To immunize while infecting. The practice of variolation as preventive treatment against smallpox in the general captaincy of Chile in the late eighteenth century

This article delves onto the state of variolation at the end of the eighteenth century in the General Captaincy of Chile, by studying a smallpox epidemic which affected Concepción and its surrounding areas. One central question of this study is to what extent variolation might be regarded as the first preventive treatment against smallpox and the role played by the population. It also aims to determine the importance of variolation for both the configuration and acceptance of the notion of immunization by the society of the period. This is because beyond the amount of persons who adopted this practice, its implementation led to an early debate on notions such as prevention and universality. Such notions were fundamental for the development of further measures against smallpox in Chilean society.