
or another relative, who will take care of them in the Hospital for a precise number of days.
They will have the best possible care, under the regime established by the physician. They
will not be permitted to enter other rooms, nor come into contact with those who are sick. If
any are found to be ill, apart from the vaccination (which in any case should prevent them
from being vaccinated), immediately they will be placed in a separate area and obtain the

38The Hospital de San Pedro was annexed in 1795 by the Hospital San Juan (Martinez Duran 1964).

BOSON BOOKS -72-

 The War Against Epidemics

appropriate treatment. The physician will prevent inoculation with the fluid of some of the
vaccinated by the others. Those vaccinated will be replaced with others not yet so treated.

The functions of commissioner in charge of rotating vaccinations

65. The individual of the Honorable City Council who will be a member of the committee
will have the list of those vaccinated each year (Section 60) and those born in each parish
(Section 61). He will note which ones should come to the hospital, and will take care that
this takes place without exception. He will advise the Lord Regent of those reluctant in
order that as gentle persuasion as possible be used to make them come. On the day of
rotation (Section 63) he will assist the Hospital and present the vaccinated. When they need
to dismiss a vaccinated placing another in its place, the controller will be told one or two
days in advance.

Preference for those who volunteer to be vaccinated

66. Those who will present themselves voluntarily to be vaccinated in the hospital will be
preferred even although they come from elsewhere or are not on the list. But never will the
number of rotation exceed those from the previous shift.

Rules for those who can be vaccinated in private houses

67. Wealthy citizens, their children and domestic servants can be vaccinated when they
desire or when they so indicate in their own houses where they can receive careful attention
not available to the poor of the community. But there can be no vaccination in a private
house without notification of the commissioned member of the committee (Section 65) who
will accordingly modify the rotation of the hospital so that in the entire city there will not be
more each time than the indicated number (Section 62). Half of this number is the most that
could be vaccinated each time in private houses; so that if the number is four, two will be in
them and two in the Hospital, where they never should lack the fluid.

Biyearly Notice to the committee and its objective

68. Twice a year the commissioner will notify the committee of the vaccinations made,
both in the hospital and in private houses. Based upon this information the committee will
decide if the number of vaccinations in each rotation should be increased or diminished or
other measures taken for the conservation of the fluid.

Of the settlements where there are hospitals

BOSON BOOKS -73-

 The War Against Epidemics

69. These rules are common to the cities and large towns that have hospitals. Their
respective committees can put them into practice, with modifications depending upon local
circumstances, without deviating from their intent, which is to perpetuate the fluid or
conserving it fresh from arm to arm the longest time possible.

Where there are no Hospitals

70. Where there are no hospitals, nor any money for the maintenance of the vaccinated,
they will remain in their houses. The commissioned member and the parish priest will be
responsible for frequent visits, instructing them and their parents or relatives on their proper
care and what to avoid in order that the inoculation will have its proper effect and make use
of the fluid in its proper time.

The Ceremony of the Vaccinations in the communities

71. The vaccinations, where there is no hospital, should be in parish houses by specified
vaccinators and in the presence of the priest and commissioner of the respective committee.
There should be music on these occasions, as is customary in every ceremony in the
communities. All the musicians of this locality should be advised that they would not
receive any payment for their activities.

Lack of fluid, how to replenish it

72. When a large province, because of interruption in the vaccinations or for whatever
cause, lacks fluid, it should immediately send for it. Two or more individuals need to be
selected who can return vaccinated as per instructions. The Central Committee should be
quickly notified whenever this happens, with the reasons for the absence and the measures
taken to remedy it.

Where it is not possible to conserve it for a long time

73. In the provinces with a limited and dispersed population in time they will lose entirely
the fluid for lack of individuals to vaccinate. When this happens, their respective committee
should so inform the Central Committee, providing information on the number of births in
the last five years and those who were excused from vaccination from one year to another so
that in time they can come to be vaccinated. The Central Committee will, as convenient, send
the fluid, from arm to arm, to this territory either from the capital or from the closest
community that has the fluid. In no province, no matter how few the number of inhabitants,
will more than five years pass without continuing the vaccinations.

BOSON BOOKS -74-

 The War Against Epidemics

Loss of the fluid in the capital, if it happens

74. If by some accident, which is not desired, the fluid is completely lost in this capital,
and it is found in another settlement of this kingdom, it will be immediately sent for by the
Central Committee without any delay. If it is lost from the entire kingdom, which doesn't
seem likely, the same committee will authorize a licensed physician or someone trustworthy
to bring it from the closest district where it yet exists, from arm to arm, as per the orders of
His Majesty.

Those in charge to prevent one or another happenings

75. It is expected, from the calculation of births this year, that it will be possible to
maintain, under the given rules, the vaccine in this capital. It is also believed that similarly it
will be possible to perpetuate it in some of the larger communities of the kingdom. The
committees will maintain all vigilance for this most important objective so that the malignant
pestilence of smallpox will remain forever banished from their districts.

ARTICLE V. PRIESTS AND JUDGES.

Copies of these Rules

76. All priests and Spanish Judges of the kingdom will have an example of these rules in
order that they may comply religiously with the duties listed therein.

And of the treatise on its history and practice

77. Another item which they will be given is the treatise of Moreau de la Sarthe, cited in
the Royal Order of the 1st of September of 1803, of which either it or an approved abstract
that contains the data, yet is in a readable style, will be reprinted in a sufficient number of
copies.

Duties of the judges and priests

78. It is the duty of the priests and Judges to explain to their parishioners and subjects in
conversation and in conversations and public speech, the marvelous efficacy of the vaccine
fluid for preserving them from smallpox epidemics and of the impressive advantages of this
inoculation. The priests will use on the rustic Indians all the influence of their holy ministry.
Where they and the judges are informative and zealous there will be no difficulty that can
not be easily overcome. Where ignorance produces delay and obstruction, it is these same
judges and priests who will be primarily responsible.

BOSON BOOKS -75-

 The War Against Epidemics

When the vaccination results in another illness

79. The vaccine does not cause an illness; it produces a lingering indisposition without
any grave results which preserves one forever from the smallpox epidemics.39 It is an
obligation of both the judges and the priests to explain that according to experience in all the
countries that if in someone, they see symptoms different from the ordinary that denote
seriousness and cause them to offer up prayers, one should not attribute it to the vaccination
but to some other previous or posterior cause. This will prevent fear and distrust, a result
of such thoughts, to which the people are so prone. They should halt all help for those
vaccinated who are discovered to be sick with some other illness. So if they die it will be see
to be from their sins. In so far as possible this origin or cause should be diffused among
the people. This will silence those who for malicious reasons, or ignorance, utter contrary
views.

The object of all these regulations

80. Care should be taken that everyone will be vaccinated at the proper time, as quickly as
possible. And that those who will be born are successively vaccinated and these also quickly
except for those excused for appropriate cause. The vaccinated should be visited and
provided with the small amount of help necessary. Their incisions and pimples should be
recorded, observing all that seems different from those expected from the instructions in
order to so inform the district committee. Everything needed to complete their mission
should be so undertaken. All duties fall equally on the priests and subordinate judges.

Zeal and merit of the Judges

81. The Government will examine the conduct of the Judges, who will give a by yearly
account of the state of vaccinations in their territories and individual reports to the respective
Committees. From these sources they will learn who were negligent or left out something
required and if it is not satisfactory with regard to the chiefs of the provinces, they will so
inform His Majesty when they give periodic notice of what took place and all that happened,
in response to the Royal Order of the 20th of May of 804.

Zeal and merit of the priests

39The immunity induced by vaccination was not lifelong and it was necessary for persons to be
revaccinated after a few years in order to maintain complete immunity (Hopkins 1983:7).

BOSON BOOKS -76-

 The War Against Epidemics

82. The priests will be responsible to their bishops in their capacity as presiding officer of
the respective committees. In the testimony required on their merits special mention will be
reserved for their help in vaccination. In the competition for other parishes, the three
names submitted for the election of a candidate, it is most important that with regard to this
subject they have a satisfactory record.40

ARTICLE VI. THE PHYSICIANS

Prohibition of vaccination
83. From the publication of these regulations, no physician can vaccinate any individual
previously unvaccinated, nor should they suffer the natural smallpox, without obeying the
method and rules explained in them. Much less can someone vaccinate who is not a
physician and thus this proclamation applies to all.

The only persons permitted

84. Any physician is free to repeat the vaccination on whoever is listed on the list of
vaccinations, so want it or in order to make some experiment. Similarly they are free to
vaccinate those who have had smallpox, noting the effects of this treatment and publishing
it.

When it will be free and when one can receive an honorarium

85. The general vaccination, treated on in Article III, will be free for all classes of people.
In subsequent ones made in private house (Section 67) the physicians or vaccinators can
receive a just honorarium. Those made in the hospital always will be free.

New observations
86. Every physician has the obligation of learning the new observations and experiences
pertaining to the vaccine which were made in other countries in order to repeat them here
and to make, on the same principle, other new ones.

40The post of parish priest, and the salary that went with it, was selected on the basis of submitted
curiculum vitae from three candidates. For examples of such eighteenth- and nineteenth-century records,
see the ”Curatos” section of the Archivo Episcopal General in Guatemala City.

BOSON BOOKS -77-

 The War Against Epidemics

Attempts to find the cowpox

87. When convenient those in charge should check the cows of this country for illness
producing pimples which could be the cow pox. They should test the fluid of these
pimples in order to, if at all possible, to discover a local source of the vaccine in our
territory.

They should vaccinate the cattle and other animals with these objectives
88. They should vaccinate these same cattle in order to see if they can establish in them
the cowpox so as to perpetuate it on the ranches of the countryside. They should vaccinate
also other animals, particularly horses and mules, with the object, among others, of seeing if
it could save them from the terrible influenza [“epizootia ”] called plague or epidemic
which destroys a great number of them each year.

The wool bearing livestock

89. If in the wool bearing livestock, following the ordinary course of events, alone the
vaccine does not cause a reaction, but as indicated in published papers, conserves its
preservative virtue against smallpox without change, they ought to vaccinate all the sheep
and rams in the entire kingdom, and repeat the vaccination periodically; if only with the end
of conserving the fluid in the flocks in case it is lost in the populations.41

Experiments on rabies
90. There has been no notice on the idea of vaccinating dogs to preserve them from rabies.
In this capital, where in the dry season one sees rabid dogs, one should test this idea even if
it only has the negative effect of reducing their number.

Application of the vaccine to other illnesses

91. There are many illnesses where the vaccine is now indicated as a remedy, it having a
curative or prophylactic effect. The physicians apply it even to individuals who have been
vaccinated for no injury can result and perhaps it will have a favorable effect.

News of new observations

92. Any new observation that comes to his attention should be summarized by the
Secretary of the respective committee in his book (Section 17), signed by, the physician who

41"Dr. José Antonio de Córdoba even inoculated sheep with smallpox virus in an effort to induce cowpox
or a similar disease" (Smith 1974:50).

BOSON BOOKS -78-

 The War Against Epidemics

had made it, if he is present as well as the same secretary. Absent physicians should send a
formal communication, the original of which should be kept with the book of the secretary.

What those can do who are not physicians

93. Intelligent and enthusiastic individuals can make observations only on animals. When
the results are useful, with the approval of the Central Committee one can make them public.

ARTICLE VII. THE VACCINATORS

In the capital
94. Only in the time of the general vaccination should each one of the wards and towns of
the capital district name a vaccinator (Sections 43 to 50). Afterwards only the physicians of
the hospital should remain as vaccinators, without whose consent there can be no
vaccination in private houses.

Teaching of vaccination in the towns

95. One of the principal duties of the Physicians commissioned in the provinces is to
teach the practice of vaccination in all the more important towns of the parish, preferring
public-spirited Spaniards of good reputation who shall offer systematic instruction. In
towns of pure Indians, this information shall be taught to the school masters when they will
continue in residence in them, and so perpetuate the said practice.

Specific Vaccinators, their title and functions

96. By arrangement with the provincial committees they will name one or more
vaccinators for settlements with large numbers of people, and only one for each capital of a
parish, on the advice of the respective physician. In the locality or district where they are
assigned no person can be vaccinated without their consent and only under the given rules.

Assistance of a vaccinator in the committees

97. In the settlements where there is a practitioner of medicine or surgeon, he will be
nominated as vaccinator, and have the duties of member of the said committee. If there are
two or more vaccinators, and no physician, the committee will designate the one to assist
them at their meetings (Section 27).

Uniformity of practice

BOSON BOOKS -79-

 The War Against Epidemics

98. The practice of vaccination will uniformly follow the circulated instructions and not
use any other procedure.

Stipend of the vaccinators

99. The first general vaccination, made by the physicians, or specified vaccinators, will be
free (Section 85). But in subsequent vaccinations they can receive a just honorarium. In
the towns of the Indians, for each new birth of this race that he vaccinates, the vaccinator will
receive credit for a stipulated amount, which he will be paid at an convenient time.

Their observations and experiments

100. The duty of making new observations and experiments with the animals belongs to
the vaccinators of the towns even though most of them are from the cities, for most of them
they will need to supervise and persevere in their repetition. In none of them should the
physician exceed the intent of the rules laid down in these regulations.

ARTICLE VIII. THE PORTS AND FRONTIER ESTABLISHMENTS

What is meant by these establishments

101. In Omoa, Trujillo, Golfo, Peten and the fort of San Carlos all matters pertaining to
the vaccine will be handled by the Commandant, the Royal Chaplain, and the resident
physician.42

Their duties
102. They have orders to complete the vaccination of these establishments. In some of
them this has already been done. Consequently it is only necessary to treat new births and
those who previously were exempted from vaccination.

Records of exceptions and births

103. Exceptions from the first vaccination will be listed and the records kept in the office
of the Commandant. The Royal Chaplain will provide a list of the births each year -or at
the most every second year- to the same office.

42The fort of San Carlos was in what is now the republic of Nicaragua. Trujillo is on the north coast of
Honduras.

BOSON BOOKS -80-

 The War Against Epidemics

Requests for the fluid

104. When there is a sufficient number to vaccinate, but not under fifty individuals, the
closest provincial committee will be so notified in order that they can make arrangements for
the remission of the fluid from arm to arm in the manner that seems safest and most
convenient.

Urgency if there is risk

105. If there had been a recent outbreak of smallpox, to which the ports of the sea are
much more prone to than settlements inland, they can immediately ask for the fluid from the
closest locality possessing it, even although there are as few as one or two who need
vaccination.

Responsibility of the physicians

106. In proportion to the increased risk of smallpox, one should increase the care needed
to counteract the effects of this disease. The physician is responsible for this and it would
be wise to repeat the vaccinations when there is doubt that it has taken or if there is any
indication that some individual is not under its protection.

ARTICLE IX. THE SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC

Precautions and prohibitions for inoculations

107. Upon the discovery of smallpox in any locality of the kingdom, the Highest
Authorities will be quickly notified and they will immediately take those precautions
outlined in the official orders of the 22nd of April, and the 22nd of May of 1804. The
inoculation of anyone with smallpox is strictly forbidden.43

Complete Vaccination if the risk is close

108. If they fear that the risk is close and certain, the respective provincial committee can,
after it has established the existence of the risk, accelerate the vaccinations and not leave in
this district a single individual without vaccination even the ill and babies on the breast. For
it has been established that the vaccine does not require exceptions for age nor infirmities,
that is most benign in the youngest children as in adults and that it does not conflict with

43Innoculationof infect ed persons had been common in Guatemala in the decade prior to vaccination (cf.
Lovell 1985:160).

BOSON BOOKS -81-

 The War Against Epidemics

any other human humor.44 This is not true for inoculation with smallpox, which is why
these and other precautions are necessary.

Care in these cases

109. As it is so easy to confuse the wild smallpox or vaccine with the deadly variety, and it
is known that many localities don't have physicians, the provincial committees should
proceed in this matter with much care in order not to vaccinate uselessly or infect the towns.
And always when the risk is dubious or there is time, they should consult the Central
Committee who will inform the Highest Authorities with regard to the appropriate measures
-be they those described under Section 108, or whatever they feel is called for under these
circumstances.

Conclusion
110. In the Royal Order of the 15th of April of 1785 His Majesty assured his gratitude
and favour to all those who practice the inoculation of smallpox with prudence, caution and
consistency necessary for its effect. Much more than merely recommending the inoculation
of the vaccine, he has not spared trouble nor expense from his treasury in order to establish
and perpetuate it in his domains. Also should be mentioned all those who brought it from
one to another as well as the ministers and judges, as well as the parish priests, physicians
and persons whose zeal and patriotism may be seen in these Regulations, which have been
printed, and circulated, in a preliminary form, they being remitted to the Sovereign for his
approval in compliance with the Royal Order of the 20th of May of 1804.

Given in the Royal Palace of New Guatemala [Guatemala City] on the 25th of January of
1805.

Antonio Gonzalez Saravia

Alexandro Ramírez

On March 3rd of 1805, the Central Vaccination Committee met for the first time.
Esparragosa, who would replace the critically ill Córdoba as Protomedicato, directed the
activities of the committee for many years. Manuscripts in the Archivo General de Centro

44The four basic humors, an imbalance among which were thought to result in disease, were: blood,
yellow bile, black bile and mucous (Hopkins 1983:9).

BOSON BOOKS -82-

 The War Against Epidemics

America document the work of the Central Committee during suspected outbreaks of
Smallpox (e.g. Peña 1808; Esparragosa 1808; Lovell 1985:162). The last formal session
of the vaccination board was in July 1817, during a major outbreak of smallpox in the
province of Chiquimula.

L.H.F.

BOSON BOOKS -83-

 The War Against Epidemics

The Fevers of Amatitlan, 1814

These notes by Dr. Narciso Esparragosa describe treatments for an 1814 outbreak of
fevers in Amatitlan (Esparragosa 1814) .

The Protomedico was apparently responding to a letter sent November 9 to the local priest
and assorted local officials stating: “The fevers have returned to the town, and even more
quickly than before there are thirty four ill. I have confessed seven today; although up to
now no more than one boy has died. He will be buried today. We will advise you of
whatever happens (Mauda and Cevallos 1814).”

A second note, dated November 10, added: “This town of Amatitlan has very few Indians,
most are Ladinos. . . Only nine Indians are sick and the rest, who are more than sixty,
were of the other caste.”

Curiously, although these fevers resemble those described by Porras and Desplanques in
1769 or Carbajal in 1797, few treatments are repeated. Only chamomile, borage, mallow,
and teasel appear on both lists.
L.H.F.

BOSON BOOKS -84-

 The War Against Epidemics

“Simple and Easy Instructions for Curing the Fevers that Currently exist in
Amatitlan”

The fevers that exist currently in Amatitlan as per the information given to the
Protomedico [by Doctor] Don Pablo Aguilar are of the nerves that normally end after eleven
days and it is not uncommon that they persist for even up to twenty one [days]. This
illnesses requires different remedies according to the state and circumstances of the
symptoms.

In the first days of the attack one gives Eryngo [Eryngium carlinae ] water to all
patients. Use the enema #1 if it's possible in the morning and in the afternoon, continuing
it daily.45 Also I prescribe morning, afternoon and afternoon the drink #2, advising that in
the first days of the fever messages of oil are also very useful.

If the fever was at the beginning very strong, with much heat, restless thirst -and
particularly if the patient is young-, one should begin to use #3 and add to each enema three
or four spoons of local vinegar. This procedure ought to continue form the first to the
seventh day when the fever could terminate without [the need for] any other remedies.

But at times it lasted longer as I have said and needs other help. The symptoms that
might follow after this first stage are a continual weakening. It is necessary to survive the
fury of the illness to continuing on the road of affliction to reach a happy conclusion.

If perhaps after the fifth day, or before, the symptoms of weakness are urgent [then] one
should give the patient the emetic #4 in order to empty the stomach. It will arouse
perspiration and allow other remedies to work better. One should repeat it for two or three
days to the extent that it eases [the suffering] of the patient.

After the days of emetics one should follow with recipe #5 or #6 giving the patient one
spoon each two hours dissolved in lemonade or in cinnamon water, adding to it one or two
spoons of wine if the weakness and prostration of forces was very notable. And if other
symptoms of bad disposition appear such as lethargy, delirium, convulsive movements,
convulsion, hiccups, etc.

45For the ingredients of these prescriptions see below.

BOSON BOOKS -85-

 The War Against Epidemics

In all these stages of more or less gravity one must always [be ready to] modify the
indicated tonic procedure, changing the dosage, to better moderate the symptoms.

Always prepare the remedy each two or three hours, but if they are very ill at this time it
would be very valuable for the patient to drink each hour with all food civet water made from
grinding 50 or 60 seeds [of the algalia plant, a member of the mallow family] and boiling
them in a jar of water. Also mix in little pieces of mustard, yeast and vinegar; and it would
be most effective to add quinine or powdered copal. On the arms on the calf of the legs and
on the thigh one can also apply it as plasters placing them on the same place until the skin
becomes blood-red.

Applying this method with prudence one can achieve the very best treatment. There is
no need to indicate other remedies in order not to cause confusion. The diet ought to be
broth’s and atole. In convalescence one adds chocolate and soup, passing progressively to
more solid foods.

#1. With a large handful of mallows or of teasel one makes a cooked portion and adds a
little lard and brown sugar. In the most urgent cases one can omit the cooking and just use
water, lard and brown sugar.

#2. Cook the root of the Eryngo (two fourths of a measure), cream of tartar (two
spoonfuls), sugar or honey (whatever is available). All of this portion is taken by the patient
in 24 hours.

#3. Cook a good handful of barley in two fourths of a measure of water, strain it and add a
good spoonful of saltpeter, two others of good vinegar and the necessary sugar. All this
portion, divided into three or four parts, will be drunk by the patient within 24 hours.

#4. [Mix] two spoonfuls of emetic wine mixed with twelve of water and give to the patient
three [spoonfuls] each quarter hour until the vomit is sufficiently strong or if [the patient]
gives off gas; and with this one should not use enemas.

#5. Quinine powder four spoonfuls, absinthe salts [wormwood] half spoonful, honey of
sugar or of bees in sufficient quantity in order to be able to swallow the potion.

BOSON BOOKS -86-

 The War Against Epidemics

#6. Quinine powder four spoonfuls, cinnamon and civet powder one spoonful, good rum
two spoonfuls, sufficient sugar or honey to swallow the potion.

New Guatemala, November 12, 1814

Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo died in 1819. Independence was declared on the 15th of
September 1821 and the Kingdom of Guatemala dissolved into five independent republics.
How important was the heritage of the Protomedicos to the subsequent medical
development of Guatemala?

Henry Dunn, a foreigner who visited Guatemala in 1827 and 1828, offered these
observations:

A fine bust of Jenner adorns one of the principal fountains, and serves to keep in
remembrance the valuable discovery of which he was the author. Since the Revolution, the
propriety of providing a supply of virgin matter has been brought before Congress, and, like
every thing else, been discussed, agreed to, and neglected. Before I left Guatemala [sic] I
delivered to each of their medical men portions of matter, from the National Vaccine
Institution of England hermetically sealed, and accompanied them with exact directions as to
the best way of preserving a constant supply; but such is their ignorance and carelessness,
that it is highly probable the greater part of it will be wasted (Dunn 1828:153).

In this manner, in the opinion of one observer, the colonial war against epidemics (too
visibly the property of the previous government) ended in a surrender to the forces of
disease.46 Sic transit Gloria mundi.

L.H.F.

46Forthe names of prominent Guatemalan doctors and their subsequent attempts to restore the colonial
medical administrative practices, see Martínez Durán 1964:564-687).

BOSON BOOKS -87-

 The War Against Epidemics

SOURCES

Four archives provided documents for this study. Most important were the Archivo General
de Centro America (Guatemala City, Guatemala) and the Archivo General de Indias (Seville
Spain). Of lesser importance, two Archivo General de La Nacion, one in Mexico City and
the other in Tegucigalpa Honduras provided minor references. Two twentieth century
republications of colonial works containing description of medicinal plants are Fuentes y
Guzman (1932-33) and Ximenez (1967). Less well known is the manuscript of José Mario
Mozino (Flora de Guatemala, 1795), still preserved in the archive of the Jardin Botanico of
Madrid. Among the twentieth century compilations, reader will note the many references to
Asturias (1958), Lanning (1985), Martinez Duran (1964), Orellana (1987), and Smith
(1974). Their research made this volume far easier to complete.

For the reader interested in demographic details of decline, and growth, in the populations
affected by the colonial epidemics, there are Lovell (1985) for northern Totonicapan, Veblen
(1982) for southern Totonicapan, Lutz (1982) for Antigua, Feldman (1985b) for
Chiquimula and eastern Escuintla, Feldman (1988) for northern Verapaz, and Bertrand
(1986) for southern Verapaz. Somewhat outdated but still covering the most territory, is
MacLeod (1973). For tabulations of sixteenth century colonial demographic data for all of
highland Guatemala see Feldman (1992).

The following documents, some published in the colonial era, are essays written in Central
America on how to treat various diseases. They form a unique corpus of data that for the
most part still awaits publication (or republication) for modern students of earlier
practices.47

1769. Avalas y Porras, Manuel and Francisco Desplanquez. Descripcion Metodo, Que se
ha de Observar en la Curacion de Sarampion, y Viruelas, formado de Orden del Superior
Govierno, a instancia del Sr. Fiscal de S. M. en el año presente de 1769. 3 de Mayo 1769.
Printed by Joachin de Arevalo. AGCA A1.4.10-A1.7-5909-271-fol. 9.

1774. Avalas y Porras, Manuel. Breve Metodo de Curar la Enfermedad Epidemia ... Que
el Vulgo llama Tabardillo... AGCA A1.7-5919-271.

47Underlined citations have been used and translated in this volume.

BOSON BOOKS -88-

 The War Against Epidemics

1774. Carriola, Alonso. Dictamen ... dió el Licdo ... sobre la actual Constitucion Epidemia
de Calenturas Petechiales o Tabardillas. AGCA A1.7-5919-271.

1786. Anonymous [Flores, José Felipe?]. Metódo para la Curacion y Preservación de la

epidemia de la Viruela, Guatemala. 23 de Febrero 1786. AGN-Honduras. Caja 69-2327.

1794. Flores, José Felipe. Instrucción sobre el Modo de Practicar la Inoculacion de la

Viruelas y Método para cuiar esta enfermedad, acomodado a la Naturalez, y modo de viva de
los Indios, del Reyno de Guatemala. Printed en la Oficina de Don Ignacio Beteta.
[Spanish text printed in Asturias 1958].

1805. [Cordoba, José Antonio]. Reglamento para la Propagación y Estabilidad de la

Vacuna en el Reyno de Guatemala. Prepared, upon the order of His Majesty, by the
Governing Authorities of this kingdom. New Guatemala. Published by D. Ignacio Beteta.
AGI Indiferente General 1558A.

1814. Anonymous [Esparragosa, Narciso ?]. Instruccion que da la Junta de Salvo Publica
de Esta Ciudad [de Nueva Guatemala] para la Curacion de los Tos Epidemia de los Ninos.
A1.2-11817-1805:fol. 51-52r.

1814. Esparragosa, Narciso. Instruccion sencilla y facil de practicar para la curacion de las
calenturas que se padecen actualmente en Amatitlan. Nueva Guatemala, November 12,
1814. AGCA A1.21-11903-1809.

1815. Esparragosa, Narciso. Método sencillo y facil para el conocimiento y la curación de

las Viruelas... 14 Febrero 1815. Copy made of original and arrived in Tegucigalpa 12 de
Februaro 1816. 13 folios. AGN-Honduras.

BOSON BOOKS -89-

 The War Against Epidemics

REFERENCES CITED

Aguirre, Francisco Xavier

1797a. 8 de Marzo. Testimonio del expediente sobre releva de tributos
que solicita el Alcalde Mayor de Totonicapan a favor del pueblo de
Concepcion por los muchos Yndios que han muerto de la epidemia
de Tabardillos. Written in Huehuetenango. AGI Guatemala 832.

1797b. 10 de Octubre. El Alcalde Mayor de Totonicapan da Cuenta a

V.V.S.S. con este expediente instruido a solicitud de los Yndios
Alcaldes del Pueblo de Concepcion Jacaltenango.
Written in Totonicapan. AGI Guatemala 832.

Alonso, Martin
1958. Enciclopedia del Idiom. Aguilar; Madrid.

Anonymous

1631. Nicaragua. Informacion contra Ana Dávalos, por usar polvos y

hierbas para supersticiones. AGN-Mexico Inquisicion 372:15:12 fojas.

1721. Tasaciones del pueblo de Tacuilula. AGCA A3.16-2326-34335.

1735. Padron del pueblo de Tacuilula. AGI Guatemala 338.

1750. Totonicapan. Contra Andrés As, Diego Vásquez Soch, Francisco As

y Nicolás, por haber desenterrado restos humanos, con fines de
ejercer actos de brujería. AGCA A1.15-26762-2896.

1751. Tasaciones del pueblo de Tacuilula. AGCA A3.16-2833-41190.

1778. Partido de Verapaz, Estado que de Muestra el Numero de Pueblos.

AGCA A3.29-1749-28130-folio 148.

1786. 23 de Febrero. [Flores, José Felipe?]. Metódo para la Curacion y

Preservación de la epidemia de la Viruela, Guatemala.

BOSON BOOKS -90-

 The War Against Epidemics

AGN-Honduras. Caja 69-2327.

1787a. Informé sobre la enfermedad epidemica llamada La Bola... 15 Enero. AGI

Guatemala 475.

1787b. Informa sobre la continuacion de la enfermedad nombrada La Bola... 15

Febrero. AGI Guatemala 475.

1788. Testimonio sobre la epidemia de las Viruelas del año de 1780. AGI
Guatemala 574.

1798. Libro de asiento de las partidas de tributos recaudados en el

pueblo de Asuncion Mita, corregimiento de Chiquimula, desde
1765 hasta 1806. AGCA A3.5-352-7320.

1814. [Dr. Narciso Esparragosa ?] Instruccion que da la Junta

de Salud Publica de esta Ciudad para la Curacion de
los Tos Epidemia de los Ninos. AGCA a1.2-11817-folios 51 to 51r.

1821. Libro de asiento de las partidas de tributos recaudados en el

pueblo de San Pedro Zacapa, corregimiento de Chiquimula, desde
1781 hasta 1821. AGCA A3.16-26545-1615.

1823. Libro de asiento de las partidas de tributos recaudados en el

pueblo de San Juan Camotan, corregimiento de Chiquimula, desde
1724 hasta 1821. AGCA A3.1l6-17528-940.

1935. Isagoge Histórica apologética de las Indias Occidentales y especial de la

provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala de la Order de
Predicadores. ca. 1710. Biblioteca "Goathemala"; Guatemala.

Aparicis, Pedro
1798. 21 de Noviembre. El Director Contador General del departamento
septentrional nforma con vista de la carta del Presidente de Guatemala de 5
de Abril de presente año, no 201, y del testimonio que la acompaño del
expediente acuado sobre rebaxa del numero de tributarios del pueblo de la

BOSON BOOKS -91-

 The War Against Epidemics

Concepcion de Jacaltenango por el estrago que cauio en el una epidemia de

Tabardillos. Written in Madrid. AGI Guatemala 832.

Armas, Daniel
1971. Diccionario de la expresión popular Guatemalteca.
Editorial Piedra Santa; Guatemala.

Asturias, Francisco
1958. Historia de la medicina en Guatemala. Universidad de San Carlos.
Editorial Universitaria Publicaciones; Guatemala C.A.

Avalos y Porras, Dr. Manuel

1774. Breve Metodo de Curar la Enfermedad Epidemia ...
Que el Vulgo llama Tabardillo.... AGCA A1.7-5919-271.

Avalos y Porras, Manuel and Francisco Desplanques

1769. 3 de Mayo. Metodo que se ha de Observar en la Curacion de
Sarampion y Viruelas, formado de Orden del Superior Gobierno,
a instancia de Sr. Fiscal de S. M. en el año presente de 1769.
Printed by Joachin de Arevalo. AGCA A1.4.10-A1.7-5909-271-fol. 9.

Azeituno, Bachiller Francisco

1759. 23 de Octobre. Testimonio de la Certificacion del Medico ...
de] Alonso de Arco y Moreno Presidente ... y Capitan General
de este Reyno en razon de las enfermedades que he padecido...
AGI Guatemala 239.

Bertrand, Michel
1986. Demografía de la región de Rabinal del siglo XVII al XIX.
Mesoamérica 11:3-22.

Blázquez Miguel, Juan

1984. La Inquisicion. Ediciones Penthalón; Madrid.

Camposeco y Lorenzana, Joséf

BOSON BOOKS -92-

 The War Against Epidemics

1795a. 3 de Octubre. Carta del Padre Fr. de Nuestra Senora de la

Purificacion Jacaltenango a Presidente de Audiencia. 1795.
Writen in Jacaltenango. AGI Guatemala 648.

1795b. 12 de Octubre. Carta del Padre Fr. de Nuestra Senora de la

Purificacion Jacaltenango a Presidente de Audiencia. 1795.
Writen in Jacaltenango. AGI Guatemala 648.

Carbajal, Toribio Joséf

1797a. 12 de Noviembre. Carta de El Facultatibo que paso al Pueblo de

San Francisco Jumay a Protomedico Joséf Cordoba.
Written in Jumaytepeque. AGCA A1.49-377-7782.

1797b. 25 de Noviembre. Carta de El Facultatibo que paso al Pueblo de

San Francisco Jumay a Protomedico Joséf Cordoba.
Written in Nueva Guatemala. AGCA A1.49-377-7782.

Carriola, Alonso.

1774. Dictamen ... dió el Licdo ... sobre la actual Constitucion Epidemia
de Calenturas Petechiales o Tabardillas. AGCA A1.7-5919-271.

Chamorro, Francisco Sebastian

1795a. 19 de Agosto. Carta del Alcalde Mayor de Totonicapan a

Presidente de Audiencia. Writen in Santa Ana Guista.
AGI Guatemala 648.

1795b. 29 de Agosto. Carta del Alcalde Mayor de Totonicapan a

Presidente de Audiencia. AGI Guatemala 648.

1795c. 19 de Octubre. Estado de los Parbulos que sufrieron el contagio

de Viruelas en cinco Pueblos, tres del Curato de Soloma, y dos
del de Jacaltenango en la Provincia de Totonicapan, en su parte
mas Septentrional, y frontera a la Provincia de Chiapa de donde

BOSON BOOKS -93-

 The War Against Epidemics

ha venido la peste este año de 1795. AGI Guatemala 648.

1795d. 26 de Octubre. Carta del Alcalde Mayor de Totonicapan a

Presidente de Audiencia. Written in Totonicapan.
AGI Guatemala 648.

1795e. 28 de Noviembre. Carta del Alcalde Mayor de Totonicapan a

Presidente de Audiencia. Written in Totonicapan.
AGI Guatemala 478.

1798. 3 de Febrero. Metodo en que practico la Inoculacion de viruelas

en la Pueblo de las ferosas Indios Mames y Pocomames situados
cerca de la Montanas de los Indios Bravos Lacandones en esta
Governacion de Guatemala. Written in New Guatemala.
AGI Guatemala 648.

Córdoba, José Antonio

1797. 27 de Noviembre. Carta del Protomedico a Presidente de

Audiencia. AGCA A1.49-377-7782.

1803. La Lepra. [text in Asturias 1958]

1805. Reglamento para la Propagacion y Estabilidad de la Vacuna en el

Reyno de Guatemala. Prepared, upon the order of His Majesty, by
the Governing Authorities of this kingdom. New Guatemala.
Published by D. Ignacio Beteta. [Based on a draft prepared by
Dr. Jose Antono Córdoba]. AGI Indiferente General 1558A.

Corominas, J.
1954. Diccionario Etimologico de la Lengua Castellana.
Editorial Gredos; Madrid.

Domas y Valle, José

1795. 1 de Octubre. Carta de Capitan General de Guatemala

BOSON BOOKS -94-

 The War Against Epidemics

a Eugenio Llaguira Amirola. AGI Guatemala 478.

1796a. 2 de Marzo. Carta de Capitan General de Guatemala.

AGI Guatemala 478.

1796b. 30 de Noviembre. Carta de Capitan General de Guatemala.

AGI Guatemala 648.

Dunn, Henry

1828. Guatimala. New York; G. and C. Carvill.

Esparragosa, Narciso

1798. Memoría sobre una invención fácil y sencilla para extraer las
criaturas clavadas en el paso sin riesgo de su vida, ni ofensa de
la madre, y para extraer la cabeza que ha quedado en el útero
separada del cuerpo. Guatemala City, Guatemala.
2nd edition Barcelona Spain, 1816.

1808. Providencia para contener la peste de fiebres que azota los

pueblos de San Agustin Acasaguastlan y Magdalena, del partido
de Zacapa. Tiene una lista de los enfermos y sus sintomas y de
de los fallecidos. AGCA A1.4.9-3636-177.

1814. 12 de Noviembre. Ynstruccion Sencilla y facil de practicar para

la curacion de las Calenturas que se padecen actualmente en
Amatitlan. In Providencia del Superior Gobierno sobre la epidemia de
Tabardillo de este Pueblo. AGCA A1.21-11903-1809-folios 2r a 5.

1815. Método Sencillo y Facil para el Conocimiento y la Curación

de las Viruelas. Printed on 14 Febrero 1815.
Handwritten copy of original arrived in Tegucigalpa,
12 de Febrero 1816. AGN-Honduras Caja 117.

Feldman, Lawrence H.

BOSON BOOKS -95-

 The War Against Epidemics

1985a. "Disasters, Natural and Otherwise, and Their Effects Upon

Population Centers in the Reino de Guatemala", pps. 49-60.
In Estudios del Reino de Guatemala, edited by Dr. Duncan Kinkead.
Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, Seville Spain.

1985b. A Tumpline Economy. Labyrinthos Press; Culver City CA.

1986. "Colonial Languages of the Gobierno of Guatemala:

A Review of the Primary Sources." Journal of Mayan Linguistics 5:2:1-15.

1988. History of the Foundation of the Town of Chamiquin by Friar

Father Francisco Aguilar, O.P. Translated with Commentary by
L. H. Feldman. Labyrinthos Press; Culver City, CA.

1992. “Indian Payment in Kind: The Sixteenth-Century Encomiendas of

Guatemala.” Labyrinthos Press, Culver City California.

1993. “Mountains of Fire, Lands that Shake: Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions
in the Historic Past of Central America (1505-1899).” Labyrinthos Press,
Culver City California.

Figueroa Marroquin, Horacio

1983. Enfermedades de los Conquistadores. Universidad de San Carlos
de Guatemala; Guatemala.

Flores, José Felipe

1782. Especifico Nuevamente descubierto en el Reino de Guatemala

para la Curación Radical del horrible mal de Cangro.
Cited in Martinez Duran (1964).

1794. Instrucción sobre el modo de praticar la inoculation de la

Viruelas y Método para curar esta enfermedad, acomodado a la
naturalez, y modo de vivir de los indios, del Reyno de Guatemala.
Printed by Ignacio Beteta; Guatemala. Cited by Smith 1974 from

BOSON BOOKS -96-

 The War Against Epidemics

copy at the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropologia e Historia

(México), fondo de Microfotografia, serie "Guatemala,"
Primera Serie #51, 17 pps.
Spanish text printed in Asturias 1958.

1796. 17 de Febrero. Testimonio del Protomedico sobre

la Certificacion Relativa en que constan los Meritos y Servicios
hechos a S. M. por Don Francisco Sebastian Chamorro,
Alcalde Mayor que fue de la Provincia de Totonicapan.
AGI Guatemala 478.

Fuentes y Guzman, Francisco Antonio

1932-1933. Recordacion Florida, Discurso Historial y Demostracion
Natural, Material, Militar y Politica del Reyno de Guatemala.
Biblioteca "Goathemala"; Guatemala C.A.

Gavarrete, Juan
1980. Anales para la Historia de Guatemala, 1497-1811.   Editorial
"José de Pineda Ibarra"; Guatemala C.A.

Gonzalez de Leon, Domingo

1795a. 2 de Octubre. Carta del Padre Cura de Soloma a

Presidente de Audiencia. Writen in San Pedro Soloma.
AGI Guatemala 648.

1795b. 12 de Octubre. Carta del Padre Cura de Soloma a

Presidente de Audiencia. Writen in San Pedro Soloma.
AGI Guatemala 648.

Herbermann et al., eds., Charles G.

1907-1912. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company; New York.

Hopkins, Donald R.
1983. Princes and Peasants, Smallpox in History. University of Chicago
Press; Chicago and London.

BOSON BOOKS -97-

 The War Against Epidemics

Jenner, Edward
1798. An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae.
London, England.

Juarros, Domingo
1981. Compendio de la Historia de Reino de Guatemala. Editorial Piedra
Santa; Guatemala C.A.

Lanning, John Tate

1955. The University in the Kingdom of Guatemala. Cornell University

Press; Ithaca, New York.

1985. The Royal Protomedicato, The Regulation of the Medical

Professions in the Spanish Empire. Duke University Press; Durham.

Lemus, Stella Marina

1945. Tamahu, 1945. Notes in the files of the Instituto Indigenista
Nacional, Guatemala C.A.

Lovell, W. George
1985. Conquest and Survival in Colonial Guatemala, A Historical
Geography of the Cuchumatán Highlands, 1500-1821.
McGill-Queen's University Press; Kingston and Montreal.

Lutz, Christopher H.
1982. Historia Sociodemográfica de Santiago de Guatemala, 1541-
1773. Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica;
Antigua Guatemala and South Woodstock Vermont.

MacLeod, Murdo J.
1973. Spanish Central America, A Socioeconomic History, 1520-1720.
University of California Press; Berkeley, Los Angeles, London.

Martinez Duran, Carlos

BOSON BOOKS -98-

 The War Against Epidemics

1964. Las ciencias medicas en Guatemala, origen y evolucion.

Guatemala; Editorial Universitaria.

Mauda, Marino and José Abaria Martinez de Cevallos

1814. 10 de Noviembre. Carta de Cura Interino y Alcalde Mayor de
Amatitanes y Sacatepequez. Written in San Juan Amatitlan.
AGCA A1.21-11903-1809-folios 5 a 5r.

Molina, Alonso
1944. Vocabulario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana, impreso en Méjico,
1571. Madrid; Ediciones Cultura Hispanica.

Molina, Antonio
1943. Antigua Guatemala: memorias de Fray Antonio de Molina.
Guatemala; Unión Tipográfica.

Orellana, Sandra L.
1987. Indian Medicine in Highland Guatemala, The Pre-Hispanic and
Colonial Periods. Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press.

Pardo, J. Joaquin
1984. Efemerides de la Antigua Guatemala, 1541 - 1779.
Archivo General de Centroamérica; Guatemala C.A.

Peña, José Antonio

1808. Abril. Informe rendido por las autoridades de Zacapa, acerca
de las medidas para evitar la propagacion de la peste que ha
invadido el pueblo de Santa Maria Magdalena. AGCA A1-4934-180.

Ramirez, Francisco and Ignacio Guerra

1797. 28 de Noviembre. Factura de Medicinas para el Pueblo de
San Francisco Jumay, despachados de Orden del M. y Senor
Presidente, y bajo la direccion del Doctor Don Joséf Antonio
de Córdoba Protomedicato de este Reino. AGCA A1.49-377-7782.

Recinos, Adrián and Delia Goetz, translators

BOSON BOOKS -99-

 The War Against Epidemics

1953. The Annals of the Cakchiquels. University of Oklahoma Press; Norman.

Sahagun, Fr. Bernardino de
1955. The Florentine Codex, History of the Things of New Spain.
Charles Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson, translators.
Book 12, The Conquest of Mexico. University of Utah Press;
Salt Lake City.

Sherman, William L.
1979. Forced Native Labor in Sixteenth-Century Central America.
University of Nebraska Press; Lincoln and London.

Smith, Michael
1974. The "Real Expedición Marítima de la Vacuna" in New Spain and
Guatemala. American Philosophical Society, Transactions
64:1:1- 74. Philadelphia; Pennsylvania.

Solivera, Francisco

1797. 30 de Diziembre. Razon de los Hijos que han Muerto en la Peste

del Pueblo de San Francisco Jumaytepeque. AGCA Al-177-7782.

1798. 8 de Enero. Carta de Francisco Solivera a Presidente

de Audiencia. Written in Nueva Guatemala. AGCA Al-177-7782.

Solivera, Francisco and Joséf Bonilla

1797. Diziembre. Cuenta de los Gastos hechos de Orden del M.
y Señor Presidente para los Alimentos de los hijos enfermos de
este Pueblo San Francisco Jumantepeque... AGCA Al-177-7782.

Solivera, Francisco, Joséf Bonilla and Ylario Peres

1797. 23 de Noviembre. Carta del Juez Preventibo, Alcaldes
y Regidores de Jumay. AGCA Al-177-7782.

Veblen, Thomas T.
1982. Declinación de la población indígena en Totonicapán, Guatemala.
Mesoamérica 3:26-66.

BOSON BOOKS -100-

 The War Against Epidemics

Viana F., L. Gallegos, and G. Cadena

1955. "Relación de la Provincia de la Verapaz hecha por los religiosos
de Santo Domingo de Cobán, 1574." Sociedad Geografia e
Historia, Añales 28:18-31.

Ximenez, Fray Francisco

1930. Historia de la Provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala.

Biblioteca "Goathemala"; Guatemala C.A.

1967. Historia Natural del Reino de Guatemala (1772).

Guatemala; Editorial José Pineda Ibarra.

Wading, Tomás
1798. Verapaz 1791 y 1797. Mapas de Tributarios deducidos del
Matricula executada por José Ignacio Larrazabal, de Octubre de
1796 a Noviembre de 1797. AGCA A3.16-240-4761.

Wortman, Miles L.
1982. Government and Society in Central America, 1680-1840.
Columbia University Press; New York.

BOSON BOOKS -101-

 The War Against Epidemics

INDEX

absinthe salts used as medicine, 41, 86

Acatan, San Sebastian and San Miguel: spread of smallpox to, 48
afterbirth of a woman from pharmacies, 28
Aguirre, Francisco Xavier: actions in halting outbreaks of Typhus, 38
algalia use as medicine, 86
algebra. See bone setting
ammonia salts used as medicine, 41
angel of death, San Pascual Bailon identified with, 23
Antigua Guatemala
arrival of vaccination to, 58
sources of demographic information on colonial, 88
Archivo General de Centro America (Guatemala City)
as source of data for this volume, 88
Archivo General de Indias (Seville Spain)
as source of data for this volume, 88
Archivo General de La Nacion (Mexico City, Mexico)
as source of data for this volume, 88

Balmis, Francisco Xavier: vaccination expedition of, 56

barley use in medicine, 31, 36, 86
Bethlem hospital, 21
bladder, illness of, 13
bleeding
need for, 31
use of, 34
blindness in Escuintla province, 14
bloodletting, 22
bodies eaten by animals, 13
bone setting, 22
borage use in medicine, 28, 31, 36, 41
breast pain, cure of, 33

Cakchiquel use of term Cucumatz, 24

camphor used as medicine, 42
candles, meaning of color of, 27
Carbajal, Dr. Toribio Jose: actions in halting outbreaks of Typhus, 38
Catholic church in Central America organization, 15
centaury, medicinal uses of, 28, 36
Central Committee for Vaccination, 60-64
chamomile use in medicine, 28, 32, 41
Chamorro, Francisco Sebastian:
financial losses and charity in fighting smallpox epidemic, 52
Chiapas pepper, 31
chicha, 31
children of Totonicapan, effect of 1795 inoculation upon, 53-54
Chiquimula, sources of demographic information on colonial, 88
chronic illnesses common in lowland Guatemala, 14
cinnamon use as medicine, 87
civet powder, 86, 87
Coatan, San Sebastian: spread of typhus to, 40
cocoliztli, definition of, 24

BOSON BOOKS -102-

 The War Against Epidemics

coffee as medicinal herb, 28

colonial government organization, 15
Comayagua, lack of physicians in, 65
Comitan Chiapas as a source of smallpox, 48
Concepcion in province of Totonicapan
burials in town of, 39
most corrupt town on the royal road, 40
pagan shrine close to, 40
typhus epidemic in town of, 39
constipation cure, 33
cough cure, 34
cowpox, 56
attempts to find, 78
cream of tartar, use as medicine, 41, 86
Cucumatz
Cakchiquel use of term, 24
epidemic of, 19
and San Pascual Bailon, 23
culantrillo, medicinal drinks of, 31

deer horn powder use as medicine, 33

demographic information on colonial Guatemala, sources of, 88
"destroyers of humanity", 21
diarrhea cure, 33
District of the Capital responsibility of the Central Committee, 70
Doctor N, 21
Dunn, Henry: observations on Guatemalan medicine, 87

ear pains cure, 32

egg shell use, 33
elder flowers use, 32
emetic wine use as medicine, 86
enemas use, 32
epidemic as primary cause of colonial decline in population, 14
eruptive fevers treated alike, 14
Eryngo use as medicine, 85, 86
erythrina leaves used for medicine, 31, 34
Escuintenango already had the smallpox, 51
Escuintla, sources of demographic information on colonial, 88
Esparragosa y Gallardo, Narciso:
death of, 87
whale bristle fillet for delivery of infants designed by, 46
Esquipulas earth use for medicine, 33
Estacheria, President Jose de, 35
eye pain removed with milk, 32

flor de ceniza, 33
Flores, Jose: report on vaccination project for Spanish colonies, 56

goats milk as best cure for diarrhea, 33

Golfo, vaccination in, 80
guards used to isolate infected towns, 50-51

headaches cured with bleedings, 32

BOSON BOOKS -103-

 The War Against Epidemics

highland Guatemala, sources of demographic information on, 88

hills, prayer to the, 49
Holy Burial of Lord Christ procession, 26-27
horsemen of the apocalypse in colonial Guatemala, 14
Hospital of San Pedro, 72
hospitals
in Guatemala, 21
when there are no, 74
hueyzahuatl as name for smallpox, 14
Huista destruction in epidemic of the year eighty, 51
Huista, San Antonio
effect of smallpox epidemic of 1795 in, 53
inhabitants of Concepcion should be sent to, 41
Huista, Santa Ana
inhabitants of Concepcion should be sent to, 41
hysteria cure, 34

influenza
epidemics, 198
in colonial Guatemala, 14
inoculation, 46-47
method for, 49-50
Inquisition orders burning of images of death, 26
Iscoy, San Juan. See Ixcoy, San Juan
Ixcoy, San Juan
rioting against inoculation in, 50
spread of smallpox to, 48
Ixtatan, San Mateo
effect of smallpox epidemic of 1795 in, 53
introduction of smallpox to, 48

Jacaltenango
spread of smallpox to, 48
Jacaltenango, Purificacion
effect of smallpox epidemic of 1795 in, 54
Jacaltenango, San Marcos
spread of typhus to, 40
Jumaytepeque
attack of typhus in, 41-44
food for sick children in, 43
number of deaths from typhus in, 43

The Knife, hamlet of, 51

La Bola, 35-37
epidemic of, 20
laudanum used as medicine, 41
Leon, lack of physicians in, 65
leprosy, 14
paper of Jose Felipe de Flores on, 45-46
lizard excrement from pharmacies, 28

malaria
epidemics of, 19

BOSON BOOKS -104-

 The War Against Epidemics

in seventeenth and eighteenth century Guatemala, 14

mallow
leaves poultice, 32
use as medicine, 86
masdebal, opiate of, 42
measles
in colonial Guatemala, 14
description of, 29
epidemics of, 16
requires special diet, 30
symptoms of, 29-30
medical degrees in colonial Guatemala, 22
mercury use in curing worms, 33-34
mint as medicinal herb, 28
morbillosas fevers, 29
Moreau de la Sarthe treatise, 63, 75
mumps, 14
epidemic of, 19
mustard use as medicine, 86

nettle as medicinal herb, 28

nitric acid used as medicine, 41
nosebleeds, 13

Olintepeque, effigies of El Rey San Pascual at, 27

Omoa
deaths in port of, 36
vaccination in, 80
Opuntia cactus leaves use, 32

pagan shrine close to town of Concepcion, 40

Pantomina, 35
parrot herb use, 32
Pavon y Munoz, Ignacio
sent vaccine virus from Veracruz to Guatemala, 56
peacock and gander dung from pharmacies, 28
pearly shells use, 33
Petatan, inhabitants of Concepcion should be sent to, 41
Peten, vaccination in, 80
phlebotomy. See bloodletting
Pipil use of term cocoliztli, 24
plantain leaves use in medicine, 33
plasters use as medicine, 86
poppy medicinal drinks, 31
pot used to collect urine, 41-42
protomedico. See Royal Protomedicato
protomedicos in Guatemala, 45-46
value of efforts, 87

quinine used as medicine, 42, 86, 87

rabies experiments, 78
rose as medicinal herb, 28, 33
Royal Protomedicato, 22

BOSON BOOKS -105-

 The War Against Epidemics

rue as medicinal herb, 28, 34

saltpeter used as medicine, 41, 86

San Alejo hospital, 21
San Antonio Aguacaliente, vision of citizen of, 25
San Carlos fort, vaccination in, 80
San Cristobal [Ciudad Real] Chiapas
lack of physicians in, 65
presence of la bola in, 36
San Jose hospital, 21
San Juan de Dios hospital, 21
San Lazaro hospital, 21
San Martin
inhabitants of Concepcion should be sent to, 41
spread of typhus to, 40
San Pascual Bailon, identified with angel of death, 23
San Pedro hospital, 21
Santa Eulalia
effect of smallpox epidemic of 1795 in, 53
introduction of inoculation at, 48
sarampionosa, 29
sarampionsa, symptoms of, 30
smallpox
epidemic of 1519-1521, 13
epidemic of the early 1780's, 45
epidemics of, 16-17
in colonial Guatemala, 14
symptoms of, 30
soap, use of dark, 32
Soloma, San Pedro: effect of smallpox epidemic of 1795 in, 53
spider webs from pharmacies, 28
stomach pain cure, 33
suchil, 31
sulfur used as medicine, 41
sulfuric acid used as medicine of, 42
surgeons in colonial Guatemala, 22
syphilis, 14

Tacuilula, census documents from, 14

teasel use as medicine, 32, 86
teeth, use of sulfuric acid to clean, 28
temascals
avoidance of, 31
demolition in town of Concepcion of, 39-40
totomonaliztli as term for smallpox, 14-15
Totonicapan province
effect of 1795 inoculation upon children of, 53-54
resistance to vaccination in, 58-59
sources of demographic information on colonial, 88
Trujillo [Honduras], vaccination in, 80
Tuxtla [Chiapas], presence of la bola in, 36
typhus
deaths caused by, 38
epidemics of, 18

BOSON BOOKS -106-

 The War Against Epidemics

in colonial Guatemala, 14

urine from cow from pharmacies, 28

vaccination
board of Guatemala sessions, 83
discovery of, 56
Verapaz sources of demographic information, 88
vinegar use as medicine, 85, 86
vomiting cure, 33

whale bristle fillet for delivery of infants, 46

Window of Pilate pass, 51
worms cure, 33

yellow fever epidemic, 20

Zahuatl Tepiton as term for measles, 14

END OF BOOK

© Copyright 1999 Lawrence H. Feldman

All rights reserved

BOSON BOOKS -107-