Controversies and lessons from the history of smallpox: the case of massive vaccination in British Corfu (1852).

The study presents an anti-vaccination action in the 19th century involving both scientific and political motivation. The research is based on an unpublished archive, namely the registries of the British Executive Police during the massive vaccination campaign in Corfu, the capital of the British possession in the Ionian Islands-Greece (1815-1864), after the smallpox outbreak of 1852. The archival material provides information about the number of vaccinated people, namely their sex, age, nationality, the year of the previous vaccination, along with the last year when a citizen "had smallpox".