105
2022 SPECIAL ISSUE
 UDK 616.912:615.37(439.5-13)"18"
Urška Bratož
PhD, Research Associate, Science and Research Centre Koper, Institute for Historical Studies, Garibaldijeva 1, SI–6000 Koper 
Email: urska.bratoz@zrs-kp.si
Smallpox prevention in the Austrian Littoral
ABSTRACT
The article discusses vaccination as the key smallpox prophylaxis, used in the Habsburg provinces from the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century onward. The analysis of quantitative data for the Austrian Littoral (particularly 
Koper and Trieste) also points to the scope and frequency of smallpox epidemics in the second half of the nineteenth 
century, which raises questions concerning the extent to which these prophylactic measures were implemented and the 
population’s willingness to heed the calls for immunization. By creating a regulatory framework, the state sought to 
attain the maximum possible prevalence of this practice, which nevertheless remained the target of various prejudices 
for a long time to come. The authorities, the Church, and scientists therefore sought to heighten the popular aware-
ness on the need for immunization through a range of communication channels. Because cowpox vaccination failed 
to ensure lasting immunity, revaccination was of crucial importance, but its implementation was even more limited.
KEY WORDS
smallpox, vaccination, Habsburg Monarchy, Austrian Littoral, Koper, Trieste, nineteenth century
IZVLEČEK
PREPREČEVANJE ČRNIH KOZ V AVSTRIJSKEM PRIMORJU
Članek obravnava vakcinacijo kot ključno profilakso pri črnih kozah, ki je bila tudi v habsburških deželah v 
uporabi od začetka 19. stoletja. Analiza kvantitativnih podatkov za območje Avstrijskega primorja (zlasti Koper in 
Trst) nakazuje na obsežnost in pogostost epidemij črnih koz tudi v drugi polovici 19. stoletja, kar odpira vprašanja 
o obsegu izvajanja teh profilaktičnih ukrepov, na drugi pa tudi o odzivnosti prebivalstva na pozive k cepljenju. 
Država je z regulativi skušala doseči čim večjo razširjenost te prakse, vendar pa so jo še dolgo po njeni uvedbi spre-
mljali različni predsodki. S pozivi preko različnih komunikacijskih kanalov so zato oblasti, Cerkev in znanost skušali 
ozavestiti prebivalstvo o potrebnosti cepljenja. Ključnega pomena je bila tudi revakcinacija, saj cepljenje z govejimi 
kozami ni zagotavljalo trajne imunosti, vendar pa je bilo njeno izvajanje še bolj omejeno.
KLJUČNE BESEDE
črne koze, vakcinacija, habsburška monarhija, Avstrijsko primorje, Koper, Trst, 19. stoletje
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URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–118 2022
Introduction
Also in the past, one of the most important 
questions concerning contagious diseases was how 
to prevent them. Some types of bacterial infections 
(especially cholera, but also dysentery, typhoid fe-
ver, etc.) required different measures, starting with 
hygienization, which became a widespread and or-
ganized practice in the nineteenth century, and so-
cial mechanisms to mitigate the consequences of 
epidemics among socially disadvantaged (and more 
disease-prone) groups of population. However, in the 
case of smallpox,1 the nearly universal and systemic 
form of prophylaxis was immunization. Variolation 
and later vaccination, applied to confer immunity to 
smallpox, also marked the beginning of the history of 
vaccination, when “practical medicine outperformed 
theoretical achievements”2 for no less than a century, 
until the discovery of viruses, which paved the way 
to the development of immunology. Owing to its 
universal prevalence that posed an especially serious 
health threat to children, in the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuries smallpox received major medical at-
tention to prevent infection.
The paper3 aims to present some data on vaccina-
tion in the nineteenth century as well as certain so-
cial discourses that accompanied this practice within 
the context of concern for the wellbeing of the popu-
lation. Using fragments of quantitative data (on the 
examples of Trieste as the key focus of the epidemic 
and the severely affected nearby Koper), the article 
also seeks to determine the incidence of variola on 
the one hand and the effectiveness of vaccination on 
the other.
Variola epidemics in the second half of the 
nineteenth century
The long-lasting presence of variola in the Euro-
pean area was one of the main reasons that smallpox4 
1 Smallpox (variola) is a contagious viral disease that can be 
passed from one person to another especially through cough-
ing or sneezing, and by direct contact with body fluids or 
personal items of an infected person. The first symptoms in-
clude high fever, fatigue, malaise, vomiting, etc., after which 
the infected person develops red rash or blisters. It usually 
starts on the face, upper arms, and legs (as well as mucous 
membranes), and then spreads all over the body. The patient 
is the most contagious at this time. After a few days, the fever 
subsides, and the rash turns into papules and vesicles with 
a red ring formed around the edge. Initially, the lesions are 
filled with translucent liquid, which turns into pus, and af-
ter a few days form scabs that dry and fall off, leaving deep 
pockmarks on the skin. The patient’s general condition slowly 
improves; however, if that is not the case, the disease can also 
lead to death (cf., e.g., Travner, Kuga na Slovenskem, p. 10; 
Kiple, The Cambridge world history, pp. 1008–1012).
2 Borisov, Zgodovina medicine, p. 602.
3 The research was partially funded from the ARRS project 
J6-1800 and program P6-0272.
4 In the first half of the century, F. V. Lipič, physician in Ljub-
gradually became inscribed into the collective con-
sciousness and fear, and indirectly also into a broader 
discourse on the protection of children’s health,5 in-
cluding as part of the growth-oriented population 
policy. Smallpox often accompanied other epidemics, 
e.g., cholera (in 18736 and 1886,7 for example) and 
influenza—or the ‘Spanish flu’—in 1918,8 whereas in 
certain periods it also occurred sporadically.
A major smallpox epidemic that was triggered 
by the Franco-Prussian War in the 1870s9 severely 
affected the Austrian Littoral, especially Trieste. 
Soon after it reached Austria, the epidemic turned 
the city into the second largest focus of contagion 
(with a death toll of 72.2 persons10 per ten thousand 
inhabitants and 18.3 in Istria). A year later, it peaked 
in Gorizia-Gradisca (7.6) and in 1874 in Carniola 
(51.1) and several other provinces.11 As shall be seen 
below, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, 
variola hit Trieste in several intermittent epidemic 
waves.
One of the most detailed collections of health 
statistics available on the occurrence of the disease 
in Trieste12 builds solely on the number of small-
pox patients who sought help in the city hospital 
(either because they suffered from a severe form of 
the disease or because, mostly coming from the city’s 
poorer quarters, they had no other shelter), without 
providing an overall picture of its incidence among 
the population. Although reporting smallpox as a 
contagious disease (in addition to scarlet fever, diph-
theria, any type of typhus, cholera, dysentery, mea-
sles, and whooping cough) was mandatory under the 
ljana, pointed to the widespread use of a single term for cow-
pox and a disease erroneously identified as human pox (which 
was, in fact, varicella or chickenpox) (Lipič, Topografija, p. 
209). Conversely, A. De Manussi from the Trieste hospital 
tentatively typified smallpox into “vaioloidi” (a mild form 
of smallpox), “vaiolo vero” (ordinary smallpox with well-de-
veloped pustules and “pustule fever”), “vaiolo confluente” 
(confluent rash and coalescing pustules), “vaiolo emorragico” 
(hemorrhaging within petechiae), and “purpura vaiolosa” (no 
papules or pustules but an extremely high occurrence of pete-
chiae on the skin or mucous membranes, with severe hemor-
rhaging in various organs), without including varicella in his 
statistical data (De Manussi, Cenni, pp. 14–15).
5 On this, see Bratož, Bolni otroci, pp. 438–449.
6 In 1873, 620 persons contracted cholera and 351 died of it 
in Trieste (Bratož, Bledolična vsiljivka, p. 309). Because that 
same year recorded a remarkably low number of ten small-
pox cases compared to the staggering figures (between three 
hundred and nine hundred) two years before and after that, 
it seems reasonable to assume that a certain percentage of 
people infected with smallpox was attributed to cholera as 
both infections perhaps coincided or the data were collected 
with less consistency.
7 Cholera killed 560 of nine hundred infected citizens in Tri-
este (Bratož, Bledolična vsiljivka, p. 309).
8 See Bratož, Vojna, lakota, p. 27.
9 Kramar, Epidemije, p. 110.
10 Not even second to Vienna with 52.7 deaths per ten thou-
sand inhabitants.
11 Prinzing, Epidemics, p. 275.
12 De Manussi, Cenni.
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URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–1182022
law of 1870,13 the actual number of infected persons 
remains open to debate. However, based on the nu-
merical data available, several waves of smallpox can 
be detected in the last quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury alone. The Trieste hospital recorded the highest 
number of infections (1,973) in 1872,14 after which 
the disease continued to occur in minor outbreaks 
until 1880. The number of infections increased again 
in 1884 (867), and the end of the epidemic waves 
may be said to have arrived no sooner than four years 
later. Apart from smallpox, the city was also visited 
by cholera (which may have contributed to a less 
diligent recording of infections). Smallpox outbreaks 
peaked again in 1893 (597) in what developed into 
a two-year epidemic. According to these data, the 
mortality rate varied between 17% and almost 30%.15
The Koper district also experienced a major out-
break in 1872/73. The data from the city of Koper re-
veal that 314 persons contracted smallpox and forty-
four died from the disease in that period (albeit not 
stating clearly over what time interval the evidence 
was collected).16 A significant number of infected 
13 See, e.g., Bratož, Bledolična vsiljivka, p. 189.
14 Other data obtained by the deputation in Trieste provide the 
following, probably more realistic figures: between early Oc-
tober 1871 and early April 1873, the city registered 2,634 
infections resulting in 565 deaths (see Scartabellati, Visibili 
nemici, p. 534); cf. also the data brought forth by Pinguenti-
ni, Cronache, p. 40, stating no less than 4,839 infected and 
893 deceased during the epidemic by drawing on monthly 
statistical data published in the newspaper Il Cittadino. His 
evaluation is also more in line with the estimated number of 
deaths per ten thousand inhabitants, provided by Prinzing, 
Epidemics, p. 275, whereas official state statistics (see Vodopi-
vec, Črne koze, p. 92) set forth 923 smallpox-related deaths in 
1872 alone and another fifty-three the following year.
15 De Manussi, Cenni; cf. Resoconto sanitario.
16 According to the register of infected persons (SI PAK KP 7, 
t. u. 110, 1872, Elenco dei colpiti, risanati e morti dal vajuo-
were the inmates of the city penitentiary (together 
with the wards accounting to about 20%), most of 
whom successfully recovered (5.8% died). Slightly 
less than half of infected persons were peasants who 
made up the majority population in the city, with 
mortality as high as 18.7%.17
On the other hand, according to parish registers, 
smallpox occurrences in Koper caused fewer fatali-
ties in the last decades of the nineteenth century; the 
disease manifested more severely between the end of 
1884 and the first months of 1885, when it killed six 
people (including three children) in Koper, and be-
tween the end of 1887 and early 1888, when it killed 
seven (among them three children).18
Immunization through the prism of regulations 
and social discourses
During smallpox outbreaks, particular attention 
was paid to children’s health, also as part of the popu-
lation policy encouraging the development of medi-
cine19 and prophylaxis aimed at disease prevention,20 
lo), the first case of the disease already occurred in the early 
1872 and the biggest surge in infections took place in Sep-
tember, but sporadic incidences continued all until the spring 
of the following year.
17 SI PAK KP 7, t. u. 110, a. u. 2122.
18 ŠAK, register of deaths (Koper), 1875–1899.
19 This also provides an important context for the understand-
ing of the formation and development of pediatrics; see, e.g., 
Borisov, Zgodovina medicine, 342 and 255.
20 However, it seems reasonable to add that, before scientific dis-
coveries were made attributing each disease a specific agent 
and etiology, smallpox prevention attempts were like those 
used for other contagious diseases with a more pronounced 
social component (e.g., cholera, typhus, etc.), including hy-
gienization measures, especially in poor city quarters. Thus, in 
1872, there were reports also from Trieste of a high smallpox 
incidence in poor areas, where dangerously dense population 
Fig. 1: Smallpox epidemics in Trieste according to the city hospital data (source: De Manussi, Cenni).
0
500
1.000
1.500
2.000
2.500
18
71
18
72
18
73
18
74
18
75
18
76
18
77
18
78
18
79
18
80
18
81
18
82
18
83
18
84
18
85
18
86
18
87
18
88
18
89
18
90
18
91
18
92
18
93
18
94
recovered deceased
108
URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–118 2022
primarily through immunization. Whereas some 
discussions21 explicitly underlined poverty as one 
of the major factors that contributed to poor repro-
duction, they also maintained that the demographic 
growth would indirectly benefit from preventive 
health measures that prolonged life expectancy or, 
rather, reduced infant mortality, which was especially 
true for smallpox immunization. A delayed impact of 
immunization would, of course, also be ensuring the 
survival of most children up to an age (from between 
fifteen and twenty years onward) when they would 
“benefit society” or the state (workforce, the army, 
and so on).22
The first immunization (inoculation/variolation) 
procedures23 against smallpox took place as early as 
the end of the eighteenth century, with an intradermal 
introduction of the human variola virus on both upper 
arms. As an enlightened medical accomplishment,24 
immunization in a way represented the triumph of 
reason and fostered a sense of human dominion over 
nature and hence also diseases.25
Although it generated lasting immunity, variola-
tion also posed a threat of developing a severe or even 
deadly form of smallpox. Moreover, while recovering 
from the effects of variolation, inoculated persons 
could themselves become a source of infection to 
others.26 Soon after the English physician Edward 
Jenner (re)discovered and improved vaccination (ad-
ministering cow vaccine) in 1798,27 the procedure 
was gradually adopted by physicians for only causing 
a milder form of smallpox.28 However, because this 
facilitated the spread of infection, making the preparation 
of provisional space for their transfer urgently necessary 
(Pinguentini, Cronache, pp. 37 and 41; cf. Scartabellati, Visi-
bili nemici, p. 533; for Ljubljana, see Vodopivec, Črne koze, 
p. 96). That same year, the authorities in Koper, too, devoted 
particular attention to ensure the cleanliness of public sur-
faces, as well as disinfection and control over spatial hygiene 
(see SI PAK KP 7, t. u. 110, Protocolli della Commissione 
sanitaria, 1872).
21 E.g., Mascherpa, Sulla Vaccinazione, pp. 110–113.
22 Ibid., p. 103. It should be noted that smallpox not only result-
ed in the staggering death toll, but it also caused blindness or 
maimed people in some other way that rendered them inca-
pable of work.
23 In his medical practice, the physician Anton Muznik from 
Gorizia described the procedure very eloquently and wrote 
down his clinical observations regarding its execution on a 
few noble children (Muznik, Goriško podnebje). On variola-
tion in Istria, see especially Cigui, Le origini, pp. 265–295.
24 Foucault recognized smallpox vaccination as a new type of 
socio-political response to epidemics. In his opinion, small-
pox signified a state “intervention,” especially through pre-
vention, and an emphasis on safety and public health (see, 
e.g., Thacker, The Shadows).
25 Cf. Muznik, Goriško podnebje, p. 243; Schrom Dye and Smith, 
Mother Love.
26 See, e.g., Kiple, Cambridge world history, pp. 1008–1012; 
Bori sov, Zgodovina medicine, p. 245.
27 Borisov, Zgodovina medicine, pp. 403–404.
28 As outlined in the Italian Dictionary of Public Hygiene 
(1860), vaccination was initially performed by dabbing the 
vaccine into a small incision in the upper outer arm. Later, 
it became customary to make a “puncture” with a steel lancet 
method failed to provide lasting immunity, revacci-
nation was—still unbeknownst to Jenner—required 
no more than ten years later.
The practice of vaccination took hold in Slove-
nian territory in the early nineteenth century—after 
Vincenc Kern and Anton Muznik introduced it to 
Carniola and Gorizia in 180129—and at about the 
same time also probably in Istria.30 Smallpox vacci-
nation was already supported by the first Austrian 
rule,31 and the subsequent French government in-
troduced compulsory vaccination across the Illyrian 
Provinces.32 In the 1820s, during the restored sover-
eignty of the Austrian Empire, the government im-
posed vaccination with instructions,33 regulated by 
individual provincial codes.
Changes in government entailed certain modifi-
cations in regulating and implementing this preven-
tive practice. Thus, for example, the bureaucratization 
of procedures, which the Austrian government intro-
duced in Lombardy during the first decades of the 
nineteenth century (rendering vaccination no longer 
a philanthropic activity but one imposed on physi-
cians), met with criticism in the following segment 
of the “Dictionary of Public Health” in 1860: “In the 
period of the Kingdom of Italy, under Director General 
[pioneer of vaccination in Italy, Luigi] Sacco, vacci-
nation was an act of genuine philanthropy that devout, 
esteemed members of all strata, gathered in provincial 
committees, had taken on with great diligence and re-
ligious ardor, and fulfilled it to the tremendous benefit 
of the population. Yet the moment that the Austrian 
government pushed it through the door of bureaucracy, 
it was stripped of all its humanitarian reputation for 
which it had been embraced and considered desirable, 
after all those useful committees had to give way to city 
deputations. The heavy burden was thus placed on physi-
cians administering the vaccine, who shouldered all the 
responsibility not only for the procedure that they had to 
perform but also for its results, which they had to verify 
in nearly all cases.”34
or simply a needle. The form most often applied was the liq-
uid vaccine, either arm-to-arm or from animal pustules. The 
dry powder vaccine (dried scabs) first had to be diluted in 
cold water on a glass plate (Dizionario di igiene pubblica, pp. 
785–793).
29 See, e.g., Zupanič Slavec, Goriški medicus, p. 225; Borisov, 
Zgodovina medicine.
30 See also Bratož, Cepljenje proti kozam.
31 Cf. Brisky et al., Introduction.
32 Borisov, Zgodovina medicine, p. 405. On vaccination in Istria 
during the first Austrian and subsequent French sovereignty, 
see Cigui, Misure di profilassi.
33 Children without proof of vaccination were prohibited from 
entering schools and other public institutions (Zupanič Sla-
vec, Mlekarice, pp. 146–147; cf. Globočnik, Nauk slovenskim 
županom).
34 “Mentre durante il Regno d’Italia, quand’era direttore generale il 
Sacco, la vaccinazione formava un compit o di pura filantropia, 
che persone pie, ragguardevoli d’ogni classe, raccolte in Comitati 
provinciali si facevano scrupoloso e religioso obbligo di adempire, 
e lo adempivano con tanto profitto per la popolazione, appena fu 
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URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–1182022
The Austrian law, issued on November 13th, 
1821, partially centralized the vaccination practice by 
bringing it under government control35 and making 
it mandatory for physicians to obtain an additional 
certificate to perform the procedure. To ensure that 
the authorities could exert some control over the im-
plementation of this systematic preventive measure, 
the law, among other things, made the use of certain 
social mechanisms contingent on vaccination; with-
out it, foundling babies were not to be placed in the 
care of wet nurses, and unvaccinated children were 
not admitted to orphanages or other public and pri-
vate institutions. Anyone who had not received the 
vaccine (or failed to prove that they had recovered 
from smallpox naturally by showing their scars) was 
denied social aid, pension, or a stipend. Further-
more, charity organizations were prohibited from 
extending assistance to parents who failed to dem-
onstrate that they had recovered from smallpox or 
present a vaccination certificate,36 which was a way 
for “the state to safeguard the money it had invested 
in people.”37
Still long after it had been introduced, smallpox 
vaccination continued to raise controversy, a general 
sense of unease and mistrust, and it remained the 
subject of many pro et contra polemics. The arguments 
against it pointed to unreliable effects of vaccination, 
especially in the light of unsuccessful initial attempts, 
risks, and the purported possibility of contracting dis-
eases, such as syphilis, erysipelas, and so on, coupled 
with moral, religious, and other kinds of prejudice for 
fear of the “unnatural” interfering with the human 
body, which became even more pronounced after the 
introduction of the vaccination procedure.38
fatta entrare dal Governo austriaco nei cancelli della burocrazia, 
perdette tutto il prestigio della filantropia che la faceva accetta e 
desiderata, perche’ quei benefici Comitati dovettero lasciar luogo 
alle deputazioni comunali. Ond’e’, che essa a questo modo divenne 
un pesante fardello pei medici vaccinatori, sugli omeri dei quali si 
fece d’allora in poi cadere tutta la responsabilità non solo dell ’ope-
razione che doveano praticare, ma ben anco dell ’esito che doveano 
essi stessi verificare in quasi tutti i casi” (Dizionario di igiene 
pubblica, pp. 811–812).
35 The implementation of the vaccination program at regional 
level was entrusted to district governorships (cf. Brisky et al., 
Introduction, p. 86).
36 Dizionario di igiene pubblica, arts. 11, 13, 35, 36.
37 Kozinc, Prebolela sem črne koze, p. 12.
38 Several sources (e.g., Kmetijske in rokodelske novice, Decem-
ber 14th, 1861, and Slomšek, Blaže ino Nežica, p. 166) report 
that immediately after the vaccine was administered, some 
mothers sucked on their babies’ arms to extract the “inserted 
pocks” from their bodies, believing that the vaccine would 
reverse the effect of baptism (cf. Bratož, Bolni otroci). Re-
garding Ljubljana, Vodopivec even writes about public agita-
tion against vaccination (Vodopivec, Črne koze). At the end 
of the century, J. Simonič, the author of a booklet on natural 
remedies and prolongation of life, characterized vaccination 
as introducing “poison” into the body, which merely “contam-
inates the blood” while providing little benefit (“The sub-
stance contained in the smallpox vaccine, either taken from 
an animal or a human, is a dangerous poison, all the more so, 
if the animal or the child, from which the substance has been 
Whereas the newly established practice of vac-
cination generated the fear of introducing animal 
matter (humanized vaccine) into the human body,39 
almost seventy years later, when these polemics were 
particularly fierce,40 some recognized it (even with 
the vaccine harvested directly from cows) as a safer 
option to eliminate the purported risks of spread-
ing certain human diseases. Suspicion that syphilis 
would be transmitted from foundlings whose parents 
came from questionable social and moral environ-
ments (“… Hospices receiving poverty-stricken children 
together with those born in shame ... Well, it is these 
wretched outcasts that must provide the lymph to vac-
cinate our country’s population”)41 figured as the flag-
ship argument used by those who later championed 
harvesting vaccine directly from cowpox pustules 
because the humanized vaccine lost its effectiveness 
over time.42
In this discourse, vaccination partially coincided 
with what was then considered a pressing social is-
sue and a threat that society recognized in the lower 
strata, the destitute mob,43 problematizing the use of 
vaccine produced in social institutions, such as or-
phanages and foundling homes.44 Nonetheless, the 
harvested, also harbors other pathological substances in the 
body.”) (Simonič, Kakó postanemo stari?, p. 183).
39 This was, for example, stressed by the historian N. Durbach 
in her study on anti-vaccination propaganda in Britain, who 
saw one of the reasons for aversion to vaccination as an “un-
natural practice” in the controversy-ridden “human/animal” 
antagonism. The introduction of the vaccine of animal origin 
into the human body signified its symbolic contamination, 
especially in view of the close relationship between physical 
and mental health (Durbach, Smallpox, pp. 207–209). The 
emergence of the anti-vaccination movement was triggered 
by John Simon, Medical Officer of Health for the City of 
London, who concluded his research on the spread of small-
pox during the 1850s by proposing that the only way to pro-
tect the population (the community as a whole) was through 
a vaccination policy stipulating mandatory, universal vaccina-
tion of children, which was subsequently also incorporated 
into British law (Bynum, Medicina, p. 470).
40 Not only in the local context but also globally (see Agostoni, 
Knowledge (https://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/ 
75397 (25. 11. 2020)).
41 “Ospizi, ove insieme coi figli della miseria sono accolti i parti della 
vergogna… Ebbene questi poveri reietti sono quelli che devono 
furnire la linfa vaccinica per innestare la popolazione nel nostro 
paese!” (La Provincia, May 1st, 1870, p. 517).
42 La Provincia, August 1st, 1872, p. 1633, Giovanni Biaggio. 
Even though others acknowledged that syphilis transmission 
during the vaccination procedure was rare and more likely 
to occur when applying tubes with questionable content of 
unknown origin than in arm-to-arm vaccination, which the 
physician performed with all due care (Ciatto, Il Vaiuolo, p. 
29. Ciatto, for example, allowed for two good variants, i.e., 
animal and humanized, of the vaccine; in Trieste, the vaccine 
of animal origin was probably administered for the first time 
during the epidemic of 1872; see Pinguentini, Cronache, p. 
37.
43 On various collective fears of the poor or on the poor seen as 
economic, moral, health, and other kind of threats (including 
as carriers of contagious diseases), see Čeč, Revščina, e.g., p. 
295.
44 For example, two foundlings were mentioned during the vac-
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URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–118 2022
law from 1821 stipulated that foundling hospitals as 
district vaccination institutions should regularly per-
form arm-to-arm smallpox vaccination to ensure a 
stable source of vaccine.45
The lower strata were generally considered a di-
rect health risk46 (as well as a moral one, owing to the 
strong stigma associated with contracting syphilis as 
a sexual transmitted disease) for purportedly con-
taminating vaccine recipients through the introduc-
tion of body fluids from social outcasts,47 first passing 
the disease to children and subsequently on to moth-
ers and wet nurses.
There were also other ways in which vaccination 
was associated with social and other, especially public 
institutions. As stated, before entering school, every 
child was required to present the vaccination cer-
tificate even years after it had been issued. However, 
during the variola epidemic in 1885,48 the authori-
ties in Trieste, for example, deemed it reasonable for 
schoolchildren to present a certificate of revaccina-
tion, which was to be carried out every four to five 
years.49 On reopening at the end of the epidemic, 
access to schools was authorized to pupils aged less 
than ten years and holding the vaccination certifi-
cate, whereas older children were to prove having 
been vaccinated in the last five years or revaccinated 
on the outbreak of the epidemic.50
Whereas institutes undoubtedly ensured that 
vaccination was well-controlled and carried out 
with a great deal of consistency, getting the rest of 
the population to be vaccinated represented a chal-
lenge. It seems reasonable to concur that because the 
smallpox vaccination apparatus lacked a solid and 
uniform legal and institutional framework, its effec-
tiveness depended on voluntary public participation, 
cination in 1835 performed on Koper’s registered children. 
However, the vaccine cannot have been harvested from them 
because they were among the last vaccinated children in the 
town. Besides, the district physician also used the dry powder 
vaccine, most probably in the initial phase of vaccination. On 
concern for foundlings’ health, which already included vacci-
nation in the Trieste hospital at the beginning of the century, 
see, e.g., Čeč, “Da bo dobro izbral”, pp. 204–205.
45 Dizionario di igiene pubblica, art. 11.
46 What should also be borne in mind is that in some areas 
the poor held a vigil for the dead in exchange for a meal 
(see Vodopivec, Črne koze), which could have contributed to 
them becoming carriers of the disease.
47 An opposite rhetoric adopted at that time centered on the 
residents in social institutions that were exploited for har-
vesting the vaccine to benefit the rest of the population and 
on marginal social groups that were subjected to medical ex-
perimentation.
48 The smallpox outbreaks in 1884 and 1885 affected at least 
1,290 persons in Trieste, with mortality among hospitalized 
patients soaring as high as 20% (see De Manussi, Cenni).
49 Pinguentini, Cronache, p. 45.
50 Notificazione del Magistrato civico di Trieste sul vaiolo, Sep-
tember 10th, 1885 (https://archiviodistatotrieste.it/docu-
mento-del-mese/notificazione-del-magistrato-civico-di-tri-
este-sul-vaiolo/ (25. 11. 2020)).
as studies reveal.51 It indeed took a heterogeneous 
ensemble of actors, among them representatives of 
lay and church authorities, as well as, of course, phy-
sicians, teachers, and so on. Moreover, this process 
coincided with the institutionalization and centrali-
zation of the state and its public health (and social) 
policies or programs as well as the period of national 
consolidations.52 This also explains the vast spectrum 
of publications propagating vaccination in the nine-
teenth-century Slovenian territory, encompassing 
everything from (popular) scientific discussions,53 
handbooks, and instructions, to moral and educa-
tional articles, didactic materials,54 and instructive 
youth literature.55 The awareness about the impor-
tance of smallpox vaccination was raised using vari-
ous information channels, especially newspapers,56 
and this continued long after the vaccination practice 
had been established57 and improved.
The advice to mayors, issued in 1880 and incor-
porating the local authorities’ important endeavors 
to accelerate vaccination, reads as follows: “Some 
have maintained not long ago that smallpox vaccina-
tion is of no use, but the experience teaches us just the 
opposite. Therefore, a wise mayor ought to promote this 
work in his municipality to the best of his abilities. Al-
though inoculation is no longer forcibly administered, it 
is stipulated everywhere that it must be given to all the 
youth in public institutions and to all the poor that the 
city feeds, all soldiers, and such. Not only the mayor but 
also the clergy and teachers should concern themselves 
with notifying and announcing as they find appropriate 
when and where smallpox vaccination will take place, 
so that everyone in need of it can be there in due time.”58 
The Slovenian press, featuring debates about vac-
cination, also called on the clergy, the authorities, 
teachers, medical experts,59 and ‘men of reason’ in 
51 Agostoni, Knowledge (https://journals.openedition.org/nue-
vomundo/75397 (25. 11. 2020).
52 Ibid.
53 E.g., Ciatto’s lecture, which was also published (Ciatto, Il 
vaiuolo), and works, such as Kern, Nauk, and Robida, Zdravo 
telo, p. 8.
54 E.g., Vrtec, March 1st, 1880, June 1st, 1885.
55 Slomšek, Blaže ino Nežica; Košar, Od telesne reje otrok.
56 See, e.g., Slovenski narod, September 7th, 1877; September 
8th, 1877; Kmetijske in rokodelske novice, February 25th, 1854; 
September 15th, 1855; December 14th, 1861, January 7th, 
1874, etc.
57 On the outbreak of the epidemic in 1872, the authorities of 
Trieste called several times for vaccination and revaccination 
(Pinguentini, Cronache, p. 36). That same year, free mass vac-
cination was organized in the Koper district and performed 
on nearly three thousand people (La Provincia, January 1st, 
1873). The general vaccination was carried out in the muni-
cipal hall and on Saturday in the house of Mayor Cristoforo 
de Belli. This was published in the local press, which had by 
then already attained a relatively wide circulation among the 
(town’s) population (La Provincia, February 1st, 1872).
58 Globočnik, Nauk slovenskim županom, p. 53.
59 The provincial codices from the period of the second Austri-
an rule provided for financial bonuses to physicians for their 
diligent vaccination efforts (measured above all in the num-
111
URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–1182022
general60 to take part in promulgating the impor-
tance of vaccination.
This rhetoric functioned at various levels, start-
ing with the enlightened logic to achieve the general 
wellbeing, which had from the eighteenth century 
onward guided rationalist and utilitarian measures 
under a special administrative discipline or “police 
science.”61 The same context also provided the basis 
for the development of medical police in terms of 
public health management, instituted by Johann Pe-
ter Frank.62 His comprehensive work covered nearly 
all the aspects of human life associated with diseases, 
especially epidemics. His central argument was that 
ber of vaccinated persons) (cf. Brisky et al., Introduction, p. 
86).
60 Kern, Nauk, p. 9, cf. Globočnik, Nauk slovenskim županom.
61 See, e.g., Čeč, Revščina, p. 294.
62 See, e.g., Bynum, Medicina, p. 473. Frank, among other 
things, also successfully performed several vaccination tri-
als on children during the epidemic of 1800, when Jenner’s 
method was still making its entrance into the world of medi-
cine (Borisov, Zgodovina medicine, p. 404).
a disease could not be prevented by individual medi-
cal practitioners but by the state alone, which also 
had a duty to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens 
through centralized control performed by the public 
sanitary service and the public health system. This, in 
turn, went hand in hand with the idea of constitut-
ing a numerically strong and healthy population as 
the foundation of a sound state63 in accordance with 
the cameralist concept of increasing the country’s 
wealth, followed by demographic growth.64 Against 
this background, the population had been (and re-
mained) the central object of the government ever 
since the Enlightenment.
The public discourse thus emphasized in vari-
ous ways the importance of actively preventing chil-
dren’s diseases, while smallpox had already become 
ingrained with its lasting presence in the European-
wide broader discourse on (children’s) health protec-
63 See Bratož, Umazane ulice; cf. Borisov, Zgodovina medicine, 
pp. 393–394.
64 E.g., Hamlin, Commentaries.
Fig. 2–3: The data on the variola epidemic in Trieste 1892–94 (source: De Manussi, Cenni).
0
20
40
60
80
100
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e share of unvaccinated among the infected by age
unvaccinated others
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e share of unvaccinated among the deceased by age
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112
URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–118 2022
tion and disease prevention,65 also in association with 
national rhetoric and collective responsibility for the 
health of young people. Although this aspect may no 
longer have been at the forefront in the nineteenth 
century, vaccination still occupied an important place 
in the discourse on preventive measures, health pro-
tection, and an individual’s responsibility toward 
collective wellbeing. This period also witnessed the 
secularization in perceptions of health and diseases; 
although the Divine Will remained upheld, God was 
no longer conceived as the central or sole guarantor 
of a child’s health; instead, there was a growing belief 
that the child’s custodians or parents (especially the 
mother) could, at least to a certain extent, protect his 
or her health by taking a proactive approach.66 This 
was especially reflected in the medical and specialist 
literature, which argued that childhood deaths were 
common, even expected, and at the same time main-
tained that the offspring67 could be protected with 
proper care and prevention.68 In the light of the ob-
jectives of the ‘population policy,’ part of the respon-
sibility was therefore shifted to parents, who were to 
follow the government’s and scientists’ instructions. 
What remains open to debate is the extent to which 
such endeavors met their target.
Much can be inferred from the data collected in 
Trieste during the epidemic at the end of the nine-
teenth century. For the duration of the epidemic 
65 For more on these issues, see Bratož, Bolni otroci.
66 Schrom Dye and Smith, Mother Love, p. 338. Nonetheless, 
the parents’ responsibility for the health of their children was 
also understood in moral–religious terms (Cf. Košar, Od tele-
sne reje otrok; Kern, Nauk, p. 9).
67 Schrom Dye and Smith, Mother Love, p. 345. Apart from 
the key question regarding the kind and size of audience that 
such literature reached, nothing is also known about the re-
ception and interpretation of these arguments (Schrom Dye 
and Smith, Mother Love, p. 337).
68 See, e.g., Kmetijske in rokodelske novice, December 14th, 1861.
wave, which began at the end of 1892 and lasted un-
til 1894, the Trieste hospital registered 767 smallpox 
infections. Senior doctor Alessandro De Manussi,69 
who took good note of the statistical data, also pro-
vided the number of unvaccinated patients, albeit 
knowing that it could not always be confirmed with 
certainty. This number was particularly high in the 
youngest age group (up to five years) and in children 
aged up to fifteen years, and something similar held 
for the share of unvaccinated persons among the de-
ceased. To a certain degree, this may be indicative 
of an irregular implementation of vaccination or its 
inadequate scope.70 Children aged up to ten years 
represented a 31.9% share among the infected, and 
the same age group accounted for as much as 61.8% 
of all deaths.
Conversely, the effectiveness of vaccination can be 
indirectly inferred from numerical data on morbidity 
that were collected during the above-mentioned epi-
demic in Koper in the 1870s, when (no more than) 
13% of children aged up to ten years became infected 
(perhaps owing to regular vaccination of children in 
a certain period), and the age group between twen-
ty-one and forty represented the largest segment, 
almost 51% of all infected.71 The disease posed an 
especially serious threat to the youngest children (up 
to the age of five), as shown by the ratio between 
recoveries and deaths in this age group. Specifically, 
more than half of children aged up to five years died 
69 De Manussi, Cenni.
70 According to some authors, however, vaccination usually cov-
ered most, even 90% of Trieste’s population, with no major 
resistance against this practice being reported from at least 
1840 onward (Scartabellati, Visibili nemici, p. 532).
71 There was quite possibly no routine vaccination of adults to 
boost their immunity against smallpox. What should also be 
borne in mind is that this age group was mostly composed 
of active population, characterized by occupational mobility, 
which means that a part probably came from elsewhere.
Fig. 4: The smallpox epidemic in Koper in 1872 (source: SI PAK KP 7, t. u. 110, a. u. 2122).
0
20
40
60
80
100
0 to 5 6  to 10 11 to 20 21 to 30 31 to 40 41 to 50 51 to 60 61 to 70 71 to 80 81 to 90
e age structure of the infected
deceased recovered
113
URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–1182022
from smallpox—a significant share, given that lethal-
ity in other groups did not exceed 13%.72
(Re)vaccination in the nineteenth-century 
Littoral
In the first half of the century, smallpox vacci-
nations in the Koper district were implemented 
fairly regularly among the youngest children, both 
in towns (Koper, Muggia) and rural areas.73 When 
faced with an imminent outbreak, the authorities 
also revaccinated children and adults. Revaccination 
was particularly crucial because vaccination alone did 
not ensure lasting immunity to smallpox. In 1833, 
for example, calls for revaccination came in the wake 
of a smallpox outbreak in the city penitentiary,74 
where the physician Gian Andrea de Manzoni75 
eventually administered the vaccine to 126 inmates 
who did not reject it or were not prevented from 
receiving it by their health condition. In the same 
period, the town registered another 353 vaccinated 
persons, mostly adults, aged between four and forty-
seven years,76 heralding the beginning of more sys-
tematic vaccination and revaccination campaigns. 
Regular vaccination (of children and unvaccinated 
persons) also took place on an annual basis, most 
likely leaning on the data from parish birth registers 
for the previous year. The physician first performed 
a test pre-vaccination (a week before compiling the 
list of vaccinated persons)77 and then the vaccination 
itself, followed by the evaluation of results a week 
later.78 Because the district physician’s responsibility 
spanned a sizeable territory, vaccination at each of 
the ten designated points in the countryside was car-
72 SI PAK KP 7, t. u. 110, a. u. 2122. See also Bratož, Cepljenje 
proti kozam.
73 Villages included in the vaccination of 1831 and 1832, re-
spectively, were Čežarji, Dekani, Osp, Loka, Kubed, Movraž, 
Topolovec (or Gradin), Truške, and Koštabona.
74 Cf. Kramar, Epidemije, p. 110.
75 A decades-long district physician, Manzoni (1798–1872) 
was an ardent and several times awarded promotor of vacci-
nation, and one of the first in the province to propose revac-
cination, which he also administered in Koper (SI PAK KP 
304, carton 5, a. u. 9a, Correspondenza officiosa 1854–1857; 
SI PAK KP 304, a. u. 21).
76 SI PAK KP 304, a. u. 21; see also Bratož, Cepljenje proti 
kozam.
77 Unfortunately, the data do not show clearly how many per-
sons received the vaccine and whether it was merely the vac-
cination of children or (also) the revaccination of adults.
78 The law of 1821 already stipulated that a physician must visit 
every vaccinated person at least twice within the first nine 
days following the vaccination to make sure that the proce-
dure went well (Dizionario di igiene pubblica). However, in 
addition to poor interest in public vaccination campaigns, 
medical assessment of vaccination performance was some-
times rendered difficult by parents rejecting to vaccinate their 
children (see, e.g., Kmetijske in rokodelske novice, September 
15th, 1855). This is probably also confirmed by Simon Rutar 
(Samosvoje mesto Trst, p. 147), who maintains that of alto-
gether 6,932 vaccinated children in Istria in 1893, 31.6 % 
cases remained unchecked. 
ried out in a day, whereas the target population in the 
district seat, the town of Koper, was much bigger and 
required vaccination to take place every eight days 
over a period of four months.79
In 1835,80 altogether 838 children received the 
vaccine in the district of Koper—192 in the town 
itself81 and the rest across the wider district area. The 
physician administered the liquid vaccine in nearly 
93% of all cases and the dry powder vaccine in oth-
ers. This may suggest that he applied the dry powder 
vaccine first for the lack of pustules from which the 
liquid vaccine was collected. The majority of the for-
ty-two children who did not receive the vaccine were 
too weak or too sickly to endure the procedure, and 
only six failed to show up for vaccination. Regular 
and systematic vaccination continued in midsummer; 
in 1850, vaccine was administered to 1,145 persons 
and forty-four of those who had not taken part in 
vaccination in the previous year. The procedure was 
performed in the following locations: Koper, Riža-
na (Lazaret), Dekani, Muggia, Osp, Loka, Kubed, 
Truške and Koštabona, Krkavče, Šmarje, Sv. Anton, 
Plavje, Ricmanje (San Giuseppe della Chiusa), Boršt 
(San Antonio in Bosco), Gročana (Grozzana), Pod-
gorje, Klanec, Pomjan, Marezige, Dolina (San Dor-
ligo della Valle), and Tinjan. In 1852, for example, 
fifty-seven persons remained unvaccinated from the 
previous year and 1,174 were revaccinated (hence, 
altogether 1,231). That same year, revaccination was 
performed as well, in the town itself strictly limited 
to institutions: the penitentiary (248 vaccinated), the 
secondary school for girls (thirty-one) and boys (fif-
ty), the grammar school (thirty-six), and the kinder-
garten (twenty-seven). Outside Koper, revaccination 
took place in the above-listed villages; 1,956 people 
received the vaccine across the entire territory under 
the care of the district physician.82
Preparing for the looming epidemic threat in ear-
ly 1872, the authorities in Trieste called for vacci-
nation and revaccination and, due to poor response, 
repeated the call in May.83 One Trieste physician 
complained about the low figures in vaccination re-
ports, stating that about six thousand vaccinated per-
sons amounted to no more than 5%—a drop in the 
ocean compared to the needs of Trieste’s total pop-
ulation of 124,855.84 Dismissing the official mea-
79 SI PAK KP 304, a. u. 21; September 1st, 1831, and Septem-
ber 10th, 1832.
80 SI PAK KP 304, a. u. 21.
81 Of all children vaccinated in the town, twenty-three were 
aged between one and five years, six between one and two 
weeks, and 163 between one and eleven months. In the coun-
tryside, 98.3% of vaccinated children were younger than two 
years, and the oldest was aged fourteen.
82 SI PAK KP 7, t. u. 19, a. u. 340.
83 Pinguentini, Cronache, p. 36.
84 Scartabellati, Visibili nemici. Of course, refusing vaccination, 
which had failed to produce a desirable response, also pre-
sented a problem elsewhere; for Ljubljana, see, e.g., Vodopi-
vec, Črne koze.
114
URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–118 2022
sures as clearly insufficient, city physicians organized 
themselves and established a special private vacci-
nation committee85 which performed vaccination at 
the Mauroner Theater both against payment86 (five 
forints per individual and ten per family) and free 
of charge for those who demonstrated their eligibil-
ity for free vaccination with a certificate issued by 
the commander of their quarter. Home vaccination 
was also organized. Unfortunately, even this initia-
tive failed short of producing a significant impact, 
registering 312 persons vaccinated against payment 
and no more than 152 persons receiving the vaccine 
free of charge.87
The authorities considered introducing stricter 
regulations to impose mandatory vaccination; how-
ever, the overall social climate made it increasingly 
clear that a consensus would be difficult to reach. The 
85 A similar private initiative most likely led to the vaccination 
of 2,100 persons in 1893, as mentioned by Rutar (Samosvoje 
mesto Trst, p. 147), in addition to 4,494 persons immunized 
within the framework of public vaccination.
86 Apart from resistance, this was undoubtedly another factor 
that importantly disincentivized many from being vaccinat-
ed. Perhaps it seems reasonable to concur that the overall 
willingness to take the vaccine, no matter how paradoxically 
it may sound, declined during the epidemic because of the 
growing fear and the increasingly entrenched prejudices 
(Scartabellati, Visibili nemici, p. 532).
87 Pinguentini, Cronache, p. 37.
esteemed Trieste physician with long years of service, 
Alessandro Goracucchi (otherwise an adherent of 
the anti-contagionist theory, which rejected the idea 
that some diseases such as cholera were contagious), 
for example, opposed mandatory (re)vaccination as 
contrary to personal freedom and instead proposed 
using means of persuasion (such as a popular hand-
book on the benefits of vaccination).88 Elsewhere, 
too, the proponents of vaccination clashed with lib-
eral and laissez-faire principles, for example, J. Simon 
in Britain,89 whose proposal for mandatory vacci-
nation was believed to threat individual freedom of 
choice for the benefit of collective good. There is no 
denying that medical debates were also shaped by the 
economic interests, especially in Trieste as the Aus-
trian maritime trade center, where, invested with the 
liberal logic, they defied quarantines and any kind of 
constraint. On the other hand, discordant opinions 
within the medical science itself were of no benefit 
to spreading the pro-vaccination propaganda, which 
often met with broad resistance as it were.
88 Ibid., p. 39.
89 Bynum, Medicina, p. 470.
Vacination of children in the countryside 
(Rudolph Carl Gottfried von Geißler: Die Gartenlaube, 1867; Wikimedia Commons).
115
URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–1182022
Conclusion
The article discusses the key prophylaxis to pre-
vent smallpox infection and an early form of immu-
nization before the discovery of viruses—vaccina-
tion, i.e., application of the cow vaccine, which was 
in use from the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
There was a notable emphasis on vaccination as a 
measure that prolonged longevity (or, rather, reduced 
mortality in children) and contributed to the general 
wellbeing of humankind. By creating a regulatory 
framework, the state sought to maximize the accept-
ance of this practice; however, still decades after it 
was introduced, vaccination continued to be targeted 
by a range of disincentivizing discourses (from the 
fear of introducing foreign matter into the human 
body and the fear of moral contamination, to liberal 
principles promulgating an individual’s freedom of 
decision). The authorities, the clergy, and scientists 
therefore sought to achieve the broadest possible 
awareness about the necessity of vaccination through 
various communication channels.
The examples presented, and particularly the epi-
demic of 1872, which spread from its original focus 
in Trieste to the nearby districts (especially that of 
Koper) and from there to other provinces, including 
Carniola, also point to the widespread prevalence of 
smallpox epidemics in the second half of the nine-
teenth century and in a way testify to the inadequate 
prophylactic effectiveness. The latter was probably 
largely based on the engagement shown by health 
workers in key positions (district physicians), with 
whom lied the vaccination initiative, and in part also 
on the level of responsiveness among the population 
to many calls and the rhetoric of persuasion—an as-
pect that has so far received the least research atten-
tion.
More detailed vaccination records of the Koper 
district document systematic vaccination campaigns 
that took place both in cities and rural areas, where 
the vaccine was administered to newborns in an es-
pecially consistent manner. The first vaccination of 
children was regular and systematic, and the general 
revaccination was mainly carried out when facing an 
epidemic threat. The effectiveness of revaccination 
was much more questionable, as also confirmed by a 
considerable share of the infected in some young and 
old age groups who had been vaccinated but most 
likely only once, in their childhood. Yet it was pre-
cisely revaccination, for which the various authori-
ties’ public appeals were the least successful, that was 
most urgently needed for maintaining the popula-
tion’s immunity, given that the effectiveness of the 
vaccine wore out within ten years of the first admin-
istration.
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-trieste-sul-vaiolo/
P O V Z E T E K
Preprečevanje črnih koz v Avstrijskem pri-
morju
Članek predstavlja izvedbo vakcinacije (ceplje-
nja z govejo vakcino) kot ključne profilakse pri črnih 
kozah, ki je bila tudi v habsburških deželah v upo-
rabi od začetka 19. stoletja. Analiza kvantitativnih 
podatkov za območje Avstrijskega primorja (zlasti 
Koper in Trst kot pomembno epidemično žarišče) 
kaže na obsežnost in pogostost epidemij črnih koz 
tudi v drugi polovici 19. stoletja, kar odpira vprašanja 
o obsegu in kontinuiteti izvajanja teh profilaktičnih 
ukrepov, na drugi pa tudi o odzivnosti prebivalstva na 
pozive k cepljenju. 
Država je z regulativi tudi poskušala doseči čim 
večjo razširjenost te prakse, vendar pa so jo še dolga 
desetletja po njeni uvedbi spremljali različni odklo-
nilni diskurzi. S pozivi prebivalstvu preko različnih 
komunikacijskih kanalov so zato oblasti, cerkev in 
stroka skušali ozavestiti širše množice o potrebnosti 
cepljenja, ki se je umeščalo v diskurz državne skr-
bi za dobrobit prebivalstva in zmanjševanja otroške 
umrljivosti. Ključnega pomena pa je bila tudi revak-
cinacija, saj cepljenje z govejo vakcino ni zagotavljalo 
trajne imunosti. Če je za obravnavano območje zna-
čilno dokaj redno in sistematično izvajanje cepljenja 
novorojenih otrok, katerih število je bilo mogoče 
natančno nadzorovati, je za splošne revakcinacije 
prebivalstva veljalo, da so bile izvedene predvsem ob 
neposrednih grožnjah epidemij, njihov domet pa je 
bil veliko bolj vprašljiv.
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URŠKA BRATOŽ: SMALLPOX PREVENTION IN THE AUSTRIAN LITTORAL, 105–118 2022
An early 19th century cartoon that reflects the fear of the effects of Jenner’s vaccination 
( James Gillray, 1802; Wikimedia Commons)