The corvette Maria Pita departs from the port of La Coruna in 1803.
Engraving by Francisco Perez.
After about two to four weeks, the patient would make a successful recovery and be immunized.
The King lost his brother and sister-in-law, as well as his three-year-old daughter Maria Teresa.
Another daughter, Queen Maria Luisa, and the Princess of Parma became infected with the virus but survived.
Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccine into James Phippss arm in 1796.
The route of the Balmis Expedition from Spain to America.
Thereafter, in every place they stopped, the expedition team established vaccination boards.
The expedition then sailed to Venezuela, where they received a jubilant reception.
Due to the enormity of the mission, Balmis decided that the expedition should split into two groups.
Once more to Balmiss frustration, he found that the vaccine had arrived in Mexico weeks earlier from Cuba.
The route of the Balmis Expedition in the Philippines.
This time Balmis carried with him 25 orphaned Mexican children as vaccine carriers.
The parents entrusted their sons to the expedition for monetary compensation and the promise that they would be returned.
The original 22 boys from Spain stayed behind in Mexico.
He returned to Spain in July 1806.
Salvanys expedition was comparatively more arduous than Balmiss, facing punishing terrain and harsh climates of the Andes.
Salvany soon began to experience ill health that would accompany him for the remainder of the trip.
Eventually, Salvany become ill with pulmonary tuberculosis.
Before he died, Salvany broke up his crew into two groups and sent them in different directions.
Salvany died in Bolivia in July 1810.
Balmis balcony in the Domus museum in A Coruna, tribute to the people of the expedition.
